Praying the “Lord’s Prayer” is a wonderful practice—especially if you pray it slowly and with intention. It was Jesus’s answer to the request, “Teach us to pray.” There is so much truth here that it takes books to plumb the depths.
The first six words have paradigm-shifting power—beginning with, “Our Father.” God’s kingdom is meant for all who will come. This phrase should unite all Christian believers. In the U.S.A., we are individualists, and our tendency would be to pray, “My Father.” There is nothing intrinsically wrong with claiming God has my father because he wants to be both personal and inclusive. However, Jesus used the word, “Our” and that should be instructive regarding unity and love and concern for one another. He also used the word, “Father” and that implies so very much!
The early church knew the meaning of “our.” They gathered daily and weekly to pray, worship, and to “speak to one another in psalms or hymns or spiritual songs.” When they bowed their knees HE was “Our Father” the family’s Father. They needed community for they were heavily opposed because of their faith. Faith in and obedience to Christ juxtaposed them against Rome and Jewish legalism. Faith, because it is God-centered and not man-centered, is very oppositional culturally and politically. We have a different leader. Christ lived a life of resistance to evil and love for mankind, and we should do the same. Of course they killed him for it, but this is OUR struggle, too—to live in obedience to the ONE who unites us by His Spirit together for his kingdom and his will (which is to love and help mankind into his kingdom of truth and love). And we may, as they were, be persecuted for following Christ, but let it NOT be for doing wrong–as Peter warns against.*
The last four words of this phrase, “who art in heaven,” can also shift our perspective. Our Father is in heaven, and he is all powerful and above all things. According to Ephesians 1, Jesus is also there with our Father, raised and “seated with Him far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” (Eph. 1:21) He is heavenly–not bound by earth’s flawed perspectives or the limitations of time or space or any other resource.
Our Father is all-powerful, all knowing, and full of compassion and grace. HE RULES. HE KNOWS. This should give wings to our asking. We are going before a loving, tender, heavenly Father who loves us and who is able to provide our needs, “according to his riches in glory.” He also has the wisdom to know what is good and bad for us. Christ is inviting us to deeper trust in a heavenly Father, not a legalistic tyrant. Growing to trust in that Father’s love and wisdom (and not our own) is as challenging to us as to a child who isn’t granted something deeply desired but unwise. Trust is something I/we must always work toward.
I need to dwell in that six-word phrase for a while—maybe for the greater part of my life, or at least until it rings completely true—“Our Father, who art in heaven.”
What truths might God teach you as you meditate on that tiny phrase? I’d love to hear what you learn. (There’s much more than I covered here.)
*But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. I Peter 3:15-17. (NIV)
An Invitation to Wonder 