In the name of Christ Jesus, dear Christian friends,

Just imagine if you were attending a Bible Class where Jesus was teaching, and one of the students said, "Lord, teach us to pray." That's pretty much what happened, and Jesus' answer began with the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is the model prayer, the perfect prayer. God would have us pray it often. Our Lord Jesus did not speak this prayer in the English language. Whether you pray the new version or the traditional version, the important thing is that the same thoughts and meaning are there. In church, we use the traditional version. Most of us have been praying this version for all of our lives. We know it by heart. In the preface to the Small Catechism, Luther advises pastors to just pick a version and stick with it, and not keep changing the wording all the time. That's what we seek to do. Besides, the traditional version seems to be the standard version used by other English-speaking Christians. The version that we use is actually a harmony of the gospel accounts, and includes the words that the NIV places in footnotes here. We can be absolutely sure that our Savior has given us this prayer, so we have good reason to:

Doctor Martin Luther described the Lord's Prayer as the greatest martyr on earth. Many people misuse this prayer. Do we say the words sometimes without even thinking about them? In church, do you find it hard to keep up with the thoughts as we pray? After a meeting, when we pray the Lord's Prayer, are we thinking about what we are praying? Do our minds wander as we speak the words of the Lord's Prayer? The story is told that Luther was talking about this and a man claimed he could pray the Lord's Prayer without having his mind wander. He said he could do this without any problem. So, Luther said he would give the man a sum of money if he could do it. The man closed his eyes and began to pray, but in mere seconds he stopped. As he began to pray, his mind wandered into thinking about how he would spend the money he was surely going to get. So, he couldn't do it.

Clearly, it is God's will that we think about what we are praying. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words" (Matthew 6:7). Many well-intended people have been misled into thinking that God is pleased when people merely speak the words of the Lord's Prayer. They are given a string of beads, called a rosary, and are told to speak the words of the Lord's Prayer every time they come to a certain type of bead on that string. But when people pray the Lord's Prayer so quickly and so often, it is hard to believe that they are thinking about the words. Jesus said not to do that! If we are absent from our prayers, why should God be there? We should think about what we are saying to God!

But, do you know what the words mean in the Lord's Prayer? In Luther's Small Catechism, we have a find explanation of the Lord's Prayer. We should study that explanation often. But, just for today, let's go through the Lord's Prayer together and try to grasp the meaning of each part of this model prayer.

The Lord's Prayer begins with the Address. Just as we might begin a letter by writing, "Dear so and so," we begin the Lord's Prayer with an address. We say, "Our Father who art in heaven." It is no small thing to be able to call God our Father. Not everyone has the right to do this. If I try to call the President of the United States on the phone, I would probably not reach him. But if his daughter would try, I'm sure she could get right through. Well, not everyone can rightly call God "Father." God is holy. Sinners have no right to approach him. By our own works and actions, we have no right to approach God in prayer. But Jesus took our sins away. He lived for us, and died on the cross and fully atoned for our sins. Jesus rose from death because he had won our forgiveness. So, God has forgiven us our sins in Jesus. He has given us faith and adopted us as his children in Holy Baptism. To those who believe in Jesus, he has given us the right to be called the sons of God. Whoever believes in Jesus is a child of God, and an heir of heaven. And so, we believers can pray to God calling him, "Our Father." And he hears us!

Next, seven petitions follow. Six are for spiritual blessings. Only one is for physical blessings. That is how our Lord would have us pray, giving the priority to spiritual blessings. Some of the phrases of these petitions are rather difficult for people to understand, so I find it helpful to emphasize one key word in each petition. The key word in the Address was "Father." Listen to the first petition, and consider what the key word is. "Hallowed be Thy name." "Name" is the key word. God's name not only includes His titles, such as Lord, Almighty, Creator; God's name also includes everything that He has revealed to us about Himself in His Word. In that sense, the whole Bible is one long name of God. When we pray, "Hallowed be Thy name," we're praying that God's name would be kept holy. We are praying that we would keep God's Word pure, and live according to it. So we are praying for pure doctrine and godly lives.

The next petition is: "Thy kingdom come." The key word is "kingdom." God's kingdom refers to Christ's ruling in the hearts of his believers. Here we are praying for faith. We want a stronger and deeper faith. And we want more and more people to be brought to faith. So this is called the "mission petition." We are praying that our faith would increase, and that many more would believe in Jesus. We are praying for faith for us and for others.

Next we pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." God's will is what God wants. The Bible tells us that God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. But the devil wants people to go to hell. So in this petition we are praying that God's will would be done, and not the devil's. Incidentally, if we are ever praying for something and we are not absolutely certain from Scripture that it is God's will, we should qualify our prayer, saying, "Not my will, but Thy will be done." God's will is always best, and we pray that it will be done here.

Then we pray: "Give us this day our daily bread." This is the only petition for bodily needs. "Daily bread" refers to everything we need to keep our body and life. God gives food and drink, clothing and shoes, house and home. He has not only provided our needs, but most of our wants as well. We really need to thank him each day.

The next petition is: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Every time we pray this prayer, we ask God for forgiveness, and we promise to forgive those who sin against us. When we pray this prayer we are confessing that we have sinned in many ways. We have trespasses, and we are asking God to forgive us. Rest assured that God does forgive us because of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. He lived for us. He died for us on the cross and paid for all of our sins. He rose from death, and that assures us that God forgives us all of our sins. Whoever believes this, shall not perish but have eternal life. Whoever believes this will also want to forgive others. Don't be like the unmerciful servant who was forgiven millions and refused to forgive a very small debt. Forgive as God has forgiven you. Grudges drive out faith. Forgive as you have been forgiven. If you refuse to forgive, you are praying, "God, just as I don't forgive, so don't forgive me either." And we don't want that to happen. May we treasure and value the forgiveness that God has freely given us, and freely forgive those who trespass against us.

Our Lord taught us to pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." God does not tempt us to sin, but we pray that he would keep us from falling into sin, and keep us from falling from faith. We pray that God would deliver us from the devil, the wicked people of this world and our own sinful flesh. There are many dangers in this life that threaten to drive us from the path to heaven. In this petition, we are praying that God would protect us and bring us safely home to heaven. That's when he will finally deliver us from all evils of body and soul, when he brings us safely to our heavenly home. If you are going through tough times, if you wonder when your troubles will finally end, when will the pain and agony go away, then pray this prayer: deliver us from evil. And one day, our heavenly Father will take it all away and give us a perfect place to live, a place of joy and gladness forevermore.

The Lord's Prayer ends with a doxology, a statement of praise: "For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever." It is good to praise God. He rules as king. He has the power. He deserves all glory and praise for all eternity. This reminds us to praise God in prayer. Do you praise God enough in your prayers? Are your prayers peppered with thanks and praise? If so, keep on and do it all the more. If not, be sure to praise and thank the Lord in prayer. Certainly, praying this prayer each day and thinking about the thoughts will keep our minds focused on what God wants us to think about.

We can be sure that this prayer is God pleasing, because Jesus, the Son of God himself, said: "This is how you should pray" (Mt 6:9). Even the final word is important. It means, "Yes, yes it shall be so." We can be absolutely sure that, for Jesus' sake, our heavenly Father will hear and answer our prayers. Dear friends, let us pray the Lord's prayer daily and think about the words! Amen.