“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13, NKJV).
As the capstone of the Lord's teaching on sincere and private prayer, He provides His disciples, and us, with a "sample pattern" prayer. Now I know what this has become over the millennia, kind of a Christian incantation mistitled the Lord's Prayer, but I believe firmly that is is neither.
As a pattern of prayer, there is much to be gleaned from these 5 verses (a similar rendering also appears in the Gospel of Luke), but that does not mean that it was intended as some verbal ritual to be repeated endlessly by Christians over the centuries. Nor am I arguing that there is anything inherently wrong in repeating these words verbatim. What I am saying is that if this, or any other ritual supplication, is the extent of your prayer-life, you are missing so very much in your walk with the Lord. As a pattern of prayer, however, it is absolutely brilliant.
First, please note Jesus' introduction: "“In this manner, therefore, pray…". The word, manner, denotes "do likewise", or "even so", or "thusly", unlike the Greek word, khar-ak-tare', translated in Hebrews as "express image", which has the sense of "precise reproduction in every respect". Given that, and taking a look at the overall outline of this model prayer, we can construct the acronym, ACTS, adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication.
Adoration
"Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven."
And
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
As far as this portion of the model, this could indeed be spoken by Christ Himself without contradicting either His sinlessness, or His Deity. It speaks volumes of His love and adoration for the Father, and reminds us Who is worthy of all praise. It is excellent to begin our own private communication with the Father by reminding ourselves of His endless worth, His glory, His power, and His divine character, and to bring to mind His ultimate and glorious purpose for all Creation.
Confession
"And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation…".
This is where it becomes clear that this is not a prayer which Christ Himself would pray on His own behalf. Christ has no debts and His whole reason for coming to earth as a Man was to forgive His debtors. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15, NKJV). And it was emphatically part of God's redemptive plan to prove Christ's sinless perfection precisely by having Him succeed where Adam failed, in the test of temptation. It was the Holy Spirit Himself who led Christ into the wilderness for 40 days and nights of testing. Yet for us, the Fallen, we benefit from reminding ourselves constantly both of the forgiveness already obtained through Christ, and of the need for continuous forgiveness. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9, NKJV).
Thanksgiving
The thankfulness in this pattern supplication is embedded in every phrase. It is implied by each request, and each verbal tribute to God's character and purposes. It is proclaimed by the urgent request for the Father's Kingdom to be established on earth as in Heaven. It is sung with the declaration of God's eternal ownership of all power and glory for all time.
Supplication
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one
This is the asking part. Oftentimes, that's all we do in prayer; make request after request after request. And that is in obedience to numerous exhortations throughout both Old and New Testaments. Christ wants us to ask. It is an act of faith. But we should also be very aware of what we ask. Is it merely for ourselves? Is it only for material goods or comfort? Is it exclusively for the physical aspects of our life? Be assured, none of these are wrong in and of themselves, but once more, if that's all we do, we are missing so very much in our walk with the Lord. We need also to supplicate for our and other's spiritual state and well-being, to keep us from sin and temptation, and deliver us from the schemes of the Enemy.
Beloved, pray like Jesus teaches here. Pray with the same fervor and devotion and dedication that He did (sometimes all night). Pray as if it were a direct lifeline between your finite self and the Infinite Source of all Creation.
Because it is.
