The Model Prayer (AKA “The Lord’s Prayer”) – Part 1.

This is part 1 in a new series based on ‘The Model Prayer’ (Lk.11:1-4; Matt.6:9-13). We will do a workout as we take this six line prayer and break it down into six parts.

Most people could rhythm this prayer off in less than 20 seconds, and yet it is recorded that some of the giants of ‘The Faith’ spent hours in prayer. What was their secret? Did they go slowly, line upon line, through this prayer, dwelling on each part and thinking about what each phrase of each line meant?

In this first part in the series we only consider the first line, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name,” and consider how it is that anyone of us, who were of our father the devil (Jn.8:44) could ever be called children of God. This is only actually possible through Regeneration and Adoption. This in turn means that God Chose us before the world was made, and has drawn us to Himself.
We are taken also to Ex.3 where God revealed Himself as יהוה which is translated as “I AM WHO I AM“, and transliterated as YHWH, but denoted in our Bibles as LORD (for a comparison between LORD and Lord see Ps.110:1. The idea seems to be that God is revealing Himself as the ONE and ONLY self-existent BEING, through whom all things owe their existence, and as Paul said in Acts 17:28, ‘…In Him we live and move and have our being.’ We only exist because of the ONE WHO HAS ALWAYS EXISTED, and there is NONE OTHER. And yet it is this ONE, the ONE true God that has brought about our Salvation. This is a work of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.

Michael Robson