The Lord's Prayer in graphic detail
What is the Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Prayer is one of the most important prayers in the Bible not only because it was taught by our Lord Jesus Christ but because it is a standard by which Christians can pray to God and measure some aspects of their daily lives.
The Lord’s Prayer reads thus (taken from the Good news Bible):
“Our Father in heaven;
may your holy name be honoured;
may your kingdom come;
may your will be done on earth just as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need.
Forgive us the wrongs we have done as we forgive the wrongs others have done to us.
Do not bring us to the hard testing, but keep us safe from the Evil One”.
What this prayer teaches is how we are to pray to God. This is no ordinary prayer but a recommended way of praying and it follows that if our prayers are to be answered by God they must follow his recommendation.
For instance the prayer starts with the need to honour God with praises. We are to accept that God is God and no other and accord him his due respect and honour. Therefore we are to start our prayer by honouring God.
Further more we are required to wish that His will (not our will or wishes) be done over every other thing. We are not supposed to request for anything if it takes priority over the will of God. Thus prayers such as “may my enemies perish in Jesus Name” aren’t following the prescribed way we should pray to God because He wants us to “pray for those who hate us and bless those who curse us “. Just because Jesus said whatsoever you asked for in my name believing it, you shall receive does not mean we should ask God for anything especially those that run contrary to his will.
Then the part that makes most people pray to God: Request! We can only request for our needs (not selfish desires) after we have honoured our Father and asked for His will to dominate all other things. The will of God is for you to prosper certainly but not for you to prosper at the expense of His will so God wants us to ask for anything that doesn’t run contrary to His will.
Thereafter if we have offended God and want Him to pardon us, we must first make sure that other people who have offended us have been forgiven of their faults. In other words if your heart is full of hate and un-forgiveness towards another person do not ask Him to forgive you because you will only be pardoned if you have pardoned others who have wronged you.
Do not bring us to hard Testing means we should ask God to give us strength to overcome temptation and so not to sin again. While to keep us safe from the evil one means we ask God for his protection.
That is the Lord’s prayer explained as what it is (a guide on how to Pray to God and a code of conduct during prayer)
