The Lord’s Prayer Choices
Matthew 6:9-13
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and power, and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matt. 6:9-13)
Next to John 3:16 and the 23rd Psalm, the Lord’s Prayer is probably known by more people than any other passage of scripture. Many churches recite it every Lord’s Day as a part of normal Christian worship or liturgy. For some the “Our Father” is a secret ritual or magic saying designed to guarantee heaven’s attention. Clearly that is not Jesus intent. The context alone would clue us into that. Listen to the two preceding verses: (Mat 6:7-8 NIV) And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Some become rather contentious arguing that this isn’t the Lord’s Pray, saying that the real Lord’s Prayer is found in John 17, the long “high priestly” prayer of Jesus spoken on the night before the cross. All of that seems to me to be beside the point. If this isn’t the Lord’s Prayer, whose is it? Of course, this is a prayer taught by Jesus. It was intended as a basic teaching or primer on what prayer is all about. Jesus assumed that real praying is not necessarily a natural thing for we humans. We need to be taught what it is all about. If we aren’t taught right, we tend to drift into all sorts of distortions and perversions of real praying.
Historically, some have contended, with good reason, that this is the Prayer to End All Prayers. Augustine (4th century AD) wrote, “ Run through all the words of the holy prayers, and I do not think you will find anything in them that is not contained and included in the Lord’s Prayer.” St. Thomas Aquinas (13th century AD) called it “the most perfect of all prayers.” Tertullian (2nd century AD) called it the “summary of the whole gospel.” Apparently among some of the earliest Christians, it was customary to repeat the Lord’s Prayer three times a day (Didache, 8, 3; 2nd century AD). St. John Chrysotrom (4th century AD), one of the great preachers of the early church notes that the Lord’s Prayer is rightly used in corporate prayer because Jesus did not “say “my” father who is in heaven, but “our” Father.”
The Lord’s Prayer is part of the Sermon on the Mount, the most foundational extended teachings that Jesus gave his disciples. As such, it is at the root of the Christian life. In fact, rightly understood, the Lord’s Prayer is not so much about a formula for prayer or a particular ritual for worship, as it is about a way of looking at the Christian life. It is this concept that I want to explore over the next several weeks. Beginning tonight, we will examine the Lord’s Prayer in ever growing detail. We will look for lessons about prayer and more importantly about a praying lifestyle. Tonight I want to begin with a very brief survey of the prayer.
Phrase by phrase, the Lord’s Prayer outlines the values and priorities that make possible the Christian lifestyle. I want to review each significant phrase and leave you with a word to summarize and remember each key phrase of the Lord’s Prayer. I will do that by presenting a contrast or in another sense a choice/a way of looking at prayer that impacts our life. Each part of the prayer confronts us with a fundamental issue of life and forces a choice. How will we look at life? How will we decide to live our prayer?
Think of the Continental Divide in the Rockies. Driving through the mountains of Colorado or Wyoming, you frequently come across markers noting the location of the Divide. Theoretically, at least, that point marks a place where the watershed divides. Water falling to the east of the line, flows toward the Missouri and the Mississippi and finally into the Gulf of Mexico and on toward the Atlantic. A drop of water landing west of the line, flows toward the Yellowstone, or the Colorado, or the Columbia and on into the Pacific at some point. At the beginning, theoretically, two drops of water might have landed inches a part, but the divide resulted in destinies separated by thousands of miles.
Likewise each little line of this prayer presents us with a spiritual divide. Depending on which side of the line we fall, eternal destinies are at stake. Only here, unlike the drops of water, we can have an impact on where we come down.
Even before we begin the prayer, we are confronted with a choice. To pray or not to pray, that is the question! It seems like such a simple choice. But it is deceptively simple. Prayer is not easy and it is not natural. Remember the disciples in Gethsemane. Jesus asked something so simple, “Pray with me.” He didn’t ask them to climb mountains or walk on water. He didn’t call for some great mental or spiritual feat. Just pray. Remember his response to their failure, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” To our human fallen nature, prayer is not easy or natural. To come to the Lord’s Prayer is to choose a lifestyle of prayer that separates us from much that surrounds us.
Once we have come to the Lord’s Prayer, we are confronted with six great divides, lifestyle choices, that determine our direction and our destiny for time and eternity. With each divide, there is a key concept that I will represent with a single word. Each word is an important part of the Christian vocabulary.
1. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name . . . For this phrase remember the word IDENTITY. Who am I? Where did I come from? At some point in life, all of us ponder that basic question.
Maybe we are like the little boy who came running into the kitchen one day after school and asked his mom the big question, “Mom, where did I come from?” Her face flushed, she stammered, and finally after a few false starts began the dreaded “birds and bees” talk with her seven-year-old. Her son stood their wide-eyed, soaking up every word. Finally, she stopped and asked, “Now do you have any questions?” “Yes. That’s all very interesting. But there’s a new boy in my class. He said he came from Cleveland. I just wanted to know where I came from.”
The Lord’s Prayer forces a divide. Where did you come from? Are you a product of chance or a special creation of the living God? More than that, once having determined that you are not just a result of chance, how do you relate to your maker? Is he distant or close? Is he loving or cruel? Does he care or are you on your own? Do you want to know him or would you rather he keep his distance. To pray “Our Father which are art in heaven, hallowed be thy name” answers that question.
2. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This second phrase introduces the word HOPE. There are two kinds of people in the world—those who have hope and those without. Which are you? Do you believe that life is against you or for you? Do believe that the fates control your destiny or do you believe that there is a personal, loving God who tenderly directs and guides the affairs of your life? That is a fundamental difference. Which will it be for you?
The Lord’s Prayer stands on the foundation of belief in a sovereign God who is alive and well on planet earth. When we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are declaring that our hope, the direction and intended destiny of our lives, lies with the Lord of Heaven. Some act as if politicians controlled their hope. Or self. Or some corporation. Or some invisible economic force. In the Lord’s Prayer we confess that our hope in the rule of God.
Some have rightly recognized through the centuries that true followers of Christ make limited patriots. The Romans often persecuted the early Christians because the rulers never felt they could fully trust the Christians. Why? Because Christians stubbornly insisted that their hope didn’t rest in Rome’s decisions. Rome could come and go and Jesus would still be Lord. Christians would never pledge unwavering allegiance to any human crown. Only to heaven’s rule!
This prayer declares, for those who choose to really pray it, that our aim is not this world and its petty battles. Our hope is in heaven. Our dreams, our visions for the future, our destinies lie with the God of Glory. What you hope in determines what you live for and how you live. Imagine the choice you have made when you pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
3. Give us this day our daily bread. This third phrase takes up where the last ended. Our word is SECURITY. Where does yours come from? There are two ways of facing life—with worry or wonder. To pray this prayer says we have chosen to trust the hand of God and not worry about the outcome. I don’t think Jesus could have uttered this phrase without his hearers thinking of the manna from heaven provided by the Lord for the Hebrew people. Remember how it came—one day at a time! The Hebrews could gather only a day’s supply, except on the day before the Sabbath. Each day’s supply was new and fresh from the hand of God. Why did God provide for them this way? Moses would explain later, “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deu 8:3 NIV).
Lemuel knew this principle. Listen to his prayer from Prov 30:8-9, “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ’Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” Paul echoed the same faith, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength“ (Phil 4:12-13 NIV).
To truly pray the Lord’s Prayer is to declare your security lies in the hand of God and his provision.
Join in praying the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray:
“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and power, and the glory forever. Amen.”
End Part 1
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
