The Lord's Prayer

I believe most of us know the Lord’s Prayer by heart and have possibly recited it, or sang it from memory since we were little.  Today, we are going to take a deeper look at The Lord’s prayer and give it more of a personal meaning in our lives.

We find The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13.  

Jesus gave us The Lord’s Prayer as an example of how to pray.  He proceeds the prayer by telling us in Matthew 6:5-8 to not be boastful about our prayers, drawing a lot of attention on ourselves.  This would take the focus away from where it should be: On Christ. 

I believe there are many aspects to a good prayer life and many different ways which offer spiritual connection with God.  I don’t believe every prayer I pray requires my hands to be folded with my head bowed and my eyes closed.  But I do believe there is great power in this kind of connection with God. 

Another way to spend time in prayer that I love, is to journal.  I also send my  prayers up to God with my eyes wide open while driving, doing dishes, folding laundry, and many other activities I complete during the day.  I believe we can come to Him anytime, anywhere.  I also firmly believe that God gets excited about being a part of our every day life.  After all we are His and He is genuinely interested in everything we do!

Now let’s take a look at The Lord's Prayer:

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

The Lord’s Prayer begins by directing our attention to God and acknowledging Him as our Father in heaven. Next, God appeals to us to join with Him connecting our will to His. First, we connect with Him then God acknowledges our needs; because it is through Him He supplies our needs.  He provides for our physical and spiritual needs with bread.  Through His bread of life He gives us spiritual and physical nourishment providing us with power to resist the devil on a mental and physical level, daily.  Most importantly God calls us to a personal relationship with Him and through Him.  In addition, He invites us to have a relationship with those around us.  He provides us with forgiveness, and petitions us to forgive those who wrong us.  He invites us to close our prayer with an Amen; conveying respect and adoration.  

Please don't miss where He directs our attention. Up!  Not within; up!  Then He invites us to join our will to submit to His will.  These actions will give us the spiritual, physical, and emotional strength we need to resist the devil and call upon God to do battle for us thus, resisting evil.

Something that is very uplifting for me and makes scripture very personal is to write it in my own words.  I wrote a personal version of the Lord’s Prayer below.

My father in the heavens above, I exalt you and praise you.

Come soon; prepare me here on earth to be with you for eternity.

Bless me daily with your spiritual food.

Forgive me for not loving my neighbor as you have done.  And forgive me for not spreading the gospel to speed your return as you have commanded.

Help me to resist the devil and deliver me from him.  For heaven is yours.  You will reign victorious, and gain the victory forever.  I love you Lord.

When you make scripture personal like this especially in a prayer it connects you more deeply with the Lord.  For me sometimes it helps me realize He is speaking directly to me.

I petition you today to make prayer an important part of your everyday life.  A part you don’t skip, or kick off your calendar for any reason.  God desires to have a personal relationship with you.  And that can only come through time spent with Him.