THE Lord’s Prayer, also called the Our Father, is the prayer Jesus taught to his disciples to show them how to pray ¹ and relate appropriately to God. As such, it is the basis of all forms of Christian prayer and why we can use the Lord’s Prayer to enrich our prayer life.
The Lord’s Prayer expresses all of the central teachings of Jesus. It outlines the core beliefs about God and His relationship to us as well as to how we are supposed to behave and relate to God and other persons as Christ’s disciples.
The Lord’s Prayer has several relevant sections we can use as the basic structure for carrying out our prayers with God. Below I will detail how we can use the Lord’s prayer them to help us pray.
Prayer Structure
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
The prayer begins by stating that God is our heavenly Father through Christ via the Holy Spirit. God has adopted us as His children and able to participate in the communion of the Trinity. Which we then follow with praise of God and his holiness.
In personal prayer, we can begin by reminding ourselves of who God is and our relationship to Him as His children through Christ. We can then proceed to worship Him. Thanking God for His blessings is an excellent way to worship Him.
Thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth, as it is in heaven.
Here it expresses the central message of the gospel. That through Christ, his Kingdom has come and is materializing on earth via His Church, the body of Christ. By following Jesus‘ teachings and commandments, Christians are submitting to and carrying out God’s will on earth as his angels and saints do in heaven. Carrying out of God’s will, in turn, is how we Christians are establishing God’s kingdom here on earth.
In personal prayer, we ask God for help in understanding His will in our lives and submit ourselves to His will. We can also ask for His help in continuing to develop our conversion to holiness, especially those areas where we are struggling to develop particular virtues.
Give us this day our daily bread
This section expresses our trust in God for providing for our needs. Similar to how a child depends and trusts his parents to provide for him.
In personal prayer, we can here mention our petitions to God, be it for individual needs or the well being of others. After this, we can thank Him for His help, confident that He is a faithful and good Father and will always provide for us.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Here Jesus makes clear that God will forgive us our trespasses or sins. But He makes it clear that we must also forgive others to be able to enter into God’s essence. We must forgive because we must imitate God’s forgiveness so that we may put on His character. By becoming like Him, we will then be able to fully into communion with the Father via the Holy Spirit through Jesus.
In personal prayer, we can pause and forgive and bless anyone with whom we are mad or have resentment. After this, we can proceed to review our sins and faults and ask God to forgive us for them. We also ask Him to help us to repent and change our behavior and repair where possible any damage we may have caused others.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
In this section, Jesus includes a fundamental truth about God and his adversary, the devil, who Jesus reveals in the New Testament as the source of all evil. God does not tempt, He is only good, as clearly established in James ². There is only one tempter, satan, the adversary. Our adversaries are fallen angels cast out of heaven and which are now on earth with humans. We call them fallen angels because even though created good, they choose to reject God and do not submit to His will. These fallen angels, or demons, trick humans into submitting to them by inspiring evil desires and thoughts within us. They tempt humans externally by creating trials and adversity in our lives. They also tempt us internally by luring us to evil acts via impure impulses in our hearts.
Deliverance from Evil
We must understand that God is not creating these situations of temptation to comprehend this section of the Our Father properly. Here, Jesus is instructing us to seek God for protection from evil. Be it internally within our hearts or externally via trials and adversity. However, Jesus first acknowledges that God may allow or even lead us to enter into these situations, which God does so that we may proceed to VANQUISH and CONQUER the enemy. In these situations, we follow Christ’s example. Such as when the Holy Spirit led him into the desert to face the devil and overcome him. Or how Jesus continued to overcome the devil and temptation throughout His ministry, until His ultimate victory via His crucifixion and glorious resurrection.
Soldiers in God’s Army
We often forget that we are soldiers within God’s army. We are soldiers in the frontline of a war that is raging for the ultimate salvation of humanity and creation. As such, we will have to face challenges to establish His kingdom here on earth. Temptation, whether internal or external, will only end at a personal level when we join Christ in heaven; and within creation at Christ’s second coming when He will remove evil and impurity from creation for all eternity.
Application in Personal Prayer
Based on the above, in personal prayer, we do as Jesus instructed. We ask the Father to deliver us from internal and external evil. God’s deliverance will include purging us from our unclean thoughts and desires, sparing us where possible from internal and external temptations, as well as giving us the strength to overcome temptation if it may arise.
Using the Lord’s Prayer
Using the above structure, we can efficiently structure a profound and enriching dialogue with our Father, where we don’t focus on just our needs but rather on our relationship with God and other persons. When beginning to use the Our Father, I recommend you write down the sections of the prayer. This way, you can use it as a guide while you pray. After a while, you will get used to praying in this way and will be able to do so without having to reference the guide just by merely remembering the Our Father.
I have personally found that this also will enrich the Our Father prayer when you are just praying it as written in, for example, in a Psalter like the Rosary. Our minds will automatically focus on each of the sections as you have practiced them. This focus will make the prayer very enriching even when just repeating the traditional wording to it. Praying in this manner, following our Lord’s teaching will profoundly help you along your Road to Righteousness.
I pray that this will enhance your prayer life profoundly, helping you to build a strong relationship with the Father.
Notes:
¹ As referenced in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4.
² As referenced in James 1:2-4 and James 1:12-18. Here James explains how we should face temptation and explains its origin. An interesting note is that the same word in the original text of James translated as trials in verse 2 is the same word for temptation in verse 12. The use of the same word helps reveal the same origin and purpose. Meaning they are acts of the enemy to try and separate us from God and prevent us from submitting to His will. Which they do so that we can face the same punishment that the demons will face.
