Our Father

Our Father

(Matthew 6:9-13)

Yearly Theme:  “Goodness is… Governing”

Series Title:  “The Goodness of Prayer”

August 4^th, 2024

Something to think about:

Prayer is two-way communication between a person and the GOD of all creation.  It’s speaking and listening.  It’s praise and thanksgiving; it’s gratitude and worship.  It’s also petitions and appeals, as well as expressing hopes and desires.

In the first century, prayer – whether to pagan gods or to GOD Almighty – had become corporately formalized and all too often repetitive and non-personal.  When the disciples asked Jesus how they should pray, He instructed them with a basic template that was full of insight into the very nature of GOD and the position of humanity in relation to Him.  Let’s look at how Jesus instructed His disciples to pray:

Matthew 6:9-13 (NLT),

⁹ Pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,

may your name be kept holy.

¹⁰ May your Kingdom come soon.

May your will be done on earth,

as it is in heaven.

¹¹ Give us today the food we need,

¹² and forgive us our sins,

as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

¹³ And don’t let us yield to temptation,

but rescue us from the evil one.

The following version (from the King James Translation) is the one that is probably most familiar to all of us:

Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV),

⁹ After this manner therefore pray ye:

Our Father which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

¹⁰ Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread.

¹² And forgive us our debts,

as we forgive our debtors.

¹³ 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.

Author and Biblical scholar, the late William Barclay, explains that “The Lord’s Prayer is specifically and definitely stated to be the disciple’s prayer; and only on the lips of a disciple [does the prayer have] its full meaning.  To put it another way, the Lord’s Prayer can only really be prayed when the [person] who prays it knows what [he/she] is saying, and [he/she] cannot know it until they have entered into discipleship [or, a relationship with the Father through faith in Jesus Christ].”[1]

In essence, one cannot pray this prayer having no faith in GOD, and expect it to have any effect on the individual.  And this leads us to our key point and the subject of our prayer:  GOD.

Key Point:  “GOD is holy and the only one to whom we should pray.”

Since GOD the Father is the subject of the LORD’s Prayer, it behooves us to dig deeper into that subject as the basis for the rest of our discussion through this series:

^9b  Our Father in heaven,

may your name be kept holy.

There are three distinct features of this verse that stand out in context to the opening of the LORD’s Prayer.  Let’s take a closer look at them:

• GOD is referred to as  .

• GOD’s location is in  .

• GOD’s name should be kept  .

Something to take home:

The LORD’s prayer is about GOD and us.  It is about learning to communicate with GOD as “Father” and learning to lean on Him for everything in life.  It’s about trusting Him for our daily needs and not worrying or being fearful of the things we cannot control.  It’s about honoring Him as loving Father and leaning on His strength and power to see us through every circumstance.

The LORD’s Prayer isn’t merely a thing to be recited, but a template of learning how to intimately communicate with GOD.  Once we learn the discipline of honest open dialogue with GOD the Father, then and only then are we able to discern His voice and understand His will that should be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Key Point:  “GOD is holy and the only one to whom we should pray.”

[1] William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 1, (Westminster John Knox Press:  Louisville, Kentucky; 1975), 199.