Five Things You May Not Know About the Lord’s Prayer

Do you Pray “The Prayer?”

There is a prayer that unites Christians in all parts of the world, of all denominations and theological persuasions. It doesn’t matter if you are Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, or Protestant, whether you belong to a mainline, Evangelical, or Pentecostal church; as soon as you hear the words “Our Father, which art in Heaven,” you will know what comes next. I can assure you that right now, somewhere in the world, Jesus-followers are saying the words of the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples.

At the same time, we may be so familiar with the words of the “Our Father,” as our Catholic brothers and sisters call it, that we can repeat them without giving a second thought to the deep meaning of this prayer that Jesus left for us and miss some of the secrets that will help deepen our intimacy with God.

I have a personal journey with The Prayer. I grew up in a traditional church that went through a time of renewal by the Holy Spirit. That means I was familiar with The Prayer from an early age. Still, sometime during my youth, I put it away in a storage compartment in my heart and mind as I began to value spontaneous prayer over repeated words. That is until God started to quicken my heart to develop a deeper prayer life. I am not sure how it happened, but one day I decided to use The Lord’s Prayer both as a guide to my prayer life and as a repeated prayer, as many times as possible. 

Ten years and tens of thousands of repeated prayers later, I can say that the Lord’s prayer has become a foundation for my prayer life and intimacy with God. Of course, I have a long way to go in that journey, but I have learned a few hidden secrets in this prayer. Here are the five ones I consider most relevant.

1. There is no “me” in the Prayer. When I started my journey, I would personalize the prayer: “My father who art in Heaven… Give me this day my daily bread,” etc. Then the Holy Spirit convicted me that I wasn’t being faithful to Jesus’ intent. It was when I realized the prayer is communal. The two persons in the prayer are “we” and “You” (God). It is a prayer for “The Church.” Even when I pray alone, I join the communion of all saints. It begins with twelve men in Galilee and includes every believer who ever lived, the ones alive now, and those who will come after us. That is a huge choir.

2. The Prayer connects Heaven and Earth. It begins with “Our Father.” Jesus teaches us to address God as Abba, a term of endearment from a child to a father. We speak to the God of the universe as our “Daddy.” At the same time, make no mistake; Daddy is “In Heaven.” 

3. There are only Four Requests in the Prayer: Daily sustenance, forgiveness from sins, protection from temptation, and deliverance from evil. One of those requests is conditional. We submit our plea for forgiveness to our own willingness to forgive.

4. Evil is a person. Those who know more about the Bible than we do tell us that a better translation of “deliver us from evil” is “deliver us from the Evil one.” Jesus teaches us that evil is not an abstract concept or an impersonal force of the universe. There is an individual who embodies evil and is dangerous enough that Jesus would teach us to ask for protection from him in The Prayer.

5. The Final Doxology isn’t a consensus. Our version of the prayer ends with “Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.” Here we differ from other traditions, notably the Roman Catholic church, because the ending of the prayer doesn’t appear in the earliest manuscripts of the Gospels. However, I believe declaring God’s reign, power, and glory is always in order.

So, what place does the Lord’s prayer hold in your prayer life? I can testify that focusing on the words that Jesus taught his disciples to pray has dramatically enriched my prayer life and continues to help me deepen my relationship of intimacy with God.