In the Gospel, when you look at Matthew, you see
that the Lord’s Prayer tends to embrace seven petitions. Of these seven, three
ask for external blessings from our God, and the other four ask for a temporal
blessing. However, the latter- referring to the petitions asking for temporal
blessings – is a necessary antecedent for us to attain the external blessings.
For most of us, we recite the ‘Our Father’ prayer every day, however, we may
not be able to explain its meaning and how it reflects in our day-to-day life
and in our external life or life after death.
We need to understand the ‘Our Father’ prayer so
that we can really speak to our Lord in a manner that is respectable and relate
with Him in a manner that signifies a relationship of a “father and son.”
When you know about the Lord’s Prayer, you can be
able to tell people more about it and how God wants us to pray. The Lord’s
Prayer typically consists of two sections or parts. There is the introduction
part and then the petitions, which are seven. Here we look at the introduction
as well as the petitions and what they mean.
Introduction:
“Our
Father in Heaven”
When
the disciples ask Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray,” He gives them the Lord’s
Pray, the Our Father. It is the prayer of hope. The Lord wants us to learn how
to pray, to learn how to present ourselves to Him through prayer.
The
Lord’s Prayer shows that the prayer we need to pray to our Father has been
given and taught to us – the Lord Jesus has already done that.
The
number “7” donating the
seven petitions connotes completion, it suggests perfection in Scripture. And
you can see, the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:1-4) is
a complete, yet perfect summary representing the divine teachings. With the
Lord’s Prayer, it opens with enough address to Our Father in Heaven. The opening
address to our Lord reaffirms our belief that God is indeed our celestial
Father – He is with us in spirit, and also above us in Heaven.
The
opening address of the Lord’s Prayer also unites all Christians into one
community worldwide – a unified community of worshippers. When we pray, we
refer to our Father as “our” and not “my” which would individualize us.
The 7 Petitions:
1. “Hallowed Be Your Name”
Here,
the term “to hallow” is taken to mean “to recognize as holy” – it means to
treat or take something in a holy way.
“Our Father in heaven, we recognize your name as holy” – this is how
probably we would literary translate that part.
When
you look at St. Gregory of Nyssa, he said, "of all good things the most
important for me is that God's name should be glorified in my life." St.
Gregory was a church father within Cappadocia in Asia Minor and he wrote these
words around 380 AD. When we say, “hallowed be Your Name” is means we truly follow
our Father – it means we respect our Father in our hearts.
In
this first petition, we try to enter into what God plans for us as well as our
salvation. Our life and prayer show the blessings of God’s name in this world
as well as our own salvation.
So, God’s
name is holy, it’s sanctified. Look at (1 Samuel
2:2), it says, “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our
God.”
Here we
can see that God is the embodiment of sanctity. Christians understand that our
Father, the Lord should be praised above all else. In Lord’s Prayer, we as
Christians pray that the world shall recognize God’s name as the holy name –
the world shall recognize God as a true God of all – He is the Creator and also
the Ruler of the universe.
2.
“May Your Kingdom Come”
In this petition, we can say
that it’s two-fold, it presents two meanings. First, when we pray, “May Your
Kingdom come”, we are asking God to make His Kingdom take form on earth, that’s
- here and now. This means that we pray
so that we live in a world of hope, faith, and love. You can read, (1
Corinthians 13:13), it says, “And now these three remain: faith, hope,
and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
The other meaning we derive
from this second petition is that we pray God to fulfill His promise – that’s
new heaven as well as a new earth. When this promise comes true, the faithful
are going to live with the Lord in His external Kingdom. We will live as in the
Holy City where there is no pain, no crying, and no death.
3.
“May Your Will Be Done on Earth, as It Is In Heaven”
The will
of the Lord is that we should praise Him and also love one another. God reigns
from Heaven – He rules with compassion, He rules with justice. Read (Isaiah
30:18), it says, “Yet the Lord
longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.”
Jesus
tells us that we love God with all our heart, soul, as well as mind. He also
says that we love our neighbor as ourselves. When we pray this third petition,
we show our selfless surrender to God’s will. We humbly ask God to provide us
with the strength so that we are able to follow His will and not our will. We
ask Him to strengthen us that so we live in a life where we glorify Him and
show compassion as well as justice to others.
4. “Give Us today
The Food we Need”
When we pray, “Give us This
Day our Daily Bread” we are asking God to give us spiritual sustenance. You
know that good food nourishes your body, therefore Good News as the Bible
teaches us, nourishes the soul. In the Bible (Deuteronomy
8:3), we are instructed, “… man does not live on bread
alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Here, we pray that God gives
us the courage, the fortitude, the strength to go out and spread His Message.
We do this not only through our words but also through actions.
5.
“Forgive Us Our Sins, as We Have Forgiven Those Who
Sin Against Us”
In this petition, it may be
the most difficult to pray and follow. Here, there is a lot of wisdom. When you
ask for forgiveness, which reflects on how you forgive others, it leads you to
patience and grace rather than being transformative.
If you find that forgiving
someone is proving difficult, - and this happens to most us – we should know
that the Bible teaches us that a good time when we can extend forgiveness is
when we are praying. This is the time when our minds, as well as hearts, are
together with God. See (Mark
11:25) – it says, “And when you stand
praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father
in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
If we
choose to replace our resentment with forgiveness, it reflects God’s love and
mercy within our actions. This way, we are able to walk confidently toward our
God.
6.
“And Don’t Let Us Yield to Temptation”
Did
you know that temptation can cause you to sin and lead you away from God?
Our
Lord doesn’t lead us toward sinning; we sin on our own since God our Creator
gave us free will. However, because our God is faithful, he promises to give us
a way out of temptations we may face. You can read this in (1
Corinthians 10:13). It
says, “And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted
beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way
out so that you can endure it.”
So, here we acknowledge that
the free will that God has given us brings our weaknesses. So that we can be
able to overcome the weakness arising from the free will granted by the Lord,
we pray Him to extend His guidance over us and give us the discernment that can
help us stay away from temptation and sin.
7.
“But Rescue Us from the Evil One”
With
this petition, it shows the many times we tend to fall prey to sin and
temptation. When we are in entanglement, if we constantly seek God, He is going
to answer us and get us away from our fears.
Here
we ask God to reach down to us and liberate us from the grip of evil during
those times when we are caught up in sin.
In essence, the Lord’s Pray
isn’t just handy guidance to help us on what to pray, it’s a moral compass that
helps reveal the good ways to go before our Father in asking for His guidance
as well as protection. It focuses on making us remain good and faithful
servants; we accept His will, we revere Him, we know His Word, and we love each
other by forgiving those who wrong us, and lastly we resist evil.
No comments:
Post a Comment