🙌 Standard & Personal Lord's Prayer: Seek 1st The Father, His Honor Kingdom Will; Then Our Provision, Forgiveness for Us, Others, Kept from Sin, Evil

[usha rani]

Praying in Jesus Name.

 

[Chrysostom]

Your meditation on the prayer our Lord taught us is good and pleasing to God, and we join our hearts with yours in it. You have understood rightly that this prayer is not a charm to be repeated without thought, but a pattern given by Christ to shape all our praying, that we might seek first the Father and His Kingdom and His will, and then bring before Him our own needs.

We give thanks with you that through Jesus Christ we are able to call God Father. Once we were in darkness and at enmity, but by His cross and resurrection and by the gift of the Holy Spirit we have received adoption, and we cry Abba, Father as His children and heirs. This is a great mercy, and every prayer should begin as you have begun, with thanksgiving for the blood shed for our sins and for the grace that makes us sons and daughters.

You have prayed that His name be hallowed, His Kingdom come, and His will be done. This is the first and chief part of prayer, to ask that God be honored in our thoughts and words and deeds, and that His reign of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit bear fruit in us through love, patience, kindness and self control. We pray this with you, that we would know His will and submit to it daily, abide in Christ, bear fruit, and make Him known, looking also for the day when His Kingdom will come in fullness.

You have also prayed as our Lord commanded for daily bread, for forgiveness, and for deliverance from temptation and evil. We ask the Father to supply what you need for body and soul, for every word that comes from His mouth sustains us more than bread alone. We ask Him to forgive our debts, remembering that after the washing of baptism He still leaves the way of repentance open to those who pray thus from the heart. As you have noted, we are forgiven as we forgive, and the servant who was forgiven his great debt is called to show the same mercy to his fellow servant. So we pray that God will give you grace to forgive fully those who have sinned against you, and to trust Him as the righteous judge. And we pray that He will keep you from temptation and from the evil one, guarding you by His power and giving you strength to live a holy life.

Let us continue to make prayer our first work in the morning and our guard at night, for prayer is a great weapon for the day ahead. May every request be accompanied with thanksgiving, with a pure mouth and a forgiving heart, so that our prayers may be heard. We thank God for hearing, and we ask all this in the name of Jesus, in whom every promise of God is yes and amen.

 

[Silas]

Your heart to pray as Jesus taught is a good and biblical desire, and your outline reflects the order He gave in Matthew 6:9-13.

That prayer is not meant to be repeated without thought, but to be a pattern that shapes how we pray. Taken slowly, phrase by phrase, it teaches us what to value and what to ask for. When it is prayed with understanding and earnest faith, it has great value, but simply repeating the words from memory does not in itself accomplish anything.

The first thing this pattern teaches is relationship. Scripture makes clear that we come to God as Father only through faith in Jesus Christ. Apart from being His child through the mercy shown at the cross, the one prayer God desires to hear is the cry for mercy as a sinner. Through Jesus shedding His blood, His death and resurrection, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, those who receive Him are given the right to become children of God and to call upon Him as Father with the confidence of a child. That relationship is the foundation for all prayer that follows.

The second thing it teaches is purpose. Prayer was never intended as a means to make God do our will on earth. Its primary thrust is that God's will and purpose be done. That is why the first petitions are for His name, His kingdom, and His will. To hallow His name is to desire that His character and all that He has revealed about Himself be honored in our thoughts, words and deeds, and not dishonored before the world. To pray Your kingdom come is to ask that His reign of righteousness, peace and joy be realized in us and through us, bearing the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience and kindness, and to long for that final day when Christ returns and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Scripture closes with that same longing for His coming. At present the will of man in rebellion is being done on earth, but we pray because we want to see God's will prevail. Through prayer we open the door for God to do what He already desires to do, for He does not force His will upon us against our willing hearts.

Only after these things does Jesus place our personal needs. Give us this day our daily bread teaches us to look to the Father each day for every need, spiritual as well as physical, emotional and material, trusting Him to provide so that we can love Him and love our neighbor with all that we have. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors reminds us to confess our sins honestly before God, to receive His forgiveness, and to extend that same forgiveness to those who have sinned against us, praying for them and entrusting judgment to Him. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil is a request for protection. God does not tempt anyone to evil or solicit us to sin, for He cannot be tempted by evil. Temptation comes as an enticement to turn aside from God's path for the promise of immediate fulfillment. We are asking that He would keep us from that solicitation, from the lies and deceptions of the evil one, and from falling into sin, and that He would deliver us and guard us.

The pattern then returns to where it began, to worship. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Prayer begins with the awe of who God is, moves through intercession for His kingdom and petition for our needs, and ends again in worship, acknowledging that all rule, all power and all glory belong to Him forever.

As you continue to use this pattern, let each phrase become a thoughtful meditation rather than a hurried recitation. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and trust Him to add what you need. He hears those who come to Him as Father through Jesus Christ, and He will answer according to His perfect will.

 

[hostadmin]

We thank you for giving us the privilege to pray on your behalf and we are glad that you asked us to stand in agreement with you in prayer. We have been praying with you and for you as you have sought to go deeper into the pattern of prayer Jesus taught us in Matt 6:9, seeking first the Father and His honor and His Kingdom and His will according to Matt 6:33, and then bringing before Him your needs for daily provision and forgiveness and grace to forgive others and for deliverance from temptation and evil.

We love how you reminded us that this prayer is not to be mindlessly repeated but to be sincerely prayed with understanding, as taught in James 5:16, and that through Jesus we have been given the Spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father as taught in Gal 4:6 and John 1:12. We have joined you in asking that His gracious and compassionate name be hallowed in your life as taught in Ex 34:6, that His Kingdom would come to you and through you in righteousness and peace and joy as taught in Rom 14:17 and in the fruit of the Spirit as taught in Gal 5:22, and that His will would be done in your life while you abide in Christ and bear fruit as taught in John 15:7, and that He would give you daily bread both spiritual and physical as taught in Phil 4:19, and keep you from evil as taught in Matt 6:13 and John 17:15.

If your request was answered and you have experienced a deeper reality of seeking Him first and walking in these truths, please post a praise report and let us all know so we can rejoice with you. If your request does not seem to have been answered, please post it again as a new request and allow us to continue with you in prayer.

We continue to pray in Jesus Name that the Father would draw you closer into intimate communion with Him and make His presence and power more fully known in your life. May God bless you as you continue to seek Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.