The Our Father

The Lord's Prayer,[1] known also as the Our Father or Pater noster,
is probably the best-known prayer in Christianity. On Easter Sunday 2007 it was estimated that 2 billion Protestant, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Christians read, recited, or sang the short prayer in hundreds of languages in houses of worship of all shapes and sizes.[2] Although many theological differences and various modes and manners of worship divide Christians, according to Fuller Seminary professor Clayton Schmit "there is a sense of solidarity in knowing that Christians around the globe are praying together…, and these words always unite us."[2]
The context of the prayer in Matthew is as part of a discourse attacking people who pray simply for the purpose of being seen to pray. Matthew describes Jesus as instructing people to pray after the manner of this prayer. Taking into account the prayer's structure, flow of subject matter and emphases, many interpret the Lord's Prayer as a guideline on how to pray rather than something to be learned and repeated by rote. Some disagree, suggesting that the prayer was intended as a specific prayer to be used. The New Testament reports Jesus and the disciples praying on several occasions; but as it never describes them actually using this prayer, it is uncertain how important it was originally viewed as being.



Our Father, which art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
in earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
But deliver us from evil:
[For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.] Amen

And what do each line say?

“Our Father” It sounds so normal that we can just float over it without thinking about it. But Jesus asks us to call God our father. Which would make us his sons and daughters. He wants us to see ourselves this way and not to doubt this. We are sons and daughters of God. This is our identity. This is the beginning.
And God is our father. He loves us and welcomes us into His family.
We are brother and sisters. We come from the same spiritual father. We should love each other as family.

“who art in Heaven” God is in heaven and we are on earth, so we should let our words be few. We should respect God for the holiness that he is.
“Hallowed be thy Name.” It is not just a statement saying that God’s name is holy it is also a hope and desire that God’s name be made holy. Why is this important? I have had enough conversations with people to realize that God and Christ’s name is anything but perfect and holy in most of the world. We push political agendas, put focus on the wrong things, try to keep people outh

“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in Heaven.”
I have a tendency to separate this line. But it is showing a desire to have God’s kingdom come to Earth. For the will of God to be done here.
How does this change our outlook on how to live here on Earth?
Some people think “why bother with Earth? It is a lost cause. It is all going to be destroyed anyway.” But that is not the way that Jesus asks us to think. That is not the way He thinks. His desire followed by his actions were and are for the kingdom of heaven to come sweeping through earth. Like a little bit of yeast that goes through the whole batch is the kingdom. Jesus planted the seed and now in this day it is growing into a great tree that will cover the whole earth.
Do we recycle? To we care about the Earth that God entrusted us with? I know I fall short in this area way too much. Do we treat the Earth as we would heaven? Would we smog up heaven’s air or throw trash on heaven’s place?

“Give us this day our daily bread.”
I always seem to pray this prayer at night and this line seems kind of silly in it’s current form, so sometimes I will change it to a thank you for giving us our daily bread.
I love how this is not a “give me” prayer. It is a “give us” prayer. It lumps our own needs in with those of all of God’s other children.
It is also the other side of a promise. God promises to take care of us. And we are coming to him to remind ourselves that He provides. And He will continue to do so even when we can’t see how.
And I think it is even a reminder for us to be the giver of the daily bread to those who need it.

“And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us.”
Forgiveness is not a one way street according to this prayer. Part of being forgiven is to forgive. We cannot be hypocritical about this. Jesus says it in another way too when He says that by the same measure we use we will also be measured.
If we forgive other because of Jesus’ blood on the cross, than we are using this as our measure. We are not to be hypocritical about it.
If we want to be forgiven by His blood, then He asks us to forgive through His blood.
If we forgave the way that we wanted to be forgiven what kind of a world would we live in? What about wars? What about the long running hate between different ethnic groups?

“And lead us not into temptation;” We are asking God not to lead us into places where we will be more prone to sin and fall away from Him. If we ask God this than we should not seek out those places ourselves. If we know that we are tempted every time we go to a bar or are alone with a boy/girlfriend, or read certain books, etc… than we should not do them. We may receive a certain level of temptation in lots of situations. Even Jesus was put into temptation in the desert. The temptation itself is not a sin. But we should not seek out temptation.
“But deliver us from evil:”
God is not sitting with his hands tied behind His back. He is not powerless against evil. He delivered Israel many times. He had delivered me. He is like the mailman; He delivers us. He has power. He can and will change things.. when we come to Him.

“[For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.]”
God rocks!!
“Amen”
Believe that!