This blog and perhaps one or more to follow is about the Lord’s Prayer. It is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt.6:9-11) and in Luke 11 when the disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’ – and then gave what we now know as the Lord’s Prayer.
When I pray I want to know that I am praying in the will of God? Why? Because He only hears prayers that are prayed in His will. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us (1 John 5:14).
The problem is, we don’t always know we are being heard. This is why John followed up with a huge ‘if’ – ‘if we know that he hears us’. That is a big ‘if’. You may ask: don’t we always know whether we are praying in the will of God? No. Zechariah asked God for a son. He was heard. But he did not know at the time he was heard. He and Elizabeth gave up praying for a son a long time ago. They reasoned that with his age and her apparent barrenness that their prayer was not in God’s will.
They were wrong. It was – after all. After they had given up praying the angel Gabriel appeared to them to say, ‘Your prayer has been heard’ (Luke 1:13). I unfold this in more detail in my book When God Shows Up.
My point is, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer we can know absolutely and utterly that we are praying in the will of God. Why? Because Jesus told us to pray this prayer! Not only that; He wrote it!
I believe in the infallibility of the Bible. But when you have our Lord Jesus Christ giving us a word which He himself created, I would call it being doubly infallible. Jesus’ prayer is verbally inspired – word for word. So if you want to know when you pray that you are praying in God’s will, pray the Lord’s Prayer. It is absolutely God’s prayer for you and me to pray.
When we were at Westminster Chapel we as a congregation prayed the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday morning. I wish every church did. Perhaps they fear being too liturgical. I fear that people don’t even know the Lord’s Prayer! At least they would be pretty forced to learn it if their church prayed it!
It is not the only way to pray. I do not find that it was uttered ever again – except when Jesus gave it. It is not in Acts – or any of the epistles.
But I pray it every day. Louise and I pray it every day.
That said, the Lord’s Prayer mainly is a pattern prayer. If a new Christian wants to learn how to pray, I say: look at the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer. You begin with focusing on God, then come to our own requests. All good praying should begin not by rushing into God’s Presence to demand this or that, but by addressing God and put His requests first.
Read more in my book on this fascinating and important subject. On sale this month.