Our Father Prayer

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Jun 4, 2025, 6:31:33 AM6/4/25

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OUR FATHER

Matt 6:9-13

"This, then, is how you should pray:

Praise & Submission

Acknowledge His Position
    "‘Our Father in heaven,
Acknowledge His Holiness -
His contempt of the presence of sin
    hallowed be your name,
Acknowledge His Lordship (It's a kingdom, not a democracy)
        your kingdom come,
        your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Supplication

Ask for necessary provisions
    Give us today our daily bread.
Deal with Sin
    Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
    And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ‘

This is a good example showing many of the elements of prayer. But in light of the verses which immediately precede this prayer (Matt 6:7 - about not babbling), many Christians miss the lesson here. For these verses are often misused as a sort of mindless chant. It's the meaning which is important to God. If you're not praying things which you mean, then you're not praying.

Notice the richness of the structure here. First the prayer acknowledges who God and is and what is our relationship to him. God is our Father, but is also Lord of the kingdom of which we are citizens, and by acknowledging this we are declaring our submission to him, and also doing so in praying this his will be done, as even Jesus prayed in Gethsemane. And we also acknowledge that he is holy and thus hates sin - indicating also our desire to repent of sin.

The request concerning our necessary provisions affirms our dependency upon him. And we need to deal with our sin in his presence, but taking on the same gracious attitude of forgiveness that he has, else we are not really children of God. And lastly we pray against temptations. Thus Jesus also instructed his disciples, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." Mt 26:41