The Lord’s Prayer

“After this manner therefore pray ye: 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.” Matthew 6:9-13

Today we are going to study the Lord’s prayer, and what it means when we pray it. Let’s get right into it.

“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”

The word “hallowed” means “consecrated or sanctified; sacred; holy.” Right at the beginning of our prayer to the Father, we acknowledge His holiness and authority over ourselves. 

When a person comes before a king here on the Earth, how do they address the king? They might say “my lord” or “your honor” or simply “my king.” It shows their humility and respect for him, and they honor the king for his authority over his kingdom. 

When we pray, we worship Him because He is our holy, perfect Creator. We use our prayers to thank the Lord, or talk to or praise Him, and then other times we might use prayer to ask Him for help and guidance, as I will talk about in a little bit.

“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

The “will” in “thy will be done” means “someone’s independant faculty of choice, or the ability to be able to exercise one’s choice or intention.” Also, “someone’s orders or commands.”

When we pray “thy will be done,” it means that we will be obedient to whatever is His command and wish, and that everything that happens is according to God’s will, whether we understand it or not. God is Almighty, and all-knowing, and everything is done according to His purpose.

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

A “debt,” as used in this scripture, means “a fault, or sin.” 

When we come before God in prayer, we ask Him humbly and meekly to forgive us of our sins, mistakes and shortcomings. We ask that He would take them away, and cleanse us from those impurities.

Likewise, we understand that if we want to be forgiven, that we need to forgive those who have sinned, injured, hurt, or harmed us. Several places in the scriptures warn us to be forgiving, as we have been forgiven, because if we deny forgiveness to others who ask for it, we ourselves will not be forgiven. In Matthew 6, Jesus says,

“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 

But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 6:14-15

Asking for forgiveness shows that a person realizes that they have errd and sinned, and they want to be made “right” again. 

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Temptation is “an inducement or enticement to do something,” and when used in the scriptures it applies to being enticed to do something wrong, sinful, or immoral.

And “deliver” means “to free, set free, or disburden from something.” 

I have written down a few examples for this. Do you remember when the Hebrews had been led out of Egypt by Moses, and how they had been trapped by the edge of the Red Sea by Pharaoh’s army? What prevented Pharaoh from reaching the Hebrews? First, a pillar of cloud (Exodus 14:19) separated the Egyptian army from the Hebrews, and then the Lord parted the Red Sea for His people to cross. God delivered them from evil.

Another example is found in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Because they refused to fall down and worship the image that the king had made, the king commanded that they were to be thrown into a fiery furnace, and destroyed.

But these three men of God knew that if it was His will that He could deliver them from any evil that could come.

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. 

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 

But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” Daniel 3:16-18

I am sure you already know what happened. Even though they were thrown into the furnace, no harm came to them, and not one hair on them was singed. The Lord God protected them, and delivered them from evil.

One last example, we have David and Goliath. To condense this example, what had happened was that the Philistines were at war with the Israelites, and they brought our their champion to challenge a man of Israel to fight him. Because Goliath was a giant, there was no one who would fight for Israel, as they were all afraid. 

But when David heard this, he had faith in God, that He would protect him. I don’t know how old David was at the time, but he was described as a “youth.” At first, King Saul did not want David to go and fight Goliath, but David explained to him how the Lord had delivered him before, and that he knew the Lord would deliver him once again.

“David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.” 1 Samuel 17:37

Armed with a sling and stones, and the Lord God on his side, David defeated Goliath, and was delivered from evil.

“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen”

Give praise to God for all his graces and mercies. Sing your praises to Him for His great love and compassion to us sinners, until we go to be with Him for eternity.

Amen.

In Christ,

Andrew