Dear reader, this article you're about to read is the most difficult one I've written so far. I've heard a lot of people dialogue constructively, argumentatively or in some variable occasions, violently about this particular issue and I found it an intrinsic factor about christianity to write on. It is the issue of prayer. Many have come up with different views on the best way to reach out to God in prayer, each believing their school of thought stands as standard, perhaps the wonder behind numerous Christian churches. When the followers of Jesus asked Him to teach them how to pray, He taught them a particular prayer. It struck my intuition when I started asking myself some questions.
Was it that the disciples did not know how to pray before Jesus came?
Did Jesus just say any prayer just so they could learn?
Does it mean we can't pray in any other form except the way Jesus stated it?
I had to stop reciting this prayer and started meditating on it. This is something most Christians lack, meditation. It requires a lot of concentration. We always have the time to ask ceaselessly about what we need, but we never find time to meditate on what He says. Meditation brings you closer to answers to your problems, because in that moment, you allow God to speak to you. Prayer should be an interaction or a chat with God, not a talk or plea to God. It should be a complete communication where you speak, and you allow him to speak. During this meditation, I realized that Jesus gave us a template to pray with. If we understand that template very well, then we would realise that all we need to pray for and about, are all there. It also opens our minds to things we pray about that are irrelevant.
Let us then dissect the Lord's prayer...
Our father...
Let's all remember that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, that makes God the Father, His Father. It would have been convenient for Him to start that prayer with "My Father", but He said, "Our father". Jesus was teaching us how to pray for others. Ask yourself this moment, how many times do you intercede for others? How many times do you pray that the success of others be granted even over yours? Learn today to stop using words like "my" so much in a prayer. Always use words like, "our", "us", and so on. This makes you quite unselfish in the presence of God.
Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy Kingdom come...
Jesus praised His father continuously. Praises are the best offerings you can give to God. Many people rush into telling God their problems in a prayer that they forget to thank Him for at least, life. I understand that some situations can be so demanding and the thoughts of any other thing may desert you, but for the sake of being a true Christian, Praises matter to God more than so many other forms of prayer. When praising God, declare facts and express your belief. Jesus said, "Who art in heaven...", that's a fact He declared, especially to pinpoint the very God He believes in and He's praying to. Always call him names that are factual. Don't try to express how wonderful he is and end up mocking His very nature.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven...
Praying to God over a problem could be likened to a conversation between a guy and his crush. The guy says, "I love you". The best possible answer expected by this boy is "I love you too", he'd be so happy you know. But the girl could reply, "Wow! Are you serious?" or even "Ok" ; which in both cases are not negative answers but yet not conclusively positive reactions. God always hears our prayers! He's not deaf, neither is he not understanding. What you ask for in prayers, may not be what you get as His answer. It may be better, or even worse. Jesus said, "Thy will be done...", this is because He knows that His father knows the best for us. Imagine being the manager of a certain company, not everyone would like you, this is a fact. It wouldn't be because you're not a good manager, but there are so many things you alone can see from your position that could push you into making some policies that would not suit everybody. You could sack some people because you feel it's even the best for them. That's how God works! Sometimes we oblige to letting His will be done, and when it's not in our favour, we lose faith or probably try to force it by changing churches and seeking more powerful prayers. Jesus wants us to put our faith in God blindly and be patient with His reliable will, as it is so for us in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread...
It's actually funny sometimes, people would say, "Give us these days...". In economics, we were taught that when you fail to plan for the future, then you're bound to be a failure. But Jesus said, "Give us this day...", so what about tomorrow, or next, or the one after? You know what He wants from you? No worries! These days you keep worrying about tomorrow, next week, next year, but the hilarious part is, you've barely survived today! When you have absolute faith in God, then tomorrow should not bother you. Have you asked all those chickens without owners how they've been feeding, or even the fishes in the sea? Who provides their food? Science has blinded us to the fact that even before we could control the world by it, the world was controlled by a supreme being, perfectly! Don't cry about those problems, don't kill yourself because you don't know what tomorrow would be like, tell God your problems, have faith and I'm sure He would provide your daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us...
How amazing we can be, holding a grudge towards another person, and seeking for God's forgiveness everyday. How does that work? You're holding on to a person's orange, he's searching for it, but you're raising your hands to even collect another orange. As much as Jesus is trying to teach us how to always realise we're sinners and should always plead for forgiveness before God, He also wants us to understand that our immediate neighbour has the same weaknesses as we do. This line preaches love in its utmost understanding. If we learn to love our neighbors as ourselves, then we would easily learn that our lives are no different from theirs, no matter how perfect we think we are. Also crucial, is the fact that we are sinners and should always ask for God's forgiveness. Some people boycott the prayer for forgiveness during prayers because they can't face their sins and confess them. They feel too ashamed to come to God with all their shortcomings. Some even have an existing belief that God can never forgive them, hence they even go as far as staying away from prayers entirely. Many have left God and Christianity as a whole because they feel they've gone so deep in sin that there's no redemption. If you're in this shoe my dear reader, then the first step is forgiving yourself. Then go down on your knees in prayer and seek for His face, He will forgive you. But the price you have to pay is, you'll never do that again.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
The word "temptation" should not be taken literally, because God cannot lead a person into temptation, instead it should be seen as "hard-testing". When you say temptation, there is an intention for a person led to fall, but a test would be to analyse your basic understanding of a particular concept. A teacher would always test his students, either to be sure of the student's understanding or to certify his level of growth in knowledge. God would always test us, sometimes hard, to determine the strength of our faith in Him. We can only pray that He doesn't give us a test that would be too hard, in such case, death. This could be justified in Jesus' prayer before His death. We should always seek for wisdom from God to be able to overcome all the hard tests life puts us through.
Did you realise that it's only on this very line that Jesus talked about the devil for the first time. He did not even mention his name, He said "evil". The word "devil" is a reference to a personea, but "evil" is an act. What does that tell you? He never wants us to worry about the devil, He wants us to worry more about the evil acts of people around us. He also asked us to pray that God delivers us from this evil, and not for us to fight the evil ourselves. We don't even know the evil, we can't see it coming, but we wish to fight it ourselves, how can we succeed? This line is teaching us to put our trust in Him he would do the rest. A chick runs under the protection of the mother hen when a hawk attacks, that's the way God expects us to run under His protection. This does not exempt prayers from the heart that may seem aggressive towards a perceived evil, but it should be an act of true faith and not hypocrisy.
There you are my reader, you can now understand that Our Lord's Prayer is not just a prayer, but also a lifestyle. It's a template for every Christian to follow in both work and prayers. I cannot overemphasize the beauty of this prayer, and it's a hopeful thought that after this read, your life would be touched positively and significantly.
Thank you for reading😊
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