I AM Bible Studies and Resources

The Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer is probably the most well known passage of Scripture, repeated by traditional church goers every Sunday. However, Yeshua never really intended us to continue to use the Lord's Prayer - He gave it to us as a guide to encourage us to go forward, to be able to pray in a more mature way. As the situation changes so then does the prayer.
How often have you heard someone praying as if they were actually talking to God, and thought to yourself "If only I could pray like that"? Well you can. All you have to do is to understand that the Lord's Prayer is a model prayer, one to teach us how to pray; how to adapt our prayers to the circumstances.

When one of Yeshua's disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray, Yeshua gave them what is generally known as 'The Lord's Prayer' or 'The Model Prayer'. It was common for a Rabbi to give a short prayer to his disciples for them to learn, and this is apparently the reference to John and his disciples.
Yeshua wants us all to have a personal relationship with God, and so here teaches us the basics of prayer: A beginning where we can start and learn the simple principals that will take us forward and into a deeper relationship with our heavenly Father.
The prayer that He gave them was a model that contained all the necessary principles needed to be able to adapt the prayer to any and every situation:

9 Pray like this. 'Our Father in Heaven, may your name be kept holy.
10 May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in Heaven, so on earth.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
13 Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.'
Mt. 6:9-13 [see also Lk. 11:1-4]

1 It happened, that when he finished praying in a certain place, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples."
2 He said to them, "When you pray, say,
'Our Father in Heaven,
May your name be kept holy.
May your kingdom come.
May your will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins,
For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
Bring us not into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.'"
Lk. 11:1-4

This prayer is for all disciples of Yeshua, for all that have trusted in Him for their salvation and have decided to follow Him as their Lord and Savior. It is not for those seeking salvation; although God will reach out to all those who would seek Him with a genuine heart.
The first principle to notice is to glorify God. We should always start by putting God first: 'Our Father, who is in Heaven', is to declare that He is our Father (this in itself is a declaration of the saving, finished work of Messiah); that He is high above all else, above everything in all of creation - that He is the creator.
'Your name be kept holy.', that in everything, that people would see that God is who He says He is, and we ought to take this upon ourselves and see to it that in all that we do, we glorify and declare the holiness of the name of God.
'May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in Heaven, so on earth.', simply means that we are to pray for the will of God, as already revealed in the scriptures; to speed the coming rule and reign of Yeshua here on earth - although Yeshua is indeed Lord of all, He still needs to come to complete everything (1 Cor 15:24-26).

24 Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
1 Cor 15:24-26

'Give us this day our daily bread.', is asking God that He would provide us with all our physical needs; by asking it shows that our trust is in Him that has promised to be our provider. He wants us to trust Him totally, and as such we come to Him daily asking for His provision.
If we were able to receive enough for the whole week, then we wouldn't need Him until all had gone. But God knows us better than we know ourselves, and that we would soon forget our dependency upon Him if He were to supply enough for more than one day. He knows that if our personal relationship with Him is to grow and strengthen, then we need to be in communication with Him each and every day - and what better way to come then, than as children to our Heavenly Father, who has promised to supply all that we would need.
'Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.' This must not be taken as meaning that our salvation is dependent upon us first forgiving others; that would deny the shed blood of Jesus and the grace of God. No; this is for those that already have Yeshua as their Lord and Savior. We cannot expect God to forgive us if we cannot forgive those who have sinned against us. This is teaching the basic principle that God would have all His children follow - to forgive as God forgives (Mt. 6:14-15).

14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you don't forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Mt. 6:14-15

'Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' This used to confuse me in that, and I'm sure that I'm not alone, God does not tempt anyone (James 1:13). The Greek word for temptation, peirazo, can mean: a putting to the test, proof, trial; and so it could be translated: 'And do not lead us into hard testing'. God wants us to mature, and the best way is for us to have to overcome difficulties or tests. Our prayer then would be that the 'test' would not be too difficult for us; meaning that it would be one that, by the grace of God, we would be able to pass; and in doing so we would not succumb to our human weaknesses and fall into the clutches of 'the evil one', and so the prayer: 'but deliver us from the evil one'.
'For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.' This is really an affirmation that God is God, more than able to answer our prayers; eternally in control of everything, having the power to fulfill His promises regardless of what might be happening in the present; that His kingdom will be established with Yeshua as King, and then when all is done, He will bring in eternity. 'Amen' simply means 'I agree' or 'may it be so'.

To apply the principles contained in the Lord's Prayer are easy.
The first is to praise Him: To declare His majesty, glory, righteousness, perfection, justice, grace and more besides.
The second (v.10) can be adapted to situations that need the promises of God to be realized. It could be anything from feeling depressed (God has promised us peace and comfort) to out and out spiritual warfare where the will of God needs to be asserted. Of course we need to know what the will of God is and this we can learn from the Scriptures and from asking Him for specific help.
The third (v.11) is a prayer of trust. We can come to God and ask of Him to supply all that we need, whether it be bread or clothes, somewhere to live, a job or maybe something simple like a good friend. God knows what we need before we ask, all He wants is for us to come to Him and ask. One of the names of God is Jehovahjireh, (Beresheet / Genesis 22:8-14 KJV)

8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
Beresheet / Genesis 22:8-14 (KJV)

which literally means Jehovah sees; by implication, God will provide (most others have translated Jehovahjireh as 'The Lord Will Provide').
The fourth (v.12) is a reminder to always forgive others as we would want God to forgive us, meaning that we can bring relationship problems to God and ask Him to heal and to forgive.
The fifth (v.13) should be viewed as something positive. After all God wants us to reach maturity, and the only way is to learn through trials, tests and hardships. So we can pray that God would strengthen us through trials, but not too hard lest we fail.
Sometimes in our walk with God, and especially when we are doing something to further the kingdom of God, we might experience an attack from the enemy. It might come in the form of hardship or even some form of temptation, to try to lead us away from the task at hand; but we have the encouragement of Yeshua, that we can ask God for the strength to overcome and to be delivered from the evil one.

My prayer is that this has been of some help to encourage a deeper, more meaningful prayer experience and therefore a closer relationship with God - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God, who is all and over all; the Father, who is our Heavenly Father; the Son, who by His shed blood made it all possible and the Holy Spirit, who will guide us in all Truth.

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