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This is a first in a series of meditations on the Lord's Prayer. The text is the Gospel of Matthew 6.9-13 version of the Prayer. I have taught lessons on the Prayer in several churches and have preached a sermon series on it. I have found it to speak much to persons' spiritual longings. I hope the meditation will inspire and encourage you, too. I may not do a meditation daily on the Prayer, so, keep coming back to know when the upcoming meditation appears.
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We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties.
*Oswald T. Chambers
Prayer may not change things for you, but it for sure changes you for things.
*Samuel M. Shoemaker
Never give up praying. And when you pray, keep alert and be thankful.
*St. Paul, Colossians 4.2, CEV
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9You should pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
help us to honor
your name.
*Matthew 6.9, CEV
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George Adam Smith was a Scottish Bible scholar of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He climbed Switzerland's Weisshorn mountain on a stormy day. Smith and his two guides climbed up the sheltered side of the mountain. When they reached the top, Smith stood at the top and was almost blown away by the wind. One of the guides pulled him down, exclaiming, "On your knees, sir! You are safe only on your knees."
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Matthew 6 and Luke 11 have two, slightly different, versions of what most persons call the Lord's Prayer. Other names for the Prayer are the Our Father, the Pater Noster (Latin, Our Father), the Model Prayer, and the Disciple's Prayer.
In Matthew the Prayer is part of the Sermon on the Mount. The Prayer, therefore, is within an over-all presentation of the life we are to seek to live as Jesus Christ's followers. The Prayer can only be appreciated, consequently, in what we could call the Way of Christ. The Prayer is for disciples, or students, of Jesus Christ.
The prelude of the Prayer informs us of how we are to pray. The text reads: "You should pray like this." The Prayer is a model prayer, or a guide to the spirit and practice of prayer. The Scripture assumes Christians will be persons dedicated to the habit of prayer. To say "Christian" is to say "committed to prayer." The duty and privilege assumed is Christ-centered prayer.
"Our Father" presents us with a vital truth about the context of Christian prayer. In the first four chapters of Matthew, there is no mention of God's fatherhood. In the Sermon on the Mount, covering only a few chapters, Jesus refers to God's fatherhood seventeen times. The sense of being a child of God is central to the life of Christ and His followers.
Scott Hahn, in Understanding "Our Father", writes of the importance of God's fatherhood in the Sermon on the Mount:
Fatherhood is just the beginning; family is the context. All of that is quite familiar to us. Indeed, we may have heard it too much ~ or, more precisely, we may have pondered it too little. If so, we have to change.
Therefore, here is a key implication of the Lord's Prayer: We pray as part of a spiritual family, all sharing equally in God. I have the gene pool of my family. I am one, therefore, with the whole history of my family, past to now. Likewise, I am one with every other disciple of Jesus Christ, past to now. I am part of you, you are part of me. Why? We are part of God. We carry the spiritual "genes" of the one we call "our Father."
The importance of our sharing in God as common Father and in each other as family is evidenced by the structure of the Prayer. The Prayer has seven petitions, dividing into two parts: God-ward and us-ward. God is placed as priority. The Prayer, then, reverses the instinctive order of our requests. A disciple's praying is to be God-centered, not I-centered or us-centered; our needs are set forth in the environment of God-being-preeminent in our lives and our faith community as Christ's disciples. Praying the Prayer is an act of self-transformation, therefore.
Why would we need to focus on God first? Note Hahn's reminder, vital to reminding us of our need for a sane and humble posture before the Divine Presence:
When we pray spontaneously, we tend to begin with our troubles, our frustrated desires, and our personal wish list. But Jesus shows us that we need to be less self-centered in prayer and more God-centered ~ not because God needs our praise, and His ego is fragile, but because He's God, and we aren't. In its very sequence, the Our Father is a much-needed orientation-to-reality program.
Jesus makes, then, the following truths plain to us as essential to Christian spirituality, and this applies equally to all forms of Christian prayer, from verbal to contemplative:
1) The normal Christian life is to practice the habit of prayer ~ habitual prayer is not an option in the Christian life. Indeed, often we need most to pray when we feel least like praying.
2) Christ's followers pray as disciples, persons learning to follow Christ ~ Christian prayer is not for persons who choose not to learn from Christ.
3) There are aspects of prayer that make it Christian ~ not all prayer is Christ-centered, or Christian. This is not to judge other faith's prayers, only to speak about Christian prayer.
4) Christian prayer is always as one with others, even when one is praying in private ~ we are all equal as children of one God.
5) Our heart-posture in prayer is humbleness, remembering God is God and we are to submit to God first and in all things ~ the prayer provides a course in humbling, or de-centering in God.
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1) Define Christian prayer in your own words.
2) Do you practice the habit of prayer? Explain.
3) What other fitting metaphors other than "Father" speak to you of your relationship with God?
4) What other metaphors other than "family" speak of your relationship with other Christians?
5) What aspect of prayer would you most like to grow in?
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*Charitable contributions would be appreciated to assist Brian in the continuance of his work of ministry. For contributions, contact Brian at barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
*Quotes from Chambers and Shoemaker at www.quotegarden.com ; story of Smith from ozsermonillustrations.com .
*Brian's book of mystical love poetry, An Ache for Union: Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major booksellers, or through the Cokesbury on-line store, at www.cokesbury.com .
*Brian K. Wilcox lives in Punta Gorda, FL, and Clearwater, FL, with his wife, step-son, and two beloved dogs. Brian has an independent writing, workshop, and retreat ministry focused on Christians living as spiritual disciples of Jesus Christ in everyday life. He serves the Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL. Brian is vowed at Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in South Georgia. He lives a vowed, contemplative life and inspires others to experience a more intimate relationship with God-in-Christ. Brian advocates for a spiritually-focused, experiential Christianity and renewal of the focus of the Church on addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons.
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