Festooning the Lord’s Prayer

• Our Father: Let those words linger for a few moments. What is implied by addressing God as your Father? It is a statement of your position in God’s family as His dearly loved child. A Father who loves you unconditionally.  God the Father can be tricky if you did not have a loving earthly Father. In that case focus on those qualities of a good father and trust that God is infinately more than that.
• Who art in heaven: with this thought, we are declaring Gods position as the creator of the universe. We are pondering His magnificence and glory. He is all knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful.  That’s my Dad! A child sometimes will boast about their Dad because of who they are and what they do. We can boast about our Dad, He’s the greatest Dad ever.  He is the ruler of the universe.  He’s my Dad!  There is a sense of protection and peace in this as well.  We can place all of who we are in the arms of our Father because He can fully protect us.
• Hallowed be thy name: with this phrase, we are declaring a fundamental character of our Father, He is holy. There is no imperfection or hint of sin in Him. He is totally pure and good.  At our core, we humans have a craving for a pure and perfect love.  Even the hardest of us desires this.  “Holy is your name”.  How grateful we can be to know that our Father is holy.  He doesn’t lose his temper for no reason, he never abandons us, and He never lies, cheats or steals.  He is holy. We would all be hopeless if God were not holy. Another way to think of this is being “set apart”.  Gods name is like no other.
• Thy Kingdom come: As we have just declared that God is holy and good, it seems like a logical next expression in prayer to say “may Your kingdom come.” If God is the king of the universe and is holy, perfect, and good, you want that kingdom to reign. So with this phrase, you are praying first that His kingdom come now.  Every day is an opportunity to experience a moment of kingdom living.  Like Jesus said in John 10:10, “I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly”. But we also pray this phrase in anticipation for when He comes again.  There will be an end of the fallen state of our world and humanity when Gods kingdom will come.
• Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven: Jesus uttered this phrase at Gethsemane when He declared, “not my will, but thy will be done”. This is an ultimate expression of surrender. All of us struggle with wanting things our way. We want what seems best to us.  However, when we are walking in fellowship with our Father and we trust in His love, goodness and greatness, our soul longs for His will to be done.
• Give us this day our daily bread: as we draw closer to God, our desires and needs become more clear. What is the daily bread that you need from God today?
• And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors: when we spend time with God in prayer and fellowship, we open ourselves up to the working of the Holy Spirit. Part of this work many times revolves around confession and forgiveness. What an interesting concept to ask God to forgive in the same way as we forgive others. Forgiveness is the healing agent to all relationships, especially our relationship with God. Are there relationships in your life that need mending? Are you willing to forgive even if you have been offended?
• Lead us not into temptation: there are lots of theological discussions around this statement that are far beyond what we can cover here.
  • Temptation: Do not “suffer” us, or “permit” us, to be tempted to sin. In this it is implied that God has such control over the tempter as to save us from his power if we call upon him. 
  • Trials: it is not wrong to pray that we may be saved from suffering if it be the will of God. Jesus asked for his trial to pass, but then followed up with, not my will but your will be done. 
• But deliver us from evil: or the “evil one”.  The enemy is like a prowling lion (1 Peter 5:8). We live in a broken world and recognize there is a spiritual battle. We pray for deliverance from the evil one for ourselves and our families. In Jesus name, we renounce all lies of the enemy and ask that any strongholds that have been erected by the evil one be demolished (2 Cor 10:4).
• For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. It is fitting to close prayer time with God with praise and worship. This statement is often referred to as the Doxology.  Some refer to it as David’s Doxology (1 Chron 29:11).  Here we put our full focus and attention on the greatness and glory of God the Father.  Some who are reading this may have grown up in a faith tradition where you sang the Doxology each week.  I did and I use it from time to time in prayer times:

This is such an important way to wind up time in prayer.  So often we can get “stuck” in our troubles and difficulties that we fail to place our lives in the sovereign hand of God.  Don’t let your emotions drive your faith.  Choose to praise Him in all situations (Phil 2:6-7)

• Amen.  A way of saying, “so be it” or “let it be so.”  We are affirming our belief in God and His ways