The Lord’s Prayer contains six (perhaps seven) petitions, the first three are God’s prayer list, the last three (or four) would be our prayer list.
God puts his own prayer list first – for our benefit. We should never rush into God’s presence with our demands but rather realize we are approaching the Most Holy God, and should do so (as it were) on bended knee.
Some say the Lord’s Prayer should not be prayed because it does not end ‘In Jesus’ Name’. Wrong. The moment we say, ‘Our Father’, we instantly are praying in Jesus’ Name because we could not call God our Father apart from Jesus being our Saviour, Lord and Elder Brother. Jesus is the only ‘natural’ born Son of God. You and I are adopted sons and daughters of God. This is what gives us the right to call God ‘our Father’ – a prayer therefore that presupposes the Name of Jesus.
God is in Heaven, we are on earth. We should let our words be ‘few’ (Eccl.5:2). The Lord’s Prayer touches on the transcendence of God (He is in Heaven) but also God’s immanence (‘Your kingdom come’). As I try to show in my own book The Lord’s Prayer, the Word and Spirit coming together are implied.
The words ‘Hallowed’ be Your Name is not merely an acknowledgement of the holiness of God; it is a prayer that God’s Name will be sanctified all over the earth. The Beattles once boasted that they were ‘more popular than Jesus’. They were probably right, sadly. But the Lord’s Prayer is a plea that God will be famous in the world He created.
When Jesus gave us the petition ‘Thy kingdom come’, there is no doubt that the disciples took those words to refer to an earthly kingdom. They could not conceive of a reign of a king except in material terms – as if the kingdom would be like the ‘glory days’ of Israel when David and Solomon reigned. It was not until Pentecost that the disciples grasped the kingdom as being something spiritual – namely, the rule of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore when you and I pray the Lord’s Prayer and come across the words ‘Thy kingdom come’, we must mean the rule of the Holy Spirit in us. Or as I put it in my book, the rule of the ungrieved Holy Spirit in us. And yet the petition ‘Thy kingdom come’ is a prayer for revival. There is more: it is a prayer for the Second Coming!
Therefore when you pray the Lord’ Prayer – praying, ‘Thy kingdom come’, you are praying for intimacy with God, the demonstration of the power of God in the world and for the final coming of Christ on the Last Day.
‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’ is an acknowledgement that God’s will is being done perfectly in Heaven. There is no rebellion in Heaven. Therefore when we pray that God’s will to be carried out on earth as it is in Heaven we are praying we will be just as submissive to God’s will as the angels and sainted dead are. Some believe this is a prayer for people to be healed since there is no sickness in heaven. In other words, if there is no sickness in Heaven, there should no sickness on earth. I don’t agree with this interpretation. Jesus only meant that we should be as obedient to God on earth as they are in Heaven. I certainly do pray for just that!
Read more in my book on this fascinating and important subject. On sale this month.