THE POWER OF THE LORD’S PRAYER

Matthew 6:9-13
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 forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

I love the simplicity and the power of the Lord’s Prayer. This prayer is a great model to keep us focused as we seek the Lord daily in our personal alone time with Him. He starts with the shocking revelation that God is our Father. No one ever prayed like this before Jesus. In this simple opening phrase He draws us in to the very essence of prayer, intimacy with God. He then proceeds to worship – Hallowed be your Name. Starting our day worshipping the wonderful name of the Lord and His only begotten Son centers our lives. Everything flows out of this relationship; worship is the very breath of our lives. Next He teaches us to surrender to the will of God, let your kingdom come and your will be done. From there we are taught to ask Him for our provision, forgive us for our sin, bring guidance into our lives and keep us from temptation. Here is how Andrew Murray describes this prayer.

“Hallowed be thy name. There is something here that strikes us at once. While we ordinarily first bring our own needs to God in prayer and then think of what belongs to God and His interests, the Master reverses the order. First, Thy name, Thy kingdom, Thy will; then, give us, forgive us, lead us, deliver us. The lesson is of more importance than we think. In true worship the Father must be first; He must be all. The sooner I learn to forget myself in the desire that He may be glorified, the richer the blessing will be that prayer will bring to me. No one ever loses by what he sacrifices for the Father.”

This pretty much sums it up, focusing on God first in our prayer will certainly put us in a better place to hear and to receive from the Lord. Jesus ends this prayer like it started – Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. We finish our time with the Lord the way it began, worshipping our Father in heaven.