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The “Word from the Word” began as radio devotions. We have posted these short, but helpful articles for use in a devotional way.

The Lord’s Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer; Introduction

I have been interested lately to hear several people mention an interest in prayer in their daily living. This is good if a proper understanding of what prayer is attends this interest. Many see prayer as a kind of wishful affirmation. You visualize something that you really want and then you repeat to yourself, “This (whatever it is) is mine! I claim it—name it and claim it.”  Many have the notion that prayer is this kind of thing.

Still others regard prayer as a means of twisting God’s arm—talking Him into something that He might not otherwise have thought to do, or attempting to change His mind. Then, we think that in order get a hearing, one must be “good.” This means that we have to try to clean up and get “worthy.” Of course, there are others who secure the aid of those deemed more spiritually acceptable to God, particularly the “saints” who have passed on to heaven, to put in a good word for them, since they have immediate access to God. Sadly, these concepts of prayer are unbiblical and pagan.

The Bible teaches that prayer is the means whereby we communicate with God, who rules and governs His creation, because we need Him. Not to pray argues that one is self-sufficient and, thus, has no reason to communicate with God. However, the fact is that we are all completely at His mercy. As Paul said, “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. . . . So that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him . . . for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:24-28). That is what prayer is about. It is feeling after God as those who recognize that they have nothing, being wholly dependent upon Him as Maker and King. John the Baptist reminded his hearers, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven” (John 3:27). Prayer, then, is an expression of dependency.

We know that prayer is not intended to change God’s mind or to inform Him of something He did not know, for Jesus made it clear that “your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). Why, then, should we pray? The answer is simply that God commands us to do so. “In this manner, therefore, pray [an imperative]” (Matthew 6:9). “Pray [an imperative] without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Proper praying is submissive dependency—waiting upon God to fulfill His will in us.

Biblical praying also requires childlike reverence and trust in God as the ground of all our praying. God is designated as a Father to His children, which denotes a loving, accepting, and wise attendance over us as a parent who thoughtfully regards the needs and wants of his children.

Do you pray? Jesus is our great example. “[He] often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed” (Luke 5:16). Real, biblical prayer is a mark of one’s relationship to God. Sadly, many attempt to pray, but they neither know for what to pray or how to pray for it (Romans 8:26) because they do not have the Holy Spirit promised to those who are in Christ. If you do not know Christ as Savior and Lord, then you will not know God as Father; so you cannot really pray. Think about it.

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“Let Your Name Be Holy”

Praying is very difficult for most Christians; therefore, twice (Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:1-4) Jesus gave to the disciples a model prayer to use as a template for their own prayers. This model prayer is made up of seven petitions; two groups of three and four respectively. The first three relate to the cause of God and the last four relate to our own daily concerns. They teach that our primary duty in prayer is to disregard ourselves and to give God the preeminence in all things. We cannot pray aright unless the glory of God is dominant in all our desires. Too many prayers are rather selfish concerns aimed at making our own lives more comfortable.

I would warn you that God may answer a foolish and selfish prayer, but, as He did with Israel, He may give you your request, but send leanness into your soul (Psalm 106:15). Israel’s prayer gave no thought to the glory of God. Thus, we are instructed to cherish a deep sense of the ineffable (indescribable) holiness of God, and all our prayers should reflect a longing for the honoring of His holy name. We must never ask God to bestow anything on us that would contradict His holiness.

This fact is understood in the very first petition: “Hallowed be your name.” Hallowed is an old Middle English word that means “to set apart as being sacred.” It is a desire for God’s matchless name to be reverenced, adored, and glorified. In the Greek, it is a passive imperative—a command to let something be. In other words, we are commanded to let God cause His name to be held in the utmost respect and honor, and that its fame will spread abroad and be magnified.

His name is simply another way of saying God, Himself, or His reputation among men. “They that know your name [that is, your wondrous perfections] will put their trust in you” (Psalm 9:10). The Divine name sets before us all that God has revealed to us concerning Himself as in such names and titles as the Almighty, the Lord of hosts, Jehovah, our Father and any other designation in which He has disclosed Himself to us. “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name” (Psalm 96:8).

The puritan, Thomas Manton, wrote: “In this petition the glory of God is both desired and promised on our part; for every prayer is both an expression of a desire and also an implicit vow or solemn obligation that we take upon ourselves to prosecute [to take action on] what we ask. Prayer is a preaching to ourselves in God’s hearing: we speak to God to warn ourselves, not for His information, but for our edification.” This means that we mock God if we address Him in pious words but have no intention of striving with our might to live in harmony with what His holy name implies.

That this petition is first is seen in the fact that the glorifying of God’s great name is the ultimate end of all things. All other requests must be subordinate to this one and be in pursuance of it. The example of our Lord is seen in His request as He faced the cross: “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify your name” (John 12:27, 28). Our prayers must do the same.

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To continue with the next article in this series, click next.

feature article

You Will Probably Not Consider This

archive articles

Coming to Christ
Dying To Self
The Fear of God
Baptist Odyssey
Does God Love Sinners?
I Believe the Bible
Standing on the Promises
The Love of the Truth
The Voice of Jesus
The Doctrines of Grace
Scripture Proofs To The Doctrines of Grace
Chosen? To What?
Radical Calvinism, a review of Predestined to Heaven? Yes!, by Robert Sumner
A Response to Radical Calvinism
Calvinism and Evangelism
No Creed but the Bible?
Should Christians Celebrate Easter
The Perseverance of the Saints

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2005

Lord’s Prayer (continued)
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