Understanding The Lord’s Prayer

This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, When We Say Father.

Redemption through Jesus Provides the Power of Prayer

From the beginning of the Book of Genesis through the end of the Book of Revelation, Jesus’ primary purpose is clear: redemption. He came—fully God and fully Man—to live a perfect life and carry Man’s sin to the cross. Through His death and resurrection, He redeemed forever those who would put their faith in Him as the substitute bearer of their sin. His work alone reconciles us to God forever. This is of utmost importance, because Jesus’ death and resurrection is what gives us kingdom authority and power in our prayer lives.

What the Lord’s Prayer Means and How It Can Transform Your Life

Jesus is our Savior and our Master Teacher.

Jesus didn’t just save us for Heaven; He taught us how to live on Earth. Jesus “went about all Galilee, teaching...” (Matthew 4:23a). Some of Jesus’ best-known teaching is found in Matthew 6 in which Jesus taught us how to pray what we call the “Lord’s Prayer.” This direct teaching from the Master Teacher enables us to understand how to pray to the Father in a way that accomplishes God’s will and transforms our lives.

What happens when we say, “Father”?

Matthew 6:9 shows us how to address our God when we pray:

“After this manner therefore pray ye, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name…”

The time will come if it is not already here, that when for God to answer your prayer will be the most important thing to you on this Earth. It has well been said that nothing lies outside the reach of prayer than that which lies outside the will of God. You do not have a need but what proper prayer would help you to attain that which you need. You do not have a failure in your life but what proper prayer would have avoided that failure. You do not have a burden, a heartache, a tear or a fear that proper prayer cannot help to remove, to sooth, to bless, to help, to heal.

The disciples asked the Lord Jesus, “Teach us to pray.” Here’s what the Lord Jesus taught.

Our Father, Who Art in Heaven

He taught them that prayer is a conversation. Suppose someone comes and sits down in your living room, and says, “Say a conversation.” That doesn’t work! Prayer is not talking at God; it is talking with God.

He taught them about His nature; His nature is Everlasting Father. We start the conversation by calling Him by name. We call God Father when we pray.

Do you know what Aristotle called God? Aristotle, the philosopher, called Him the unmoved mover. Aristotle believed, there’s nothing we can do to affect Him—He changes everything but nothing changes Him. He’s unmoved. Thank God He is not unmoved. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmity.

Huxley, a more modern philosopher called Him, the Eternal Unknown. He was called “The Force” in Star Wars. But one hundred and sixty-seven times in the gospels, Jesus called Him Father. And, when you say Father you express His nature.

God’s nature is Everlasting Father.

He is not the Father of everyone. God is the Father of those whom He has sired and who are born into His family. The Bible says, concerning the Lord Jesus Christ in John 1:12 that Jesus “came unto His own and His own received Him not, but as many as received Jesus, to them gave He power to become Sons of God, even to them which believe in His name.” Jesus said to the unsaved, religious leaders of His day, in John 8:4, “you are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father you will do.” Like father, like son. You see, the Bible teaches in Galatians chapter three that we have become the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. That’s the way we become children of God, that’s the way God becomes our Father. We are supernaturally born again, when God becomes our Father, His very life comes into us.

There’s a difference between fatherhood and creation. God created many things. He is their creator; He’s not their father. God becomes our Father not by creation but by conception, when we’re born into His family; it is then we become partakers of the divine nature.

Because we’re His children, we have His care.

“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26).

Do you see the logic of our Lord? What farmer would feed his chickens and starve his children? The God who takes care of the fowls of the air is the God who cares for you because you are His. You’re the object of His care. You’re a child of God. You’re not a beggar. Children don’t beg for their food. God is going to take care of you.

As His children, we have our Father’s correction.

He’s not a father who says to his children, live any way you like and I’ll not correct you. No, He says, because I care, I will correct you.

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? (Hebrews 12:5-7).

 If you’re a child of God, God loves you too much to let you get by with sin. Sometimes, people join a church, get baptized, and they continue to live in sin and nothing ever happens. They say well, “God must surely love me. God let’s me get by with sin.” God doesn’t love you like He loves His own children, for whom the Lord loves, He chastens. Had you been His child, God would have carried you to the woodshed.

God deals with His children as a Father, God deals with the devil’s children as a judge. God deals with us now; God deals with them at the judgment.

When God saves you, He doesn’t fix you up where you can’t sin anymore, but He sure does fix you up where you can’t sin and enjoy it anymore.—Adrian Rogers

God’s children can expect His companionship.

God loves to be with us.

When we come to Him we’re not talking about the unmoved mover. We’re not talking about the unknown absolute. We’re talking about our dear Father.

The Bible says,

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”  Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ (Galatians 4:6-7).

Abba means Daddy. Have you ever thought about God as a daddy?

Now, today, our children say, Dadda or Daddy, but in the Middle East, they say Abba. That’s just the most basic syllables a child can lisp. And Jesus says that we can call the great God of the Universe Abba, Daddy.

Aren't you glad that our heavenly Father never gets so busy setting out the sun, the moon, and the stars and running this Universe and commanding the angels that He doesn’t have time just to close His ledger and talk to you like there’s no one else on Earth and nothing else for Him to do? You can come to Him anytime, any day, and talk to Him and call Him Daddy. Friend, you can jump up in his lap and put your spiritual arms around His neck. He is your father. And, because of that, you have his companionship.

You also have your Father’s compassion.

A true father would die for his children. That is exactly what God the father did when He sent Jesus to take on the sins of the world.

Hallowed Be Thy Name

When we call God Father, we exalt His name. The name of Jesus is above every name. When we hallow that name — recognize, revere and rely upon it, we find that we have great power in prayer.

Nothing can stand against the man who can pray, because prayer can do anything that God can do... and God can do anything. —Adrian Rogers

Read about what it means for God’s Kingdom to come and for His will to be done in the article, “How to Pray: Guide to Unlocking the Power of Prayer.”

Read about how to ask for your daily bread in the article, “How to Pray for God’s Will in Your Life.”

Read about how to ask God to keep you from temptation and deliver you from evil in the article, “4 Simple Steps to Strengthen Your Daily Prayer Life.”

Read about how we ask God to forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors in the article, “Praying for God’s Forgiveness: A Path to Spiritual Growth.”

How Do We Pray the Lord’s Prayer?

We don’t memorize it so we can recite it. We memorize the Lord’s Prayer so we can use it as an outline and personalize every petition. When we say Our Father, we thank God for what Father means and for the ways in which He has been faithful to us personally as Father. When we say “who art in Heaven,” we think about the power and authority He has. When we hallow His name, we come with an attitude of humility before His holiness.

When we say “Thy Kingdom come,” we seek to personally pray and act in a way that hastens the coming of His Kingdom. When we say, “Thy will be done,” we seek His will in everything we do.

We ask for our daily bread in a way that recognizes His specific provision in our lives and seeks only what is needed. When we ask for His forgiveness, we do so personally, naming our specific sins, and we take responsibility for forgiving those we should forgive. We act.

We name our temptations when we ask Him to keep us from temptation, and we daily ask for protection from the evil one.

Finally, when we say, “thine is the power and the glory forever,” we recognize His complete authority and power for all eternity.

The Master Teacher Has All Authority

In His life, death, and resurrection, and in the totality of His teaching, including the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus gave us everything we need in this life to commune with God, to whom we have been reconciled, and to live in His grace.

As the Apostle Peter told us,

“His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3).