We all struggle with aspects of prayer in our lives at times. Sometimes we aren’t sure how to pray or what to pray for. Sometimes we feel guilty that we just don’t pray enough. It seems that we are not alone in the struggle. The disciples saw Jesus praying and asked Him to teach them how to pray ( Luke 11:1). Jesus gave them a model to follow (Luke 11:2-4). It is not that we are to simply say these exact words, but what Jesus taught them can and should guide our prayer life as well.
Father – We need to approach God as a child would approach a loving father. We should talk to Him as His son or daughter and share our needs, wants, hopes, and trust.
Hallowed be your name – God’s name should be holy (set apart) in the lives of His children. He is the head of the family. We aren’t asking for His name to be hallowed. It is whether we submit to it or not! We are asking for His name to be holy in our lives! We are to pray that His name is holy TO US and that we live in a manner that shows His name is hallowed in our lives.
Your Kingdom come – This is not an allusion to the future coming of the church (see Luke 11:20), but rather we are to ask God to reign in our lives. We are to pray for His kingdom to come into our lives. Matthew’s account clarifies what Jesus said by including, “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10). When we pray for His Kingdom to come, we are praying for His will to be done on the earth. More directly – that His will would be done in OUR lives. We spend an awful lot of time building our own kingdoms in our lives. We have to seek His kingdom (Luke 12:31), pray for it to come into our lives, and then allow Him to reign.
Give us this day our daily bread – We need to ask God for what we need. He gives good gifts to those who ask (Luke 11:9-12). Do we trust that in our lives? Do we ask God to provide the things we need? If we do, then why do we worry about them (Luke 12:13-29)? We can trust that if we hallow His name in our lives and subject ourselves to His Kingdom (reign) as a loving father, He will give us what we need. We need to live our lives trusting in that – depending on God rather than ourselves to provide what we truly need (Luke 12:22-30).
Forgive us our sins – We need to ask God to forgive us knowing that He will if we repent (Luke 11:32). We are indebted to the Lord. We were dead in our transgressions and sins, but Jesus made us alive by canceling the “certificate of debt” (our sins) having nailed it to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14). If we will hallow His name in our lives and seek His kingdom – He will forgive us. And because we are forgiven, we should be those that forgive others as well – “For we ourselves also forgive everyone indebted to us” (Luke 11:4). We cannot ask God to forgive us and not be forgiving to others – that does not hallow His name. That is not submitting to His kingdom in our lives.
And lead us not into temptation – the actual wording here would be more “let us not be led into temptation. We aren’t praying that God wouldn’t lead us into temptation as much as we would not be led by anyone (including ourselves) into temptation. Read Luke 11-12 and see all the temptations the people of Jesus’ day had fallen into; dividing God’s house (11:17), refusing to repent at the preaching of the kingdom (11:27-28), making it about themselves rather than God (11:43). Just to name a few. We should pray that we will not fall prey to the same temptations that have ensnared so many in the world.
So what is the point: We need to pray that we would hallow God’s name in our lives – that His name would reign above all names in our lives. WE need to ask Him to bring His Kingdom to us as humble subjects willing to seek His reign and rule in our lives. If we will do that – we can ask Him for the things we need and trust He will provide them. He will meet our physical needs (daily bread) as well as our spiritual needs (forgiveness and protection from temptation). If we put this model prayer into practice in our lives, our prayer life can be transformed, but more importantly, our lives can be transformed as well.
Michael Hite