An Introduction to the Lord's prayer

One of the amazing things about Jesus is that He was a man of prayer. At one level that seems obvious to us—of course Jesus prayed; He was trying to be an example for us of what it means to live a life that is pleasing to the Father, and therefore He had to model this dimension of the Christian life for us. However, the reality of Jesus’ prayer life is much more basic and dynamic than merely serving as an example for us. Jesus’ life of prayer was the channel of His intimate communion with the Father in heaven. Since He chose to live His life as a man filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus had no advantages over us. He had to live by faith in the same way He calls us to do so, and therefore prayer was the most essential element of His life. His testimony was that He never did or said anything apart from specific revelation that came from the Father. Therefore, prayer was critical to the moment by moment expression of the Word made flesh.

The men who followed Him around from day to day began to add things up in their minds. They observed with wonder the things Jesus did and said—the healing miracles, the nature miracles, the wisdom in His teachings, the spotless nature of His life—and they eventually concluded that there was a dynamic relationship between Jesus’ life and the way He prayed. So, Luke 11:1 tells us that there came a day when, after watching Jesus pray, one of His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, even as John the Baptist taught his disciples. This man was saying to Jesus, “We see the effect that prayer has in Your life—the power, the holiness, the wisdom and grace—and we want to experience the same things, even as John’s disciples came to know the joy he felt through his times of communing with the Lord in prayer.”

Jesus responded by giving them a model prayer that we’ve come to know as “The Lord’s Prayer,” or “The Our Father.” It’s become a familiar prayer to us. Almost anyone with any sort of church-related background can recite it, and individual phrases from the prayer have permeated our daily speech patterns. For many, this prayer has merely become a trite ritual, something to recite at somber occasions, but with little or no meditation or consideration attached to it. Because of this misuse of the prayer, it has lost virtually all of its power for our lives. It is used to fulfill a sense of religious duty, to fill space in a meeting, or as a convenient crutch when one has no idea of how to pray. And while there may be some benefit inherent in simply speaking the words of the prayer, we may be certain that when Jesus answered the request of His friend to teach them to pray, He was not merely giving them a rote model to follow. Rather, He was inviting them into the dynamic of His own relationship with God the Father, and we would do very well to consider deeply the fullness of what is released to us as we embrace the depths of meaning and understanding in it.

So, in a short series of articles that will posted on this site, I want to draw you into the Lord’s Prayer, and allow the Holy Spirit to impress it upon you as an indispensable part of your walk of faith in Christ.

In Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus begins by instructing His followers that there is no benefit to them in using lots of fancy sounding words when they pray. As a matter of fact, any prayer model that emphasizes wordiness or eloquence for the sake of being thought more spiritual is totally ineffective! God is not moved by eloquence of speech, but by hunger of heart. He does not answer because we ask correctly, but because He loves us dearly.

The Lord’s Prayer opens with the phrase "Our Father, who is in heaven." It is such a profound reality that we have been invited into the intimate family relationship that Jesus has with His Father. When Jesus called God His "Father," the religious leaders of the day were scandalized, because it was far too familiar, too intimate, and clearly implied an equality and oneness that was beyond their ability to accept (see John 5:16-20 on this theme). But Jesus not only insisted that He and the Father were one--He invited us into that same relationship when He instructed us to pray "our Father!"

Our heritage has been redefined. Our family history has been rewritten. We are no longer subject to the limitations and pain of our natural parentage. We have been adopted into a new reality, with the power of the Holy Spirit regenerating our spirits to be able to receive this new life. We are not merely saved from judgment; we are empowered to live a new life by the same resource that Jesus had. We are family now, and we can pull on the life of the Father just like Jesus did.

Therefore, we no longer have to limp along, explaining our failures by our sin nature, with no hope for transformation. We are no longer subject to that nature, but have been raised to a new kind of life by the resurrection power of Jesus. Our minds can be renewed, our spirits can be regenerated by the same power that brought Jesus out of the grave. We are family! We've been born again, and it is His life that is now available to us. This is really good news, and I pray that your hearts connect with this reality in a new way.

Gary Wiens, 1/22/2008