Pray

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash‍ ‍

The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-15) breaks down into three attitudes: holy crowing, desperate pleading, and humble kneeling. This isn’t the only way to analyze the Lord’s Prayer, but it’s the one I’m thinking about today.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (ESV). We can boast that we have a good Father in heaven who loves us and is holy. His name is hallowed, revered, glorious. He is the master of all things. He is sovereign and holy. His will in heaven is the best that could be done for earth. May we never forget that (though we constantly do). So we can do a little holy crowing about our Father, a little boasting, a little “my dad is the best,” sort of thing. After all, this Father loves us so much he gave up his one and only Son for us to keep a covenant of redemption toward us while we were still weak, sinners, and enemies even.

“Give us this day our daily bread” (ESV). We can plead to this Father. He loves us, and he hears our prayers. We can ask for the things we need. “Daily bread,” is symbolic, moving across the hierarchy of needs from the most basic to the most advanced. We can ask for our Father to handle the situations we cannot, the relationships that are so muddy, the confrontations and challenges, the obstacles, the lack, the injustice. All of that is the daily hunger that only he can feed. Since he’s such a good Father, one we can boast about, then we can let our boasting move us to petitioning, to desperate pleading. Many who follow Jesus find it a matter of course to boast in Jesus, but do we remember to stop trying to solve everything ourselves and plead to him in prayer?

“and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (ESV). We can kneel to this Father. Our boasts remind us to plead for the present situations, and those pleas remind us to kneel. Do we truly follow him? Do we forgive as he forgives? Do we wait for his timing? Do we accept his will, his moral will? Do we flee from evil rather than justify it this once? God is a good Father, and we want to be close to him, so let us kneel. Some of the best times of our lives have been spent on our knees with our God, so we certainly must never deceive ourselves that we are now too advanced in the faith or in years to do some more humble kneeling.

Crowing leads to pleading. Pleading leads to kneeling. Kneeling leads back to crowing, for His is the kingdom, power, and glory, forever. Jesus, teach us to pray, to really pray.