The Lord’s Prayer
Why we pray the Lord’s Prayer and how it changes us.
The Bible is packed with prayers we might use as our own. Some of these prayers are inspiring, wonderful and helpful. Others seem shallow, materialistic and self-centered. Praying a ritual prayer on a daily basis is a powerful life-changing experience. It changes who we are and what we value over time, so selecting a Bible prayer for regular praying should be done carefully. While there are many Bible prayers worth praying on a ritual basis, there is only one prayer we were taught to pray by the Son of God Himself—the Lord’s Prayer. The earliest Christians believed Jesus meant it when he instructed His disciples to pray the “Our Father.” Thus they prayed this prayer every day—not just once but three times each day. They also prayed it in their worship services. It is the oldest and best Christian ritual prayer. Praying it transformed the early church. It bent their thinking changed their values and set the agenda for their worldview. It will do this for you too if you seriously pray it regularly.
Christians have prayed all kind of prayers over the last 2,000 years. Some, like the rosary, have lasted a long time. Most others turned out to be a short-tem fad or became magic incantations and no longer real prayers. Only one prayer alone has stood the test of time and towers supremely over all others—the Lord’s Prayer. Since dawn this very day, all around the world, in hundreds of languages, millions of Christians have offered this prayer in public worship and in personal devotions. This prayer of Jesus is the supreme prayer of all time. Come and join the millions who still pray it every day on their own, and pray it every time they gather for worship.
But, watch out! This prayer is powerful! Like all ritual prayers it has a powerful way of changing the pray-er. If you pray it regularly by yourself, and pray it with other Christians when you gather for worship, over time it will change your values, mind-set, and outlook. You will be transformed. Praying the Lord’s Prayer has a sanctifying effect. This is why the early church—and most Christians since—prayed it so often. So, come and join the majority of Christians of all times and start praying the Lord’s Prayer regularly—in your personal devotions and before meals, and every time you gather for worship.
Why we pray the Lord’s Prayer and how it changes us.
Our Father
The very first word of the Lord’s prayer telegraphs to us its difference from many other prayers—this is not a prayer about me, but a corporate prayer. This does not mean we should not pray it privately. We can. But we cannot pray it personally. It is not a prayer about me, my interests, my future, or asking God to bless me and my ministry. It is a prayer about us—the Church, so it begins with Our Father. We can pray this prayer individually but we can never pray it personally. We begin every time with the word our. We remind ourselves every time we start this prayer that we are connected to others in praying. It is not about me but us. When we pray the “Our Father” we are confessing our relationship with millions of other Christians around the world and through history—all our brothers and sisters in the family of God—this is what the our means. Praying this prayer resets our modern self-centered preoccupation. It gets my thoughts myself, my success, my ministry, and turns my head toward the entire body of Christ—the Church around the world and their needs and ministry. In short it gets us to think about what God thinks about. Over time, praying the “Our Father” regularly will cleanse us from our tendency toward self-centeredness. We will come to gradually see the needs of the entire family of God as more important as our own private and self-centered needs. This is such a life-changing redirection of thinking for most people it could be called a “conversion” of sorts. The very first word of the Lord’s Prayer makes us think of others.
In this prayer we address God as Father. When we do that we are confessing our relationship with Him and the rest of the family. We are God’s son or daughter—it is a confession of faith of sorts. At the same time we also embrace all our brothers and sisters in the family. The children come with the family. God is our father and all