🙌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]

I prayed for this in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Chrysostom]

Your longing to pray as the Lord taught us is itself a gift from God, and it is good that you want to pray with understanding and not by mindless repetition.

Jesus gave us this prayer as a pattern to shape our hearts. He teaches us to seek first the Father and His honor, His kingdom and His will, and then to bring our own needs before Him. When we put God first, He faithfully provides for what remains. If we are thoughtful about His kingdom, He as God will provide for our daily needs as a Father. If we leave our concerns in His hands and seek spiritual things first, He will not fail to care for the body in what is truly necessary, without indulging the flesh beyond what health requires.

You have rightly begun with adoption. We who were once in darkness and at enmity with God have been given forgiveness, the Spirit in our hearts, and adoption as sons through the blood of Christ shed on the cross, His death and resurrection. Because we have received Him we can now cry Abba, Father, and we pray as children and heirs of the kingdom. Remember the depth of the riches of His wisdom in this, that He gave us baptism for the remission of sins and an inheritance in His kingdom, and poured out His Spirit.

To pray Hallowed be Your name is to ask that His gracious and compassionate name would be honored in our thoughts, words and deeds, and that our lives would cause His name to be reverenced and not despised. To pray Your kingdom come is to ask for His righteousness and peace and joy to be formed in us, with all the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, and to live justly and humbly before Him. To pray Your will be done is to ask to know and to submit to His will each day, abiding in Christ and bearing fruit, and to see His rule advance in the church and in the world until Christ returns.

Then we pray Give us this day our daily bread. This is a prayer for what is sufficient for today, for spiritual nourishment from every word that comes from God and for our material needs, that we might have strength to love God and our neighbor. We do not ask for excess to kindle desire, but for what sustains health and service.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors is at the heart of the prayer. God in surpassing benevolence forgives far more than we ask. As the servant who asked only for time was forgiven the entire debt out of compassion, so God forgives us wholly when we come to Him. Yet we must come honestly, telling our offenses in particular, naming our sins before Him, that we may know the greatness of the forgiveness we receive and become truly grateful. And as we have been forgiven so much, we must forgive those who have sinned against us, praying for them by name that they would repent and be saved, and entrusting judgment to God alone.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil is a prayer to be kept from sin, from lies and deception, from evil people and from the evil one himself. God is able to guard us and to give His protection, but we must also turn from what leads us into sin and keep watch over our hearts, for this present life is fleeting like a dream, and only what is done in holiness remains.

So continue to pray in this way, with sincere consideration and faith, not as empty words but as ardent requests. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all that you need will be added to you.

I join you in praying, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. May Your kingdom come and Your will be done in our lives and on this earth as it is in heaven. Give us today what we need for body and soul. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Keep us from temptation and deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. May He preserve you blameless and keep you for His heavenly kingdom, and may you shine forth there by His grace. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

 

[Silas]

Thank you for sharing this beautiful summary of the prayer Jesus taught His disciples. What you have described is exactly how He intended it to be used, not as words to repeat without thought, but as a pattern to guide our praying with understanding and sincerity.

It begins with relationship. Through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, His death and resurrection, we have been adopted as children of God. Because of that, we can come to the One who is in heaven and call Him Father, even Abba, with the same nearness Jesus knew. That is the foundation for all prayer.

The first three requests are all centered on God Himself, not on us. Hallowed be Your name is a prayer that His name would be held as holy and reverenced among people. Scripture says holy and reverent is His name, and that name alone is worthy of such reverence. We are asking that His gracious and compassionate character would be honored in our own thoughts, words and actions, and that the world would come to honor Him as He truly is.

Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done are closely joined. The purpose of prayer is not to get our will done on earth, but to see His will accomplished. The primary thrust of prayer is always the will and purposes of God. At present His will is not being done on earth as it is in heaven, because man in rebellion chooses his own way. So we pray first for His reign to come, both in its present spiritual reality of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit with the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience and kindness in our lives, and in its future fullness when Christ returns and establishes His reign openly. We long to see people delivered from darkness and to live now under His rule, while we look forward to that day when His will shall be done completely.

Only after seeking the Father and His honor, His kingdom and His will, do we bring our personal needs. Give us this day our daily bread is a simple dependence for every kind of need, spiritual, physical, emotional and daily provision, trusting that as we seek His kingdom first, He will add what we need. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors acknowledges our own sin and our need for His forgiveness, while also calling us to extend that same forgiveness to those who have sinned against us and to pray for them. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil is a request for guidance, protection from sin and deception, and rescue from the evil one, trusting His power to keep us and even His care through angelic protection.

Prayer in this way opens the door for God to do what He has desired to do all along. He will not force His way against our will, but when we invite Him through prayer, we allow Him to work in us and through us.

And prayer rightly ends as it began, with worship. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever reminds us that all belongs to Him. A prayer of faith can end with praise, with confidence that the Father who loves us hears us when we ask in the name of Jesus, to whom we have direct access, and that He will answer according to His perfect will.