by Pastor Paul Dugan
For centuries, Christians around the world have been using the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) to build a life of prayer. There are so many things that seem to divide believers and churches. This prayer is one thing that unites the whole church, regardless of race, culture, tradition, denomination, or worship style. The whole church is included in the “OUR” of “Our Father...” When you pray this prayer, you are not alone!
The Lord’s Prayer is actually six prayers- “The Lord’s Prayers”:
The Father’s praise: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
The Father’s purpose: Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
The Father’s provision: Give us today our daily bread.
The Father’s pardon and reconciliation: And forgive us our sins, as we also have forgiven those who sin against us.
The Father’s protection: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
The Father’s promise: For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
When we pray these prayers, we are praying the heart of Jesus. His entire ministry is essentially an answer to these six petitions. His life, ministry, suffering, death, and his resurrection have brought the kingdom- on earth, as it is in heaven. And he longs that your life and mine would be a living answer to these prayers. Wherever the Lord’s Prayers are answered, people experience renewal, restoration, and the blessings of life in the kingdom of God.
Jesus did not give the church these prayers as a script to be mindlessly repeated by rote. Rather, they form a trellis. I believe Jesus intended that we take these six petitions and grow a whole life of prayer on them, as a vine grows on the structure of a trellis, or as a jazz musician creates improvisational music on the structure of a chord progression.
Today we focus on the Father’s protection, building on the fifth petition: “Our Father in Heaven,…Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
I invite you to pause right now, get a quiet place, and practice putting this prayer into your own words. For example,
“Father, I am feeling… “ (afraid, angry, discouraged, anxious, weak, alone,…)
“Father, I need strength to stand, in the face of…”
Connecting the Lord’s Prayer and the Psalms: Jesus built his own prayers on the Hebrew psalms, Israel’s ancient book of prayer. The largest category of psalms that seek the Lord’s protection and deliverance (psalms of lament, aka, ‘help!’ psalms). Here are a few (click on each psalm for a guide): Psalm 6; Psalm 10; Psalm 12; Psalm 13; Psalm 17; Psalm 22; Psalm 26; Psalm 29; Psalm 31; Psalm 42; Psalm 43; Psalm 51; Psalm 53; Psalm 60; Psalm 69; Psalm 77; Psalm 79; Psalm 80; Psalm 82; Psalm 88:1-8; Psalm 94; Psalm 117; Psalm 130; Psalm 137; Psalm 141
Here is one of my favorite improvisations on the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayers:
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for by ourselves we are too weak to stand even for a moment. And our sworn enemies - the devil, the world and our own flesh - never stop attacking us. So uphold us and make us strong in your Holy Spirit that we may not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle, but may firmly resist our enemies until you win the final victory.” (*based on the Heidelberg Catechism).
For a guide to praying the sixth petition of the Lord's Prayer click HERE.
For am excellent book on praying the Lord’s Prayer: Fifty-seven Words that Change the World, by Darrell Johnson.