Would you like to spice up your prayer life? Do you ever feel stuck, not sure of what to say when you pray? Jesus gave us the blueprint for a truly powerful yet intimate tool of communication with our Heavenly Father.
The Lord’s Prayer is a model prayer Jesus gave to help guide our prayers. Each phrase of this prayer is an “index sentence.” This means that we can use it for reference, but put it in our own words. There are other valuable resources and acronyms available to help guide our prayers, but what could be more powerful than to use the very words Jesus gave us to direct our prayers?
This is not to say that every single phrase must be used every single time we pray, but this gives us a comprehensive outline to cover everything we might need at any given time.
I have chosen to use the traditional King James version here for familiarity, but I find it helpful to compare various translations.
Matthew 6:9-13 KJV
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
– Begin with worship. Declare the worth and glory of God! To hallow His name is to reverence His name and declare that it is holy. His name stands for everything He is, so when you honor His name, You are offering Him the honor He deserves. Give genuine respect, adoration, awe, and reverence from deeply within your heart. It may help to also use Scriptures of praise and thanks to inspire your wording.
10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
– When you declare “They kingdom come,” you are pledging allegiance to God’s Kingdom above all the kingdoms of this world and of our hearts. Our loyalty belongs to Him alone, and we are declaring emphatically to whom we belong. Then, we proclaim our desire for His will to be done, on this earth and in our lives, rather than our own. We are yielding in submission to His sovereignty. We lay down our desires and commit to obedience to His will alone.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
– At this point, we are ready to ask God for our needs. Praying for daily bread shows that our dependence is on Him to take care of everything we need on a daily basis. This is not for making greedy demands or selfishly naming and claiming our fleshly indulgences to be met, but we can approach God knowing that He loves to give good gifts to His children. God knows what we need before we even ask, and we can have confidence in our good Father to provide His very best for us.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
– Forgiveness needs to be a regular part of our prayers. We accepted His total forgiveness when we first gave our lives to the Lordship of Christ, but as we continue to commit sins while in these mortal bodies, we need to ask for forgiveness. This is not a matter of getting saved all over again, but it is making things right with the One whom we have offended with our sin. Just as we would ask for forgiveness with anyone we have wronged, we approach God with remorse for our iniquities. He has already forgiven us, but He does a continual work of purification in our hearts as we yield more and more of ourselves to Him.
Furthermore, I cannot explain the second half of this verse any more clearly than to jump forward to verses 14-15. We simply must forgive others, and we need His help to do so.
14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Let us ask the Lord to work in our hearts to be sure we are not holding anything against anyone! Place it all in His hands, and show kindness and love to our enemies as He empowers us to do so.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
– Of course, God does not tempt us to do evil. James 1:13 says, “And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, ‘God is tempting me.’ God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else.” However, He does allow us to be tested by our temptations. Our prayer is that God will help us come through our temptations victoriously, not to succumb to them.
We are also asking God to deliver us from the evil one and to fight back valiantly against his evil schemes against us. This is the place for spiritual warfare that may be necessary at times in our prayers.
Finally, the last phrase of this verse is not present in the earliest, most accurate manuscripts of Scripture. It was added later. However, I love this conclusion to the Lord’s Prayer. What could be a more fitting salutation than to declare the power and glory of God? What could better set our perspective than to speak out His praises and be reminded of His power and sovereignty? Let us give Him the worship that He is due! Let’s not hold back!
So, there you have it! We don’t have to make this complicated when Jesus has made it so simple for us. Use this as a guide, and may your prayer life explode with renewed power and significance!
God bless!
