Thursday February 13
The Lord’s Prayer
Luke 11:1-4
1 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." 2 So He said to them, "When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 3 Give us day by day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one."
If you asked most people what is the Lord’s prayer and where you can find it in the Bible, they would probably recite the above prayer and point you to Matthew 6:9-13 or to this passage in Luke 11:2-4. And in a sense, they would be right. But if you asked someone else the same question, they might correctly answer and say it is found in John 17, where the entire chapter is the Lord’s High Priestly prayer just before His crucifixion.
We call this "The Lord's Prayer," not because Jesus prayed it, because He never had to ask for forgiveness, but because Jesus taught it. There is nothing wrong with praying this prayer personally or as part of a congregation, so long as we do it from a believing heart that is sincere and submitted. How easy it is to "recite" these words and not really mean them, but that can happen even when we sing and preach! The fault lies with us, not with this prayer.
Over 25 years ago I read Dr. Elmer Towns’ book, “Praying the Lord’s Prayer for Spiritual Breakthrough”, and in it I read the story of Dr. Yonggi Cho, who at that time pastored the largest church in the world in South Korea with an attendance of 750,000. He attributed the success and fruitfulness of his ministry and life to reciting the Lord’s Prayer first thing in the morning and repeating it throughout the day and using it as a pattern for his daily prayer time. After reading this, I was inspired to begin doing the same and have followed this discipline everyday since that time.
I also remember that the very first book I read on prayer right after I receive Christ as my Lord and Savior on February 21,1971, 54 years ago, was “Asking and Receiving”, by Evangelist John R. Rice. My dad, J.O. Grooms, along with my mother, Albertina Grooms, were both very faithful and powerful prayer warriors. I am so thankful for their influence and for the example of my pastor, Dr. Jerry Falwell, concerning prayer during my Bible College years in Lynchburg.
Another dear and close friend during those years at Thomas Road Baptist Church was R.C. Worley, who also was a great prayer warrior that I was privileged to pray with on a weekly basis. Today the Worley Prayer Chapel is one of the oldest and most treasured buildings on the Liberty University campus. It is still open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. for prayer.
The prayer that Jesus taught His disciple to pray here in Luke 11 is a “pattern prayer”. This is given to guide us in our own praying. The first thing it teaches us is that true prayer depends on a spiritual relationship with God that enables us to call Him "Father," and this can come only through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 8:14-17; Galatians 4:1-7). We are told in John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name”. God is our “dear” Father that delights for us to boldly come into His presence through the blood of His Son Jesus and spend time with Him (Hebrews10:19).
Secondly, we are taught to recognize and acknowledge the holiness of our Father’s name. When we enter into the presence of the Creator God of the universe, we enter to worship! We should take the time to remember the attributes and character of God by His many names in the Bible! Space and time will not allow me to write about this but is my prayer that you will take the time to meditate on God’s holiness, His righteousness, His faithfulness, His mercy, His grace, His love, His truth, His sovereignty, His omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence and His justice. And the list goes on and on!
Prayer should not be just repeating the same words over and over again each day. But it should be from our hearts of worship, praise, and thanksgiving! I find reading five Psalms every day allows me to do all of these with God’s own Word!
There is nothing more important that you can do today than pray!
God bless!
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