“Pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.
“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
REFLECTION
The Lord’s Prayer is not something we need to recite, but we can use it as an outline for talking with our Father. Jesus wants to remind us that we are praying to a personal God who loves us more than we could ever imagine.
It’s easy for our prayers to be self-focused: what we need and want. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus begins with God as the sole focus—his name, his kingdom, and his will—not ours. The remainder of the Lord’s prayer has three requests that cover every area of the life of a believer.
- “Give us today the food we need”—is an expression of ultimate dependence on the Lord for all of our daily needs.
- “and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us”—we are broken people in need of a Savior, and because we have received forgiveness, we can extend it to others.
- “And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one”—there is a real enemy bent on destroying us, but through God’s Spirit, we can be rescued.
The Lord’s prayer is meant to take our eyes off of ourselves and center them on God, our Father in Heaven. He loves us deeply, he sees us when we pray in secret, he gives us everything we need, and he acts on our behalf.
How can you pray differently in light of Jesus’ instruction? Use the Lord’s Prayer as an outline and rewrite it in your own words with your own desires.