The Our Father

Everyone knows the Our Father, or at least some of it, I'm sure. Alright... in case you don't:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who tresspass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

There you have it. Short and sweet. Yet this one prayer that so many people pray so often is absolutely rich with meaning! I myself was unaware of this until recently, so bear with me if you already knew this stuff.

Of course Jesus Himself gave us this prayer to pray, so one would expect the very best, but the fact of the matter is that every phrase, every little segment of this prayer is positively chock full of meaning! In fact, the Our Father is pretty much a guide to how we should pray all the time.

Allow me to point out right now that I got many of these ideas out of a book that I just read, Taming the Restless Heart by Gerald Vann. I have added some of my own thoughts, but the real frame of this blog comes from the book, so thank you, Gerald Vinn, I take no credit for your work.

Our Father, who art in heaven...

Christ states right off the bat what our relationship with him is. He is the Father and we are the children. Yes, God wants us to be childlike in our prayer. Humility and respect are important here. But love is also a huge factor. We go to our dear Heavenly Papa for help because we know that He loves us and wants to help us.

hallowed be thy name...

God wants us to praise him before we go ahead listing all the things that we want from him. In fact, praise is God's favorite kind of prayer. I have a whole theory about praise, actually. (sorry if you've read the article about this already. I inserted an abbreviated version here.)

Praise is, ultimately, admitting that God is an all-powerful, all-wonderful being who is way better at running our lives than we will ever be. This leads to trust which in turn leads to peace.

Praise is also saying how much we love Him and how good He has been to us. I don't know about you, but whenever I say "I love you," even if I don't feel like I love you, it helps me to feel that love again. So praise leads to love as well.

Because praise is a favorite prayer of God's, we know that He is pleased when we praise Him, and it always makes me so joyful to know that something I've done is actually pleasing to Him. Remembering all the wonders He has worked in my life and in the world and praising him for them add to the joy, too.

Thus, lots of good fruits of praise! It's not a bad idea, really. Don't just talk to God when you need something; take some time to tell Him how awesome He is, too.

thy kingdom come...

We need to put our wants and needs in perspective sometimes. In asking for His kingdom to come, we are asking to be a part of the work that needs to be done for that kingdom. That is, ultimately, our purpose on this earth, after all: to save as many souls as possible as we do the work that He has set out for us to do. By bringing the Kingdom into this prayer, Jesus was telling us to keep in mind the work that He is doing on earth and our part in it. Our petitions must be in line with that work.

thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven...
Here we say, as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Not my will but yours be done." We ask that ultimately God's will be done because He knows best. He knows how to handle the dilemmas we face much better than we could ever hope to. Prayer must not thrust forward our wants without taking into consideration the will of God; we must always wish for our will to be bound to our Lord's so that we want the same things.

give us this day our daily bread...
Now we finally express our needs and our wants. We ask for the graces that we need to get through the struggles in our lives and for the things we need to do His work.
There is no need to list all of the things that we want and need, though; "our daily bread" is a symbol for all of that, everything we could possibly need. In His wisdom He already knows what we need, without us having to say every little thing.
It is right and good to ask Him for things; it shows our proper dependence on Him, the creation's dependence on it's Creator for sustenance. We should never be afraid to ask.

and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us...
Basically, we should treat others as we want God to treat us. We must live in the Spirit of Christ if we pray in the name of Christ. Thus our prayers commit us to a whole way of life. With this line we make our sin a condition for the granting of our requests, so we sure better strive for sinlessness! Also, in treating others in a Christ-like manner, we make our prayers into actions so that others may see the goodness of the Lord.

and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Once again, we admit our dependence on our God in stating that He is the only thing that can protect us from evil and temptation. He is our Rock, our salvation, and our only hope. By fixing our eyes on Him we can perhaps further adopt His will as our own.

I hope you have enjoyed my little coverage of the Our Father. Hopefully it opened your eyes to the prayer, and prayer in general, as Mr. Vann opened mine. :)