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 we pray this prayer, we 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 artist creates improvisational music on the structure of a chord progression.
Today we focus on the Father’s pardon, building on this fourth petition: Our Father in heaven, …forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us.
I invite you to pause right now, find a quiet place, and practice putting this prayer into your own words. For example,
“Father, forgive me for...”
“I release my resentments towards…”
Connecting the Lord’s Prayer and the Psalms: Jesus built his own prayers on the Hebrew psalms, Israel’s ancient book of prayer. The Psalms include many songs of confession. Here are a few (click on psalm for a link to a guide): Psalm 51; Psalm 6; Psalm 15; Psalm 32; Psalm 130; Other psalms of pardon and reconciliation: 25, 38, 133.
Here is one of my favorite improvisations on the forth petition of the Lord’s Prayers:
“Most merciful God, we confess we have sinned against you in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ have mercy on us and forgive us, that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your name.” (based on the Book of Common Prayer).
For a guide to praying the fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer click HERE.
For an excellent book on praying the Lord’s Prayer: Fifty-seven Words that Change the World, by Darrell Johnson.