The Lord’s Prayer is the most important prayer for the believer on this earth, because it came straight from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ when the disciples asked Jesus to “teach them to pray.” The great theologian Augustine wrote that one has not truly prayed until he prays the Lord’s prayer. But the question is: How do we pray the Lord’s prayer? We certainly do not pray it when we just rattle off the words in one minute, and Jesus never intended that we just say the words of this prayer. Jesus instructed His disciples to pray “in this manner,” meaning to include in our praying the fundamental truths or spiritual principle stated in the general statement in the prayer – there are 9 of them. And of course in order to incorporate Scriptural truth we must have internalized it in our heads and hearts and understand how it clarifies the general petitions in the Lord’s Prayer, so let us now take each statement and explain its meaning biblically:
- We must begin by asserting our INTIMACY with our Heavenly Father:
- He as our father, we as his sons, and even more intimate than father to that of “Abba Father”,
- He praised Him as Elohim (Gen. 1:1),
- Yahweh or Jehovah
- Then Jehovah Roi – (Gen. 9:13)
- Jehovah Jeriah (Gen. 22:14
- Jehovah Rapha (Ex. 15:26)
- Jehovah Shalom (Judges 6:24
- Jehovah Ropha (Psalm 23:1)
- Jehovah Tsidneks, the God our Righteousness
- Jehovah Shammah, (Ezek. 48:35)
As we reflect on His name we are free to ask Him to do in our lives what is promised in His name, such as “Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Shalom, etc.