top of page

Teach Us How to Pray

"Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.' And he said to them, 'When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.'" - Luke 11:1–4

The only instance we have recorded of the disciples specifically asking Jesus to "teach us" is whenever they are asking about prayer. They did not ask Him to teach them how to feed 5,000. They did not ask Him to teach them how to raise the dead. They also did not ask them to teach them how to love their enemies well.


Instead, Jesus' friends saw the way prayer shaped Him, and so they asked, teach us to pray as You do. They observed how He would quietly sneak out to pray early in the morning. They saw how Jesus prayed to cast out demons and to multiply bread. They watched as He hiked mountains to find a place where He could pray all night long. One thing was certain to them, and that was that Jesus prayed differently. Intimately. Personally. Joyfully. Sorrowfully. Consistently. Authoritatively. Boldly. Lovingly.


So, Jesus responded and taught them. Though He instructed, "when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you" (Matt 6:6), He also wanted them to learn from Him how to pray. He wanted them to see how He did it. When He was praying in anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane, He took Peter and Zebedee's sons to watch. He wanted to show them that God is not to be prayed to when you are "good enough", or "clean enough", but right now. With real emotions, real problems, deep pains, and big petitions.


"Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, 'Sit here, while I go over there and pray.' And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, 'My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.' And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.' And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, 'So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.'" -Matthew 26:36–41

Hold on a little while, we will revisit that passage in a bit.


Here is where we reach my main point- the Lord's Prayer, as it has come to be known, is not a formula to be uttered nonchalantly out of obligation or to breeze through; it reveals vital insight into the posture of the human heart when communing with God and more importantly, insight into Who God is. You see that when taking in the words Jesus teaches us to pray (which in Aramaic is written as a poem), all the lines flow into a rhythm quite natural to us. Prayer, in general, is our natural inclination as human beings. It is no coincidence that while religion is declining, the number of people who admit to praying is still rising. Prayer is only human, particularly in times of heightened emotion (like prayers for help, etc). According to a Pew Research Center study, the young generation has more "praying" atheists than we have ever seen in recorded history. However, we must learn how to pray, and we learn that with Christ, by watching how He does it.


So this week I will be walking each and every one of you through the lines of the Lord's Prayer in a way that fills it with meaning again. It is not something to recite mindlessly or a "prayer for beginners", which you can graduate from when you become "good" at it. The prayer is to be lived in, breathed in, and absorbed. You don't "move on" from the Lord's Prayer, you learn new depths to it instead. Like the Gospel working in our lives, we don't move on from learning the foundational and simple message, we learn the depths of it so much more fully until we realize it was never simple at all. So it is with the Lord's Prayer.


Father, hallowed be Your name


Father. All too often this line is treated as a sort of cordial handshake with God. To the original listeners, though, I imagine this simple line would have stopped them in their tracks.


Jesus' friends had just overheard Him praying in a "certain place", and were so taken aback by how beautiful and intimate His conversations with His Father were that they immediately asked Him, "teach us how to pray". The life of Jesus was walked out completely with His Father and that was done by prayer through the Holy Spirit in Him. And so when Jesus began by addressing that they were talking to their Father, the disciple's own Father, and not only Jesus', it opened a door that they had never previously been accessible. God, in the Jewish mindset, was simply not a Father. And so, Jesus was directly challenging their stance before God and how they relate to Him. He has given you direct access to the Father. We can pray to God exactly as Jesus did because of this. Immediately after this comes hallowed be Your name.


"Hallowed" is a word that has largely lost its meaning. This can also be translated as "holy" or "set-apart". Completely other, but still Father. Completely outside time and space, but still near, and loving, and, through Jesus, personal. Notice how Jesus teaches us to draw our attention away from our desires, petitions, and ourselves in general. Look at Who you are speaking to. Make eye contact. We are enabled to approach Him in all courage and boldness because we come as friends of Jesus. We take Jesus' standing before God and boldly (but very much reverently and gratefully) address Him as Father.


The paradox in this line is that God, completely set apart, is brought completely near to us. He is our Father. The same holy, holy, holy God we see described in Revelation is our Abba Father, Who delights in us, and Who is gentle and lowly at heart. We find rest here.


Your kingdom come


After turning over how our Father is completely holy and righteous and good, the natural inclination of our hearts is for more of that, here on earth. Maranatha, come. This could very well be referring to the second coming of Christ, but also it could be prayed for Him to start building a kingdom here now, as "citizens of heaven".


This is an earnest plea to see God's will be carried out (in Matthew's version of the prayer, he includes the line "your will be done"). These two lines go hand in hand. They are cries for justice and peace and mercy.


Here is where I will return to the Gethsemane prayer... It is important to note that while Jesus was not repeating it word for word (as we too, often shouldn't), He was certainly following His own teachings.


In Pete Greig's book How to Pray he notes that when Jesus prayed in the garden, " having affirmed both God's love ('Abba, Father') and His power ('everything is possible with you'), Jesus prays five of the most surprising words in the entire Bible. He asks God for an alternative to the cross. This is Jesus at His most vulnerable, and He appears to be praying 'unbiblically'. It's fascinating to note that Christ's prayer...traces the form of His own Lord's Prayer:


Our Father in heaven... Abba, father.

Hallowed be Your name... everything is possible with You.

Your kingdom come... take this cup from me.

Your will be done... yet not what I will.

on earth as in heaven... but as You will."


I want to draw your attention to how Jesus did not pray "Your kingdom come" at that moment. He prayed, "take this cup from me" (cup being an ancient and biblical symbol of wrath). He was not praying what He was "meant" to pray, but instead was sharing the deep pain and anguish He felt when He looked upon the cross.


We are free to bring our honest emotions to His feet. Somewhere along the way, people got the idea that emotions were sinful, forgetting that God Himself created emotions because He has emotions, quite deeper than our own even. Emotions were affected by the fall, but they themselves are not a bad thing. Trouble comes when we know longer have emotions, but instead, they have us, and they become things to be served and worshipped.


Imagine if Jesus had prayed for the kingdom instead of praying earnestly to take the cup away. If He wasn't sweating blood in the garden. If He didn't have His face pressed against the cold, unyielding earth. If He was perfectly nonchalant about facing a brutal betrayal and an excruciating death. Then we would never see the love of Christ for us, the depths He went, but also we would never see the freedom we have in prayer to our Father.


Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is true freedom. The invitation is extended when in the Spirit of prayer. God will not flip out over a single request that departs from our lips, because we are coming in the name of Jesus. That does not mean He will answer our petition, but we do know that He truly listens. More than listens, He is near to us, a reality deeper than the air we breathe.


We pray for His will because we know He will cause all things to work together for our good (Romans 8:28).


Give us each day our daily bread


Daily bread. This could very much be interpreted in a "spiritual" sense, but I also believe that God, being the Creator and Sustainer of our bodies, instructs us to trust Him in even our material needs. Each day. When God rained down bread (manna) for the Israelites in the desert, He only rained down enough for each day. And they had to trust that the next day, He would rain down their needs again.


This line of prayer could also be used to usher us into petitioning for other people or yourself. This is a subject with a lot of depth to it, but I firmly believe that prayer does something, that every prayer we pray according to the will of the Father is held near and dear to His heart. He holds them even when we forget about them.


Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us


This was intentionally placed after the call for "daily bread", most likely because after that long list we realize our need for the forgiveness of God, and our inability to measure up and be worthy of all we ask. But, God indeed does give us more than we could ask, think or imagine (Ephesians 3:20....also, Jireh by Maverick City. I guarantee some of you just sang that line in your head like I just did). Thank God that He answers this prayer...He meets repentant hearts right where they are and lavishes them with extravagant grace He can only give because we are ransomed entirely. We are saved "to the uttermost" (Hebrews 7:25), and so we can forgive to the uttermost.


And lead us not into temptation


More recent manuscripts of the Bible add to the end of the Lord's Prayer "to yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever". Most scholars agree that this was not original, and so in most Bibles today this is only added in the footnotes and not in the actual Scriptures.


It's fair to assume that the original prayer ends with this line then, "lead us not into temptation". As I mentioned before, the Lord's Prayer is to teach us to pray as Jesus does, but it is not a formula. We saw how Jesus Himself changed the words in Gethsemane. If you like ending with "to yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever", go for it! All of that is true and good. If you end up never getting past the opening line of the prayer, but instead spend half an hour meditating and praying over "Father, hallowed be Your name", have at it, seriously. God delights in spending time with you, don't treat prayer like something to rush through. Honestly, if you never even say anything at all, but you just are, that's great too.


But I believe that this final line is so very vital, and a very good way to end. It is a prayer for God's protection in our coming and going, a prayer over the spiritual warfare we face every moment of the day...often unknowingly.


So we pray for the Lord to lead us in His way, which is a narrow scenic route with green pastures and still waters. Jesus knows temptation far better than any of us since He never once gave into it. He knows the full strength of it. And He will lead us through.


Gently and kindly, our Father meets us in the quiet, He gives us a safe harbor to escape from the busyness of the world, and He delights in us more than we can ever in Him. How could we ever treat prayer like a chore, or save it for when it is convenient and we happen to have some extra time?


When our Father in heaven is wanting to come and meet us where we are, to enfold us, listen to us, speak to us?


Jesus taught us and continues to teach us, how to pray. In fact, He wrote us a poem to show us the way, words that really are a lamp unto our feet.


So with a limp, we go to that "certain place" and make our feeble attempt at getting to know and understand our incomprehensible Father.


I can assure you, He will meet you there.

Comments


bottom of page