The Lord told s to pray in the following firthright manner. Direct and to the point. But what is the prayer asking God the Father for?

Matthew 6:9After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11Give us this day our daily bread.

12And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

14For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

15But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Lets break down the prayer sentence by sentence.



What kind of a request is this? Do you think Jesus was telling us to say God's name is holy?

He was telling us that the first thing to pray was that the name of God, Man, which is in heaven be made holy. That is us, the whole Adamic human race.



This is a request that His will be done on earth. His will is not done on earth at this time. Someone else's will is.

Paul explained it clearly.

2 Thessalonians 2:7
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.



What we need to live each day, both earthly bread and heavenly bread.



This is the final thing He wanted to emphasize, that we forgive people who offend us, and to end with an affirmation that we know who is the Kingdom, Power and Plory, Jesus Christ!!!

Revelation 21:22And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

23And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

24And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

This prayer appears in the highly embellished Gospels of Mathew and Luke. It was also altered in later versions of the text (at the end of Mat 6:13, “for thine is the Kingdom…”).

This short prayer makes little or no sense to me and brazenly conflicts with God’s Sovereignty. It suggests that God would tempt us with evil and that His forgiveness is conditional. It also conflicts with other instructions concerning prayer or requests made to God in the very same Chapter (Mat 6:8 and Mat 6:32). In addition, the prayer does not appear in Mark, the oldest Gospel.

Finally, notice how nicely the text and thoughts flow from Mat 6:8 to Mat 6:16. The stuff in the middle, Mat 6:9-15 which includes the prayer, appears added.

I don’t think Jesus spoke this example prayer at all. But everybody likes to say it and it doesn’t bother me that they do, so it’s all good, methinks.

In His Love, John