Catechism Series: Lord's Prayer
Large & Small Catechisms:
Lord’s Prayer
In
the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The
Ten Commandments teach God’s Law. The Apostles’ Creed teaches the Gospel. And
so, the Lord’s Prayer teaches Holy Living. Law, Gospel, Holy Living – this is
the basic rhythm and pattern of the Christian life. We are convicted of sin, we
receive the forgiveness of Christ, and with the help of the Holy Spirit we try
to live a holy life. Then we sin, and the pattern starts over.
None of us keep the Ten Commandments
perfectly. Yet we know from the Creed that our God is our Helper, our Savior,
and our Father. So those two things urge us to pray to this God. Really, the
chief way the holy life of the Christian must be put into practice is in
prayer. We must pray that He would give, preserve, and increase faith in us,
and also help us to keep His Commandments. We must pray that He would remove
every obstacle in our way that opposes us in this holy life. And so, because
prayer is so necessary for the Christian life, our Lord Jesus Himself has
taught us how to pray and even given us the words to use.
But first, before we just jump in and start
praying the Lord’s Prayer (or any prayer), we need to know two things about
prayer: First, God has commanded us to pray. This is covered in the Second
Commandment: You shall not misuse the
name of the Lord your God. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so
that we do not curse, swear, use Satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name, but
call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. God has given
us His name. Of course, He forbids us from misusing it. But He also expects
that we actually use it the right way. People get into the habit of not praying
for all different reasons. “Who knows whether God will hear my prayer?” “Does God
really want to hear from me?” “If I don’t pray, somebody else will.” We should
banish these thoughts from our minds. God requires us to pray to Him. He did
not leave up to our choice. And know this: not praying is being disobedient to
God, and so God is right to be angry and punish all people who do not pray to Him,
just as He is right to do so for any other disobedience. But by calling on
God’s name you are keeping His command. You are honoring His name and using it
well and so God is pleased with that.
If for no other reason, you should pray to
Him because you know God has commanded you to do so. And He does not consider
prayer because of who the person is, how spiritual or nice or holy they are. He
hears prayers because they are based on the command He has given us in His
Word. He will never allow our prayers to be in vain or go unheard. If He did
not intend to hear your prayer, He would’ve never commanded it.
The second thing we should know about prayer
is that God has attached a promise to it. Whenever you’re trying to figure out
what you should do, you should always start by finding out, what is God’s
command and what is His promise. The same is true for prayer. So we should not
only pray because we’re commanded to, but we should be eager and grateful to
pray because our God has given us wonderful promises concerning our prayer:
Psalm 50(:15), “Call upon me in the day of
trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
Matthew 7(:7–11), “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will
find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For
everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who
knocks it will be opened. Or which
one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a
serpent? If you then, who are
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
John 16(:23–24) “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever
you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my
name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
Now whoever does not believe these
promises from God will not be heard by Him. To not believe God’s promise is to
call God a liar. So, if we do not pray with trust in His promises we will
dishonor God and anger Him in this way as well. But here’s how we should
approach God in prayer: just like a little child who knows and loves his
father, and knows that his father loves him. “Here I come, dear Father, and
pray, not because I have my own purposes, and not because I am worthy. But I
pray because of Your commandment and promise, which can never fail or deceive
me.”
Now, as for the Lord’s Prayer in
particular, there is no better prayer to be found on earth. We should pray it
daily, we should pray it in times of need and in times of thanksgiving, we
should pray it when we don’t know what else to pray. At the beginning of Matins
and Vespers we pray the words of Psalm 51(:15), O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare
your praise. And that is exactly what He
does in the Lord’s Prayer. He arranges the
words for us. He opens our lips and puts His
words on our tongue, so we may learn from Him how to pray aright.
The Lord’s Prayer also
teaches us what our greatest needs are.
The things we should be concerned about the most are
laid out for us in the Lord’s Prayer so we don’t neglect them. It teaches and reminds us what we should really be praying
for. So, we’re not only praying for things
that we like or things we think we need, but by praying the Lord’s Prayer we’re
also praying for the things God wants us to pray about. Let’s face it, most of our prayers probably fall under the
Fourth Petition: Give us this day our
daily bread. We’re concerned about money
and food, family, health, government, mostly earthly stuff. And we should pray for all those things. But maybe the Lord’s Prayer puts first things first.
Perhaps God arranged this prayer in this way so that
first we would pray for heavenly things, things that selfish, sinful humans
neglect: God’s holy name, His kingdom, His good and gracious will.
Finally, we can also take
comfort in praying this prayer because it covers everything. Any prayer you can
think of is already included in one or more of its seven petitions. In fact,
that’s your challenge for the rest of the week: Pray the Lord’s Prayer and as
you do it think, is there anything I could ask for that the Lord has not
included in this prayer? Then let me know what you think.
Now we’ll go through the
parts briefly. The Introduction: Our
Father who art in heaven. We can boldly and confidently address God as our
true Father because we are His true children. We have been adopted into His
family through His true Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
The First Petition: Hallowed be Thy name. First, we pray
that God’s name would be holy. Of course, we know His name is always holy, but
we’re praying that we would keep it holy. Simply put, we’re praying that we
would preserve God’s good reputation. As God’s children who bear His name, we
dishonor God when we teach lies about Him or live sinful, unrepentant lives. But
we bring honor and glory to God when we purely teach His Word and live holy
lives according to it.
The Second Petition: Thy kingdom come. We know God’s kingdom
comes to earth now and is going to come on the Last Day, whether we like it or
not. But we’re praying that His
kingdom would come to us, for us, and make us a part of it. We’re asking that God would send His Holy Spirit to us so that we
may believe and follow Him. We’re
asking to be gathered into His kingdom here on earth in the Church, and be
gathered into His kingdom one day in heaven.
The Third Petition: Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. Again, we know God’s will is always done, even when we’re not
praying for it. We’re asking that
God’s will would be done for us, for our good, and that we would also work to
do His will. God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders
every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature. These
enemies of God do not want us to keep God’s name holy or let His kingdom come. So we pray that God would fight against
them and stop their evil wills. We
pray that God would keep us firm in faith, trusting His Word, all lifelong
until we die.
The Fourth Petition: Give us this day our daily bread. Daily
bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the
body. And once more, we know that God gives daily bread to everyone, even
to those who don’t pray for it, even to those who don’t believe in Him. But we pray for it because it shows
that we know where our bread comes from. We
need to remember that everything we have in this life comes as a gift from God. And we need to thank Him for it.
The Fifth Petition: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
those who trespass against us. Without the forgiveness of sins we could
never hope to come before God or be heard by Him. Without the forgiveness of sins God would answer our prayers with
hell. So, we repent, we confess our
sins, and we trust in the forgiveness won for us by the Father’s Son, Jesus
Christ. And if God loves us and
forgives us, who have so terribly wronged Him, so also we must love others and
forgive those who have sinned against us.
If we refuse God’s gift of forgiveness to others, then we cannot have
forgiveness for ourselves. So, let this petition also be a prayer for help,
that we would learn to love our enemies, forgive those who have wronged us, and
not hold onto any bitterness.
The Sixth Petition: And lead us not into temptation. God
does not tempt us to sin. He is our fortress and shield against the attacks of
the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature. So, we must constantly call on
Him for help and rescue so that we do not give into temptation. Whenever we
sense that sin is lurking nearby, we should run to God and ask for strength to
resist. We pray that we would stand firm and share in the final victory of
Christ.
The Seventh Petition: But deliver us from evil. This last
petition really sums up all the others. We’re praying against our chief enemy,
the Devil. He is the one who tries to stop everything we pray for: God’s name
or honor, God’s kingdom and will, our daily bread, and a good and clean
conscience unstained by sin and doubt. One of the best things we can do on
earth is pray against this enemy, because if God did not constantly guard and
deliver us, we would never be safe. So, we also pray that God would give us
that final deliverance. When our last
hour comes, we ask Him to give us a
blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in
heaven.
Finally, we must learn to
say “Amen” to all this. “Amen” means “This is true. I believe. Yes, yes, it shall be so.” We should not
doubt that our prayer is heard and that what we pray will be done. If we do not
believe, then we cannot truly pray. James 1(:6–7) says, “Ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is
like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not
suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.” So “Amen” is nothing less
than the word of undoubting faith, faith which does not pray on a dare or as a
gamble, but faith which knows that God does not lie. He has commanded us to
pray and He has promised to answer us.
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
