2. Using the "Lord's Prayer"
Once we have mastered the basic "mechanics" of prayer, we can begin to look in more detail at what the Bible shows us about how to pray. The New Testament gives us a particularly helpful guide that we can use in this way. The Gospels record that Jesus taught: "When you pray, say …" and he then proceeded to give what we know as the "Lord's Prayer":
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9–13) Actual Prayer or Guideline? There are a number of views of this prayer. Some think Jesus meant that it was given to be prayed just as it is, while others feel that it is really an outline which could be used as a guide and expanded in our own words. This latter approach – that the Lord's Prayer was intended as a guide – seems to best fit the biblical evidence.
The wording of the Lord's Prayer is different in the two accounts in which the prayer occurs in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4) – so reciting its exact words is clearly not as important as following its general outline.
All the prayers recorded after this point in the New Testament are, in fact, different prayers, so Jesus could not have meant that these words are the only words we must pray.
Finally, there are some things not mentioned in the Lord's Prayer that other scriptures tell us Jesus said we should pray for – indicating again that the Lord's Prayer was intended primarily as a guide or outline (a "quick start guide" to prayer) rather than words simply to be repeated without expansion. Expanding the Outline If we look at the Lord's Prayer as an outline guide for our in-depth prayer, we soon see how wonderfully it fulfills this function.
The very first words, "Our Father in heaven," establish our relationship with God as both our Father and the Ruler of all there is – allowing us to prepare our mindset for an audience with him. They are followed by the words of praise and respect "Hallowed [honored] be your name" and these initial eight words alone can be expanded in all kinds of ways as we acknowledge, praise and thank God in our own words for everything he is and does.
And so it is with every section of the prayer: each small sentence opens up avenues of expression that we might not think of without its guidance. All the individual points can be prayed day after day without meaningless repetition because the prayer's framework engages our day to day experiences, our changing needs and concerns, as well as our developing goals and aspirations, and allows us to incorporate them into our conversations with God.
You will find a fully expanded outline for the Lord's Prayer in the Appendix at the end of this book. If you have never done so, try using the prayer as a guide in this way – it may be the single most effective way in which you can immediately transform your prayers.
Teaching Us How to Pray Beyond telling us what to pray, the Lord's Prayer shows us in at least three ways how to pray! First, the prayer teaches us about prayer based on love for God and our fellow human beings in the same way that the Ten Commandments stress these things. Second, the prayer helps us focus beyond ourselves in every request we make. And third, the prayer helps us prioritize the things we ask about. We will look briefly at all these additional ways in which the Lord's Prayer helps us to pray: • The Prayer and the Commandments. When we look closely at the Lord's Prayer, we see that it is actually similar in structure to the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5). The first group of points in both deal with our relationship with God, and the remaining points have to do with our relationship with others. There are even direct touch-points between the Prayer and the Commandments: "Father in Heaven"/ "I am the Lord Your God…"; "Hallowed be your name"/ "Do not take my name in vain"; etc.
When we understand this similarity, we see that the Lord's Prayer is not just about asking for what we need so much as it is asking for things that show our love for God and others. If the Ten Commandments show us how to love God and others, the Lord's Prayer teaches us how to ask for help to do that properly.
Rather than seeing the prayer as an unrelated list of requests, we begin to see it as a prayerful "walk through" of key areas of our relationship with God and with others. That fact in itself gives us an important clue as to how Jesus' prayer outline can be expanded, as we use it.
Humanly it may be easy to expand "give us today our daily bread" by mentioning our many physical needs, but how much do we expand on requests such as "hallowed be your name"? Realizing the dual stress of the prayer helps us to see this as an opportunity to express our love for God rather than just a statement to be recited.
First Person Plural. Another basic thing to remember as we look at the model prayer we are given is that there isn't a single "I" or "my" in this prayer – only "you" and "us," "your" and "our." Considering how obvious this fact is, there seems to be a clear lesson not to focus our prayers entirely on ourselves.
Seen this way, the Lord's Prayer is very different from the individual list of personal wants and needs we may be tempted to offer at times, given the challenges of everyday life that we all face. There is certainly no problem with praying for ourselves, and the prayer outline does not deny us the ability to ask for the things we need – it just puts our requests in the context of "our" needs, helping us to keep our minds on the fact that the problems of others are just as real – and sometimes much more serious – than those we ourselves face.
The Book of Psalms gives some great examples of this fact. Remember there are more prayers there than in any other book of the Scriptures, and if you look at many of David's personal requests for help, they end with requests for others – for his people, for all of Israel (see Psalms 25:18, 22; 28:2, 9 for just two examples). • Prayer Triage. When we kneel before God, dozens of things may come into our minds – the many needs and concerns of our own lives and those of family, friends and others whom we know. These many individual-level needs are in addition to things God shows us are even bigger needs – of worldwide scale. Sometimes it's hard to know where to start and where to end. That fact underscores one of the great purposes of the model prayer we have been given – putting things in the right context and priority.
Think of the Lord's Prayer as prayer triage. Jesus' guide to communication with our Father sorts through all those clamoring thoughts and needs and puts our concerns and requests in the right order. Matthew 6:7-8 tells us that "… your Father knows what you need before you ask him;" but even though God already knows what our most urgent needs are, the prayer outline puts things in proper perspective for us.
Putting It All Together So the Lord's Prayer functions as a wonderful guide to structuring our prayers. Although none of the recorded prayers of Jesus or the disciples after the time the outline was given follow the wording of the prayer, each later recorded prayer in the New Testament stresses some aspect found within the guide, showing how complete the model prayer is. Perhaps we could say that while spontaneous prayers will usually focus on one aspect of the outline, the Lord's Prayer provides a perfect guide for those occasions when we wish to seek God in more in-depth prayer.
Although God is doubtless more concerned with the content rather than the form of our prayers, the guide Jesus gave us covers all the main aspects of our relationship with God and with others; it constantly directs our focus outward to include the needs of others; and it helps us to bring order and priority to the requests we make. These three areas of guidance help us to understand what regular prayer is all about. The Lord's Prayer is more than just a prayer – it is a guide we can all use to help us gain fuller communication with God.