The Model Prayer

The Model Prayer

“Model Prayer”
Matthew 6:9-15 and Luke 11:1-4

Significant and Application


"Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. 9 In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

“Therefore do not be like them, for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.”
In order to understand the context of what Jesus is saying we really need to start at verse 5 were Jesus says "When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees {what is done} in secret will reward you. "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. (Matthew 6:5-8 NASB translation)
Jesus lays out the foundation for prayer by pointing to some of the common eras of the prayer life of the religious of the day. He says do not be like the hypocrites (the scribes and the Pharisees) who pray for the sake of others adorned in their priestly robs and bellowing like a clanging cymbal before God. He says of them “they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men.” Jesus says of these sort of men and women that they love to pray on stage. They love their prayers to be high profile so that others will come and say Oh how beautiful you pray. Oh if only I could pray like you. If only I could be that close to God. Of that, God says I am not impressed. Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the true heart of the believer. Jesus goes on to says "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.” He says here and do not chant over and over again heartless words that mean nothing in your heart. A sort of penitent prayer hoping to bore your father with shallow words into giving you what you want,for this is how the pagans pray chanting mantras to a piece of wood that they cannot know. The Lords desire is for you to know your fathers heart. How will you know your fathers heart if you don’t talk to him. How will you know your Fathers voice if you do not learn to hear his voice. So the lord teaches us how to come to Him. “In this manner, therefore, pray:”

"Our Father in heaven"
Growing up as a child my father taught us that when ever we entered his house we were to find him no matter where he was in the house and say hello to him to great him. We were to say hello before we did anything else in the house before we had conversations with anyone else we were to find him and greet him. Today after some 30 years, it’s still the same. My children and all my extended family all know when we go to grandpa’s house and we enter his home the fist thing we do is find him and greet him. It is a sign of respect for my father. It is his wish that we address him in this fashion and it is the way we show him respect for his domicile his domain and our love for him. Here in the text Jesus teaches us much the same lesson about our father in Heaven. He teaches us that when ever we approach the father we are to approach him in this matter. We need to always acknowledge first and foremost who we are talking to. He (God) is our heavenly Father. We address Him with respect just as we should address our earthly father with respect.
In Matthew 5:9 Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Blessed are those who lead men and women back to the feet of the savior for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God. You will have your fathers heart.
Jesus said “our Father” " W. E. Vine remarks of "Father" (pater) as follows: "From the root signifying a nourisher, protector, upholder" (Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words). God is our Father in that He is the Creator of all men (Gen. 1, 2). God is our father he is our protector, our provider our nourisher.” Here Jesus shows us how to address our father corporately. He is also a caring Father in that he as God provides both physically and spiritually for his beloved children and he is concerned as a loving father for the needs of his children. Matthew 6:32b says “…For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” It is natural for a father to provide for his children and it is natural for children to approach there father with great love adoration and respect. When we approach the thrown of God we address Him with respect just as we should address our earthly father with respect and adoration even more so should we approach our heavenly father with reverence and respect. He is the only true God who created all things in this universe, including us. He loves us and when we approach him with the right heart we will be moved by our affection and lover for him. Our father should move us to look for our fathers attributes in our lives. Matthew 5:44b,45 says “…do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” We are the son’s and daughters of our father and we should love like our father. Seeing our Father should cause us to aspire through the power of the Holy spirit to be like Him. It should cause us to seek his kingdom and his rightousness. That we would be more like Him.
The Lord not only tells us who He is but where he is. God is "in heaven" which is reflective of God's regal authority and superiority over man
“in Heaven”
The statement “Our Father who art in heaven” is a statement that gives us not only who He is but also where He is. It’s a statement of faith that claims that our father is in His rightful place. He is enthroned in heavenly places. It is a statement that says I believe in the Father, I believe because of my relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit that God resides in heaven, and I will someday be united with Him. He is who he says he is.

God gave us signs to show us that there is something existing beyond what we can see. For centuries, astrologers have wanted to see further and further into space. What we see around us is called the first heaven and was created in Genesis 1:8. The second heaven is the expanse beyond what we can see with our eyes, but can examine with powerful telescopes. The third heaven is where God the Father resides.

We can be assured that our Father is in heaven because that is what the Bible teaches (2 Corinthians 12:2). Matthew 5:34 says, " But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; "

Another proof is the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 8:23, Jesus said, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world." Jesus came down from heaven to be our perfect sacrifice for sin. Only one person has died, gone to heaven, and then returned and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. After the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, He descended into Heaven. Earlier, Jesus had said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

The fact that we can approach the father in heavenly places means that Jesus was victorious and that by faith we who proclaim Jesus Christ as our lord and savior can now approach the father with confidence that we to are children of our father and our home is heaven. The mortality of this world will end and we will begin immortality with our Lord. This physical life will end and we will continue a spiritual life with God in the place He has prepared for us with Him.

If you have a personal relationship with God, you can call God your Father. You can look forward to spending eternity with Him!


"Hallowed be your name"
Right after Jesus tells us to call God “Our Father” He adds “Hallow be Your name”. In many Christian circles today the Idea of God being more like our big buddy in the sky is passed around. Jesus says to moderate this idea. Hollow is his name.
The expression, "hallowed be thy name" is indicative of the respect and reverence that is due the Father. "Hallowed: (hagiazo, Greek) simply means to make holy. The American Heritage Dictionary defines hallowed as, "sanctified; consecrated; highly venerated; sacrosanct," like the hallowed halls of a great university. To hallow is "to make or set apart as holy. To respect or honor greatly; revere." In simpler terms, we often use hallowed to refer to someone whom we should treat with awe and respect because they deserve it.
Man tends to forget the lofty position God occupies in relation to man. Hence, regarding some, there is "no fear of God before their eyes" (Rom. 3: 18). However, the teaching of the scriptures is: "…whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12: 28).
In the Lord's prayer, the phrase, "Hallowed be Your name" is appropriate, because not only is God holy, but His name is holy too. We should never treat God's name with disrespect as some do when they curse and use God's name in vain. We should give the same respect and honor to God's name that we give to God because He and His name are one in the same. You see, in the Hebrew Old Testament the Jewish people had about 16 different names for God. Each name reflected a different aspect of God’s Character.
“ In Jewish thought, a name is not merely an arbitrary designation, a random combination of sounds. The name conveys the nature and essence of the thing named. It represents the history and reputation of the being named. In addition, Jews customarily do not pronounce any of God's many Names except in pryaer or study. The usual practice is to substitute letters or syllables, so that Adonai becomes Adoshem or Ha-Shem, Elohaynu and Elohim become Elokaynu and Elokim,” or God becomes G-d etc.”
How do we hollow His name? “hallow” means to make holy, it is the opposite, according to Vines, of common. “ God is our Father, but He is not common or our buddy, he is God and as such he should be approached with a comfortable reverence that is unprecedented to any other adoration or show of respect in your life. He is set apart as The Father and not another father.





"Your kingdom come" –

We acknowledge His coming kingdom. We pray that Christ will soon return and establish His earthly kingdom where we will reign with Him for eternity.
God's Kingdom (basileia) is essentially his reign, His kingship. In Luke 19:12-14 we see that the kingdom" and "church" (ekklesia) are used interchangeably by the Lord
Therefore He said: "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten [minas, and said to them, 'Do business till I come.' But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us.'
In Matthew 16: 18, 19 the church or those who are called saved are those over whom God reins, His territory if you will. How have we become heirs to the kingdom? Colossians 1:13 says “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in which we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus explains how the kingdom comes when he further stated, ""Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" Man is to obey God . In Luke 6: 46 Jesus asked, "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say? Jesus will only save the obedient “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,…” (Heb. 5: 8, 9). We need to be praying for His will to be done in our lives, so that we might bring glory to Him here on earth as He is also glorified in heaven. We need to do things His way, instead of selfishly doing our own things to satisfy our own desires.
The desire of the Christian is to live in the perfect will of God. Because of what Christ has done for us the desire of every believer is that the Father's will be immediately and whole heartedly done in our lives here on the earth in this life.
There is nothing in heaven to hinder God's perfect will from being done. Jesus tells us to pray for the same to occur in the hearts of man here on the earth today. Jesus tells us to pray that He as lord would possess the strongs hold of mans heart here on earth. What a change would take place in our daily lives, in our communities, our nations and the world if only His will would be done on earth un hindered as it is in heaven. Only the transforming grace of God can bring a person to change the desires of his heart from “my kingdom come,” to “Your kingdom come.”


But the prayer of every sincere believer should be that God will rule increasingly in our lives, and that His final messianic kingdom will come soon, Our responsibility is to make ourselves available to Him at all times to rule in and over our lives so as to bring honor and glory to Him alone.
“Lord, Your will be done in my life daily, moment by moment. I give this day to you. You be my Lord and Master. Here is my life. You live in and through me.”

"Give us today our daily bread" signifies our dependence upon God
"Bread" here stands for the necessities of life we should ask our heavenly Father each day to provide for our needs, just as He promised in His Holy Word. His Word says that we don't have, because we don't ask. Of course, we must first know God through His Son, our personal Lord and Savior. If we do not know Christ, God will not acknowledge this request for daily provision.
When Jesus says "bread", He is referring to every basic essential of life that are needed for our earthly existence. Our prayers should show our understanding and belief that God is our master provider, and that He cares about even our smallest daily needs. We should be constantly aware of how utterly dependent we are on our Father to provide for our daily physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. It is the father’s primary role to provide and it is the Childs primary role to ask of his father when he is hungry. No Loving father would deny his son the necessities of life nor does our father in heaven. If man is faithful to ask, God has always been faithful to give us our daily bread. It is important that we understand that God often provides for man through man's own efforts. We are commanded to work and provide for our own (I Tim. 5: 8) that the lord might bless our efforts and labor in Him. God's spiritual provisions are similarly viewed. God provides salvation, but man must participate in his salvation (this is salvation "by grace through faith," Eph. 2: 8-10). God will not provide for those unwilling to work; neither will he save those unwilling to obey (see 2 Thes. 3: 10; I Cor. 15: 2). However, man cannot claim to have earned either the physical or the spiritual blessings (Tit. 3: 5). All my hope is in the Lords miracles today. The great work he will do in my heart. He is our daily bread, our bread of life to which we pray to receive.

"Forgive us our debts (or transgressions) as we also have forgiven our debtors (transgressors)"
This speaks about forgiveness among our neighbors, friends, family and loved ones. If we can't forgive others, how can we expect our heavenly Father to forgive us? Because of God's goodness to us, we owe Him perfect obedience, and so, our sins are appropriately called "debts" here. To ask God for forgiveness of sins is an always needful, though often forgotten (especially in public prayer) petition. We are constantly falling into debt to God by our frequent sinning. God, in His great mercy, has provided us a way through confession of sins to be assured that our sins are forgiven. He promised: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). Spurgeon rightly notes: "No prayer of mortal men could be complete without confession of sin." We need to establish a continual habit of confession of sin to God.
In order to avoid hypocrisy, Jesus reminds us that, if we are to expect forgive for our sins from God, we must also forgive others for their sins against us. "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." One who does not forgive others does not really understand full import of the great gift of God's forgiveness. Jesus clearly illustrates this in the parable found in Matt. 18:22-35. Jesus clearly considered this important, because, after He finished this model prayer, He returned to this specific point. He clearly stated: "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (vs. 14-15). "To ask God for what we ourselves refuse to give to other men, is to insult to God ... It seems so fitting that our right to ask and expect daily forgiveness of our daily shortcomings, and our final pardon and acceptance into the kingdom, be dependent upon our forgiving disposition towards our fellows man."
"Lead us not into temptation"
The final petition is: "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (vs. 13). James states: "When tempted, no one should say, `God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed" (James 1:13-14). So, whatever the situation, our temptation to sin comes from our own evil desires. "The evil one", known also as Satan, does what he can to prod our evil desires to lead us into sin. God does test us, but not with a view that we would fall. Rather, God tests us so that we would be strengthened by the success of passing His tests. Growing Christians can understand that circumstances are a means of exposing to us to our true character at any stage of our spiritual growth. The circumstances are not the cause of temptations.
So, in the petition here, "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one", we are asking that God would order circumstances so that we would not be put into situations in which our own weaknesses would cause us to fall. And if we are to undergo testing (as we certainly will in this life), we are asking that the testings serve to strengthen us and make us grow up in spiritual maturity. In the Bible, we have an example of the importance of this petition. In Gethsemane, Jesus told Peter, John and James to "watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation" (Matt. 26:51). Instead of praying as Jesus exhorted them, they fell asleep. Later, Peter was led into temptation, and failed miserably by denying His Lord three times (see Matt. 26:69-75).
It is also important to remember that we are unable to resist temptation without God's grace. We are called to trust the Lord (not ourselves) for strength to resist temptation before it becomes sin. It is not the temptation itself that leads us to sin, but the lack of resistance and trust in the Lord for deliverance. We need to ask our heavenly Father to help us recognize every evil thing, every temptation before us. We need help to stay focused on our Father and see the evil that we might fall into, for what it really is, a trap set by Satan to bring us down to his level.
"But deliver us from the evil one"
Webster defines deliver as "to set free or liberate; to release or save." Therefore, "deliver us from evil" means quit simply that we are asking the Lord to be freed or saved from evil.

Evil is anything that tempts us to do something which is against God's will. It is anything that damper our relationship with God or would sadden or displease God such as if we were to follow our own desires instead of His will. Some translations say, "deliver me from temptation to do evil" or "deliver us from the evil one."

"When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed" (James 1:13-14).

Deliver us from evil simply means, "God, help me because I can't do this on my own. I am weak and vulnerable to temptation. Please, Father, put a hedge of protection around me and keep me safe from the evil one's influence. Father, keep Satan in his place and don't allow him to attack me and bombard me with things that draw me too close to the edge and allow me to fall. Father, keep me strong and focused on you!"

In this life, we will never be free from the presence of evil. Until we arrive in Heaven, we will be tainted by sin and evil. Until God creates the New Heavens and New Earth, this world will be filled with evil. Praying "deliver us from evil" is a plea for protection from evil and victory over sin - not a request to be rescued from the very presence of evil. That will have to wait until Heaven (1 Corinthians 15:55-56).
Help us, Oh Father, to steer clear of that liar and deceiver. Let us see clearly the path that you want each of us to walk. By the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, may we never stray from your will and way...
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Starts with His position and ends with Him and His position in our lives. Your kingdom, Your power and Your Glory.
I relinquish the kingdom
Lord, I relinquish my kingdom to your lordship it is now your kingdom. I will stop trying to run it. I will stop being lord of my own life and Yours is the kingdom of my heart. Lord you will possess the strong hold of my heart. You will establish your reign in my heart even in the midst of rebellion you now possess the kingdom you may rule my life from the inside out.
I relinquish the power,

Father, from this day forward it will be by your power, by your efforts and by your will that all things happen. It is the freeing of the soul to no longer strive to accomplish the impossible and to enlist the efforts of the God who can. It is to remember that all things are possible with the Lord and were God calls he will provide every necessity needed to accomplish His good will.

I relinquish the glory-
Honor, praise, renown, - all are words synonymous with glory. As a manifestation of the work of His hands, all creation brings glory to God. Psalm 19:1 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." God's very work praises Him and brings Him glory. "Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever (Psalm 111:3,)." Lord, "Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you - majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? (Exodus 15:11) " No one can accomplish what God can. He is beyond our comprehension. Father we relinquish the glory

Father its all yours. Father I’m Yours for evermore. Amen!