The Treasure of the Lord's Prayer

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When I was a child, my mother used to come in and sit at my bedside every evening to hear my prayers before she turned out the lights. In our family, we didn't say the "God bless Mommy, and God bless Daddy" kind of prayers; we recited "Now I Lay Me." It might not have been very deep or searching or theological, but it was something--something to remind us little children that there was a God in Heaven watching over us at night.

Now I lay me down to sleep;
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen.

When my sisters and I grew a little older, we graduated from "Now I Lay Me" to The Lord's Prayer. We'd recite it every night with the same passion and intensity that we'd recited our earlier prayers--that is to say, virtually none.

By the time I got to the age where my Mom quit listening to my bedtime prayers, I had it down to the point where I could say the whole thing in about one-and-a-half seconds.

OurFathew'art'n'He'n-ha'db'name-kingd'mcome-w'b'done-da'ybread,f'rgiv's'r'debts-kingd'm-pow'r-glory-f'rever. Amen!

I say that to my shame now, but that's really how I did it. I didn't honor God with such "praying," but at least my mother tried to remind me, night by night, that He was there.



Now that I am old and careening relentlessly toward the end of this mortal life, I wish fervently that I were more of a praying man. But I still have a hard time getting it. Sometimes I try to pray and find that I just can't think of anything to say, and then my thoughts start to wander, and I soon realize that my noble, feeble attempt at prayer has turned into something shameful and disgusting. Other times I find that my mind is suddenly filled with a thousand different things to pray for, each of them seemingly weighty and important, and I am so overcome with the enormity of the task that I am stunned into silence and I give up without trying. Other times I'm going through the list of the same old things that I always pray for: family, friends, blah-te-blah-te-blah, and I wonder if there's any point. Does God even listen to such a half-hearted, bland attempt at communication with Him?

Maybe you don't have those problems. If you don't, then I am truly glad for you, and I most humbly and earnestly ask that you would pray for me. Maybe some of you are appalled to hear your pastor make such a bleak confession. But we haven't gotten where we've gotten by pretending, have we? And if my weakness can somehow serve to encourage some of you who may have thought you were alone with this problem, then most gladly will I boast in my weakness!

Should we pray? Absolutely! 1 Peter 4:7 says, "Be serious and watchful in your prayers." 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, "Pray without ceasing." Numerous times we are exhorted to pray in the pages of scripture, and, perhaps most tellingly, there are also numerous times in scripture where we see Jesus Himself withdrawing to a solitary place for prayer.

But even such a notable advocate for prayer as the Apostle Paul admitted, "we do not know what we should pray for as we ought" (Romans 8:26), and that we need God's help, the intercession of the Holy Spirit.

So ... what should we pray for? What do we pray about? Jesus Himself warned us not to pray like the heathen, who imagine that they will be heard because of their many words, and so multiply words upon pointless words. "For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him" (Matthew 6:8).

Even the disciples, who had daily face-to-face contact with the very Messiah of God, did not have some kind of innate ability to understand and articulate prayer. "Lord," they said, "teach us to pray" (John 11:1).

So Jesus, who loved them, gave them a treasure from the treasure-house of the wisdom of God. Jesus, who probably knew that one day soon while He would be praying in Gethsemane, sweating as it were great drops of blood, the disciples would be falling asleep--nevertheless He gave them this priceless jewel out of the storehouse of God's riches: the model prayer, the perfect prayer, what we know today as the Lord's Prayer.

Malcolm Muggeridge called the Lord's Prayer "a brief masterpiece of words." And so it is. But you need to embrace those words, understand them, make them your own, not just recite them like a trained parrot, or like a bored ten-year-old boy at bedtime.

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name

Our prayer begins with a declaration of praise to our God. Holy is Your name! Your name is to be revered, respected, honored, and feared; and not Your name only, but Your character, Your essence, Your very self--though clouded in mystery, You have declared Yourself to be holy. Holiness is a hard concept for 21st-century Americans to grasp, but we would do well to entertain the idea often--as often as we begin our prayers. "My Father in Heaven ... holy is Your name."

Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven

When Jesus prayed that agonizing prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, the triumphant conclusion to His plea was this: "Not My will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22:42). How many of us realize that every time we pray the Lord's prayer, we are uttering the same words as the Savior? Your will be done. Your will be done, insofar as it touches my life. Your will be done for my family and friends. And it focuses us on what is truly important: the coming of the kingdom of God, for our life, our family, our friends, our world. "May Your kingdom come ... may Your will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven."

Give us this day our daily bread

Muggeridge says about this line: "As to what we are to look for on our own behalf--and this is particularly beautiful--it is the least of earthly favours; no more than that we should be given this day our daily bread." That's it; not fame or fortune, not prosperity or success, not peace or health, but just our daily bread. We have already prayed for His will to be done; what more need we ask about ourselves? "God, You know what I need for this day; I pray that You give me what I need to make it through."

Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors

We have spoken often before about this subject: Forgive me my debts, my trespasses, my sins--and in honor of that forgiveness, I freely forgive others whatever they may have otherwise owed me. But it bears mentioning again: the terrifying caveat that Jesus places after the conclusion of His prayer: "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:14-15). Have you ever heard another Christian say about some perceived injustice, "I just can't forgive that"? My brothers and sisters, this is something that we just cannot do! "Forgive us our sins, just as we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us."

Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one

Jesus knows we all suffer temptation. We don't all suffer the same temptations, but we are all tempted to sin, whatever our particular leaning toward sin might be. And He allows us to pray for help. "Lord, You know where I am weak; please don't lead me toward that temptation today. Please deliver me from the evil one, whether that means the devil with all of his tricks, or the evil one I see staring back at me in the mirror every morning. Please, God of all power, all holiness, deliver me."

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever

And so we return in faith to a declaration of the majesty of God. "Yours is the kingdom, O God; help me to seek and serve that kingdom. Yours is the power, O God--the power to deliver and provide and redeem. Yours is the glory forever, O God. Along with my daily bread, I ask that You would allow me to feed upon this crumb: that I may understand somehow, that I may remember somehow, that Yours is the glory forever. Amen."

So pray. Pray without ceasing, pray about everything. But when you come up against that silent brick wall of your own inability to pray--as most of us do, sooner or later--don't forget that Jesus gave us a model prayer, perfectly adaptable to our present need, perfectly prayable in accordance with the will of God. A brief masterpiece of words; a treasure from the treasure-house of the wisdom of God.