Disciples pray. What should we pray for? How would we know?
What is prayer? Why do we pray?[i] The Lord’s Prayer is often taught as a guide for prayer and used as a pattern of how to pray.[ii] We have the Lord’s Prayer not only as a guide for how to pray but as the teaching of what to pray. Our purpose and goal as disciples should serving Christ and our prayers should be that we are faithful. How do we know what we ought to be doing, what we ought to be praying and working for? Jesus teaches us in the Lord’s Prayer.
Our Father
Praying to our Father immediately affirms that we are part of the family, the church, that includes the victims of the evil attack. We are to come boldly to the Father who is the ultimate ruler of all through Jesus the Christ. We can pray to the one in charge, the one who can answer, the one who has promised us answers to our calling on Him. We pray not just to my Father but our Father. As Christians, we are all His children, so we are able and ought to pray for one another.[iii]
The prayer locates us as children of our Father. We are commanded to pray. It has been taught by all Christians alongside the Ten Commandments and the Apostles’ Creed as the foundational understanding of what it means to be Christian.[iv]
Who is in Heaven
Where is heaven? What is heaven? The ordinary way heaven is used in the Scriptures is in contrast to the earth. Earth is beneath our feet and heaven is everything above the earth, our heads are in heaven. But heaven is used in Scripture both for everything not on the earth but a real place in the in the here and now, but also for somewhere else where God is located. But God is everywhere and always. God is transcendent, outside of space, He is being itself. He is independent of time, eternal. He is also immanent, here with us. When we pray to God our Father in heaven, we are knowing that He is with us always and everywhere and that He is beyond here and now. This is a great comfort because God is always with us and always in charge knowing what we need, what comes next and how everything will work out for our good.[v]
We do not pray to God who is in heaven to get His attention because He is busy and we need to tell Him we are here. We pray to God who is already beside us and waiting to hear us and answer our prayers. We are praying to the God whop has always known we would pray now and has already answered it in the future.
Hallowed be Thy Name
We are called Christians. We are called that because as believers we have been baptized and given the Name; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As Christians we are to honor God and this means we are to act with integrity. When we pray that God’s name would be hallowed, honored, we are to love God and our neighbor that He has commanded us. While we also want Him to act in the world to convert and change culture that all would honor Him, we are volunteering to honor Him when we pray this. Our failures and sins profane the name. Our service and love, honor the name.[vi]
We know that Christians suffer and die for the faith. Our prayers need to grapple with the reality of pain and suffering. Those who suffer and die for their faith give the ultimate honor to God. We have been called and commanded to pray for one another, so we are realizing this petition in our lives and advancing God’s kingdom on earth. We know that suffering is in fact an honor, to be considered worthy of suffering for Christ.[vii]
As those disciples who are called Christians, we are commanded not to take this name in vain. This command is directed at requiring that we who are called by His name act with integrity. We hallow the name when we Love God and our neighbor.
Thy Kingdom Come
The core of our Christian reality is Jesus, the Christ who is building His Kingdom with and through us. It is the good news, the gospel. The forgiveness of our sins, promise of eternal life is part of the gospel but the goal is Christ and His Kingdom. Like honoring the Name includes both our responsibility and God’s work in history and the world, the Kingdom is both the promise of His victory and the purpose of our lives. We are to seek first the Kingdom of God. This is the gospel.[viii]
We should grieve at the suffering and killing that is so common today. We know that God is at work, but our pain and suffering is real. Suffering is an essential part of our faith. It is a modern fallacy that if disciples just have the right faith and prayer, suffering can be eliminated. Those who suffer for the Kingdom are called blessed.[ix]
Thy Will Be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven
This echoes Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane asking that the cup be taken away but “not my will but thy will…” When we use this language, we are submitting top serving God in suffering and even death. We volunteer for the job of being a faithful disciple. This also echoes back to God who is in heaven using us on earth to realize the Kingdom through our faithful service.
In response to praying for the realization of the Kingdom of God, we pray for God’s will to be done. This prayer is a primary teaching on what God’s will is for our lives. Disciples praying Thy will be done are submitting to God in our most challenging and painful life challenges. Those who suffer and die for the faith, realize God’s will for their life fulfilling this commitment.
Give us this day our daily bread
Our Father has given us our identity when we are baptized with His name, our purpose to realize His Kingdom in all of our life, and our mission to fulfil His will on earth as in heaven. In this request, we realize and ask for His provision for our needs so that we are able to do these things. Praying for bread is asking for all the ordinary things we need to live and faithfully serve God and our neighbor in love. The request is for us for our bread. It supports our prayer for others who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We should include our thanks for all that God has already provided for all our needs.[x]
This petition is more and reminds us that we do not live by bread alone but need every word that comes from God to direct our lives. What we need most of all is the living Word who is the bread of life. The one who said this is my body given for you. This petition does ask God to provide for our needs but also points us to Christ.[xi] Christ is the Bread of life.
Disciples who pray this are thanking God for His generous provision and more, committing to Love God and neighbor in Service the Jesus the Christ who is our King. He reminds us of this when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
Forgive Us our Sins
We fail in ways, well beyond moral lapses. The words used for sin are about our failures. Sin includes all our moral failures and our breaking the commandments. Jesus is the Christ, our King and He commands us to love one another, to serve in love. We fail to advance His Kingdom, fail to live with integrity, fail in all sorts of ways beyond personal moral failures. We need Christ as our only hope. Forgiveness is essential to our lives as His disciples. As those who are forgiven, we have hope.
If we examine our lives in the context of the recent tragic evil acts, what is our role and responsibility. What can we do? It is a difficult time in our world because we are aware that the evil acts of many are compounded by problems of mental health and a lack of a community willing to step in and care for people that are unable to care for themselves. Especially when they are a danger to others as well as to themselves. This is not only our personal challenge but should be a challenge to us as a church, as a community charged with the responsibility to love these troubled souls. Institutional efforts can help but these lost souls need a community that loves them enough to intervene and care for them. This must include restraining them. Like our bread in the last petition, our sins means that we need to work together to love these souls.
As We Forgive our Debtors
The language of forgiveness is not forgetting or restoration of innocence. It is the relinquishing of a debt owed. Forgiveness is not forgetting the debt, it is forgiving the need to pay what is owed. [xii]
For the evil and suffering today, forgiveness would include not expecting that the perpetrator will fix what he destroyed. It does not mean that we are to fail to seek justice which would include consequences for the evil deeds. This would include the full weight of our criminal laws and penalties.
It does mean that we would love our enemy and pray that he would come to faith. It means that we would treat him humanely. We should be praying for the care and comfort of the victims and their families, justice for the perpetrator and a path forward for us to love troubled people in mental distress that constrains them from these evil acts.
Lead us not into Testing
Temptation implies moral vulnerability. The text includes that but is broader and includes any form of testing. We are not only praying not to sin but to not have a flat tire or be unable to find parking. Testing includes all of the challenges we meet. It is an inevitable and regular part of the Christian life.[xiii]
Faith in Christ means faithfulness in times of testing and suffering. But this prayer, like asking for daily bread and deliverance from evil, encourages us to ask for freedom from testing. This echoes Jesus in the Garden asking if the cup can be removed but like our prayer, submitting to God’s will.
Deliver us from Evil
Evil is characterized by murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness, coveting, deceit, envy, pride, slanders that come from our hearts. This petition does ask that we are protected from evil in the world and in particular evil ones. It includes though the request of deliverance from the evil that comes from our own heart.[xiv]
While we recognize the challenge of mental illness, we also recognize the reality of evil in the world. We pray to be protected and delivered from evil ones as well as from the evil that springs out of our own heart. We have prayed for forgiveness and to grant forgiveness and now ask to be led away from trials and delivered from evil.
[i] The Lord’s Prayer is used in all the Catechisms along with the Ten Commandments and Apostles Creed as the basic truths that are Christianity. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Lk 11:1-13. Jesus includes this in his primary teaching I n the Sermon on the Mount, Mt 6:5-14. This disciples’ prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer. It is fundamental to our Christian faith used by all in worship and teaching.
[ii] Adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication are seen as the elements of prayer. Prayer is seen in the ACTS model as a way to be effective in prayer. Much of the teaching implies that if we pray better, God will give us what we ask. It often seems that we are trying to get God’s attention and persuade Him to act or to change His mind. How we pray, is it to gain a holy reputation Mt 6:5-8, do we have enough faith Lk 17:1-10,James 1:5-8, are we locating our request in God’s will 1 Jn 5:13-20, are we asking selfishly for our own interests James 4:1-10, and do we ask in Jesus’ name to have God answer, Jn 14:8-15, 16:22-24. The Prayer is more important than that, it is not only a guide of how we should pray, it is what we are to pray. Prayer is not to get what we want but to want what God wills.
[iii] In Christ who is our priest, we can come to the Father in prayer, Heb 4:14-16. It is a mark of His great love that marks us as His children. 1 Jn 3:1-3. We are to pray for one another, James 5:13-18.
[iv] We are commanded to pray 1 Thess 5:16-18
[v] Heaven is where God is located while He is also everywhere Dt 26:15, Psm 139:7-12
[vi] Prayer is calling on the Name Ge 4:26, we are not to take the Name in vain Ex 20:7
[vii] Suffering for Christ was not seen as a burden but an honor, Acts 5:40-42, Col 1:24, Heb 10:32-39, 1 Pet 4:12-19.
[viii] After giving the Lord’s Prayer in Mt 6:9-34, Jesus cautions against serving wealth, worry and commands us to seek first the Kingdom. His core message of the gospel given in His initial declarations is to repent and believe for the Kingdom is at hand Mk 1:14-15.
[ix] We are to be comforted, knowing that it is a privilege to suffer for the kingdom, Mt 5:10-12. Our suffering is small compared to the reward 2 Cor 4:7-18, Rom 8:18-21, Rev 14:13-14
[x] Jesus at the conclusion of the prayer assures us that God knows our needs and will provide. He directs us the seek first the Kingdom, Mt 6:19-34
[xi] Bread in Matthew begins with the testing, Mt 4:3, and ends with this is my body, Mt 26:26.
[xii] Forgiveness is framed in the language of debt and repayment, Mt 18:15-35, Lk 7:36-49
[xiii] Trials and testing are an expected and persistent fact of the Christian’s life, James 1:2-18, Ro 5:1-5
[xiv] Evil comes from the heart, Mk 7:14-23, Mt 15:1-20