The Most Abused Prayer

But when you pray, do not babble like the heathen, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 

Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask Him. 

Therefore pray in this manner: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. 

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 

Give us this day our daily bread. 

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. 

"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 

But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Mat. 6:7-15 English Majority Text.

Introduction

But when you pray, do not babble like the heathen, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  An example of this is found in the story of Elijah.  The prophets of Baal got the sacrifice ready and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us.1 Kings 18:26 MKJV. 

Christ warns, do not be like them.  There is no need to inform Jehovah of your needs For your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask Him. 

Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his misery; to humble his heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, to raise his soul from earth to heaven, and to put him in mind that There is his Father, his country, and inheritance. Clarke.

Many churches repeat "The Lord's Prayer" every Sunday and consequently, the prayer becomes absolutely mundane.  Many parishioners repeat the words without paying any attention to what their lips are doing.  This must be the ultimate insult to the One who taught us that prayer. 

Among the many rules that Muslims have is this one which the Christian church would do well to learn.  When you pray be sure That the attention accompany the act, and be not suffered to wander to any other object. Clarke

Therefore pray in this manner: Christ says, Here is an example of how your prayer might sound.  That Christ did not command us to use these exact words in prayer is shown by the fact that "The Lord's Prayer" is never recorded as being prayed by anyone in the New Testament.  As far as records show Christ Himself never prayed that prayer.  This prayer is an example only and the exact words are not expected to be repeated every time we pray.

The Prayer

Heathens do not think of their God as being a Father.  To them "God" is a vengeful Being who must be appeased by sacrifices.  That same idea crept into the minds of some Jews and they also started to offer their children as sacrifices to the gods they had started worshipping.  

Our Father in heaven is a gracious, loving God who demands obedience. 

We address our prayers to Our Father, not to Jesus Christ; we pray to the Father in the Name of Christ.  Christ is our "go-between" who is sitting at The Father's right hand to plead our cause.

hallowed be Your name. When we go to prayer the first thing is not to say, "gimme, gimme, gimme".  First, we acknowledge the holiness and power of Jehovah.  Of course, there are emergency situations when proper protocol may be put aside; but our attitude in prayer must be praise to Jehovah first.

Your kingdom come, Christ did not preach the death and resurrection of Christ; He preached His coming kingdom.  According to Christ, and the writers of the New Testament, to qualify to be members of that kingdom one must live a holy lifestyle.  So, if in all earnestness, we pray for that kingdom to come, our lifestyle had better match the words we pray.

Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  This is a tough one; we would like it much better if we could advise the Lord how He should answer our prayers. Our problem with that stance is that we cannot see into the future.

Now that we have laid the foundation for our prayer we come to the point where we ask for the three blessings which involve our lives.

1.  Give us this day our daily bread.  We ask for those things which we need for our physical well-being.  This is not only food but also perhaps for a job or divine guidance in choosing a new house.  Always remembering, of course, that we have prayed Your will be done or words, or thoughts, with that meaning.

2. Then, climbing the ladder of matters which are important, we pray And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  This pertains to our sociological well-being; how do we get along with our neighbours?  If someone has wronged us, are we willing to forgive?  This sociological aspect to our prayers certainly includes the idea that we will not mistreat or cheat those we deal with.

Mark uses the words trespasses in place of debts.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in Heaven forgive your trespasses. Mark 11:25-26.  

Please excuse a personal incident in this connection.  

I was called on to give an afternoon devotional, and, to end the devotional I prayed "The Lord's Prayer" as we have it in the Book of Matthew.  As I was saying the words, forgive us our debts immediately a woman spoke up and said, it is not debts it is trespasses.  Well, I'll give her this, at least she was listening.

3. Then we come to the highest rung on the ladder: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.  This relates to our spiritual well-being.  We can certainly do a lot to keep from being tempted by staying away from those places where we are tempted in our weak areas.  

Jehovah will never tempt us to sin, it is the evil one that will.   Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. James 1:13. 

The End

In recording The Lord's Prayer Luke ends with deliver us from the evil one.  Or, in some versions, deliver us from evil.  Luke does not include the following doxology.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.  The whole of this doxology is rejected by ... the most eminent critics. ... It is variously written in several MSS., and omitted by most of the fathers, both Greek and Latin. Clarke

Then after the "amen", there is this P.S. 
The one item mentioned here which most of us would rather ignore is this.  
If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.  Why do so many of us think that we can just ignore those words of Christ, and Jehovah will forgive us our sins anyway?  Christ said it does not work that way.