[MUSIC PLAYING] Hi. I was asked a question. What is the Lord’s Prayer, and is it valid for us to pray it today in the 21st century? My name is Peola Hicks, the manager of OurPrayer. And I want to talk to you about the Lord’s Prayer and how it is still valid for this day and age.
The Lord’s Prayer as we know it is actually a model prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. It’s recorded in Matthew 6 and also in Luke 11. The version in Luke is quite interesting, in that it was prompted by the disciples who noticed Jesus praying. And when he finished, one of them said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
Not much has changed. It acts like a GPS to guide us to the starting line of prayer by acknowledging God first and foremost as the focus of our prayer and then making our requests known. It is a model of prayer that establishes the priority and object of prayer.
There are times that all of us, I’m sure, have started our prayers with ourselves first as the main focus. But this keeps us entrenched in our own limitations, whereas the model that Jesus taught helps us to first get a glimpse of how big God is and well-equipped to handle our concerns, for he has unlimited power, and that is what makes the difference in prayer. It is not just a prayer for us to recite in church on Sundays.
So let’s see how we can use this model to jump start our prayer lives. First, we can begin with praise and thanking God for who he is, “our father in heaven,” proclaiming that his name is holy. A grateful and thankful heart is appropriate any time. Then, we can acknowledge that God’s way of doing things is best and that his way will influence our actions on Earth, “your kingdom come, your will be done.”
This is also the time that we can pray God’s will and purpose for our family and ourselves, our churches, and our nation. Maybe praying for one of these specific areas could be our focus one day a week. “Give us this day our daily bread.” We can be specific about our physical and spiritual needs for the day. Asking God to supply all of our needs on a daily basis helps us to rely on him as our source.
Now, we can turn our attention to our own needs. We can ask God to help us to forgive others as he has also forgiven us. You see, we must recognize that we want God to be merciful to us, and God wants us to be merciful to others.
Ask God to give you his heart to forgive others. Remember that God wants us to love as he loves and to release others as he has done so graciously for each one of us. We must then ask God to keep us from yielding to anything that would draw our affections away from him.
“Deliver us from evil.” As we recognize that there is the opportunity to be influenced by evil, we ask God to deliver us from its power to affect and overtake us. To stay encouraged, it is most helpful to end our prayer, once again returning to the fact that the kingdom of God belongs to God. Thank God. We are his children.
I invite you to follow this model in your daily prayers, and soon, you will enjoy sweet fellowship with the Lord. We love lifting up your prayer unto the Lord. If you have a need today, submit it to us, and we will go to our heavenly father in prayer on your behalf. God bless you as you trust him on a daily basis and offer your prayers to him.
