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PRAYING THE LORD'S PRAYER
February:
Lord, Teach Us
The disciples who followed Jesus every day of his earthly ministry got to witness Jesus do some pretty impressive things: preaching to thousands, calming a storm, even raising the dead. As his disciples, their job was to learn as much as they possibly could from their Rabbi, and then emulate his life. In all of the Gospels, however, we only find the disciples asking Jesus to teach them something specifically one time. While most of us would probably ask Jesus how to preach a moving sermon, how he walked on water, or how to raise a man from the dead, the disciples asked about something that might surprise us. They requested of Jesus: "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1)
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Surprisingly, Jesus doesn't offer the typical wisdom of our day: "Prayer is just talking to God." Nor does he give a vague, wise-yet-impractical nugget that one might come to expect from other holy men, such as "Before one can learn to pray, one must become prayer." Rather, he very simply responds:
"Pray like this:
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 also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil."
(Matthew 6:9-13)
Praying His Prayer
We believe that this prayer is not meant to be something Jesus just wanted us to say at least once every day as a child would say the Pledge of Allegiance at school. There is nothing magical about reciting this prayer. Instead, we view it as a backbone to prayer, providing an outline that rightly prioritizes the content of our prayers. For example, the prayer begins with helping us properly relate to God as "our Father." We are supposed to approach God - first and foremost - from a Father/Son (or daughter) relationship. Then the first half of the Lord's prayer moves us first to pray about things that are most important to God. We pray 3 "Your" prayers: "hallowed be your name," "your kingdom come," "your will be done." Then, we move into the things that we need God to do for us, praying three "our" prayers: "give us our daily bread," "forgive our sins," and "deliver us from the evil one.
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Dallas Willard says "Praying... is best learned by entering into the words that Jesus gave us to say to God when we pray... mere repetition is not kingdom praying. And this is true of the words that Jesus gave... but we do use those words, with them as foundation."
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The Lord's prayer is best used as just that - a foundation. Instead of merely repeating the words, expound on them. Pray "Our Father in heaven" and then meditate on our Father/Son (or daughter) relationship with Him as you enter into prayer. Pray "your will be done" and ask God to have his way in every part of your life, praying specifically into those parts that you feel led. Pray "give us our daily bread" and ask God specifically for the things that you're in need of today. And so on. Praying the Lord's prayer in this manner, we can be confident that, over time, Jesus himself will indeed "teach us to pray."
