Jesus's Teaching on Prayer, Part 3
Our Father in Heaven
Matthew 6v9
19th September 2025
This is the third in our series of studies of Matthew 6v5-15, in which Jesus teaches us about prayer. We've studied his instructions not to pray like hypocrites in verses 5-6, and not to pray like pagans in verses 7-8. Having told us how not to pray, he now says:
Matthew 6v9-15
"This, then, is how you should pray:
"'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’"
You may well know these words better than any other passage of scripture, though perhaps in an older version. This prayer has come to be known universally as the Lord's prayer. Many of us have been taught to pray it since we were very small. That is a danger because if we're not careful we'll just pray it like it's a ritual, almost like it's an incantation. The Lord's Prayer is not magic, it's a prayer. As I said recently, prayers don't work. God works. The Lord's Prayer is beautiful but if we're saying it without thinking about what we're saying, then it's not a prayer.
Let us notice first that this is a very short prayer. He's already taught us that You won't "be heard because of [your] many words" (verse 7). We don't need to "keep babbling like pagans" (verse 7). We'll be heard because we're being honest with God our Father.
Secondly, some people think the Lord's prayer is a prayer you should usually use in your private prayer times. They believe this because in verse 6 Jesus said, "Go into your room, close the door and pray". Other people think the Lord's Prayer should usually be used in a corporate context, such as on Sunday mornings. The reason they think that is because it is addressed to "Our father", not to "My father". Personally, I think, why not do both? Jesus instructed us to pray privately as opposed to praying to impress others. He didn't intend to forbid us to ever pray together. Prayer meetings are good things. 1 Timothy 2 encourages corporate prayer. Isaiah 56v7 describes the temple as "a house of prayer for all nations. On the other hand, a prayer beginning "Our Father" can be spoken by an individual Christian, so long as he remembers that God is the Father of all Christians and prays accordingly.
I've always found it helpful both to use the Lord's Prayer in my personal prayer times. and to use it corporately. A church worship meeting (or service) is a communal act. Just as it's good to sing together, it's also good to pray together. And if our children come to church, they'll learn the Lord's Prayer, and then they'll pray it in their private prayer times.
It is legitimate to pray this prayer exactly as we find in the the Bible. It is also legitimate to use each line of it as a "heading" or "category", prompting us to pray more specific prayers. In that way, we can take hours to pray this prayer. That's wonderful, so long as we don't do so just to multiply our words in the hope that we will impress God. As we go though our study of this prayer, I will seek to give examples of the way meditating on each line and praying it through can lead us deeper into our relationship with God. Every word of this prayer teaches us something about prayer, and teaches us something about ourselves.
This week, we'll consider just the first line of the prayer. Jesus says,
Matthew 6v9
"This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your
name...'"
The first word of this prayer is "Our". It's good for each of us to pray for ourselves, but it's also good to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, and to pray for the church as a community. We are God's family. God is our Father, not just my Father.
The second word of this prayer is father. Some people struggle with the concept of God as father because their own fathers we not good people, but God is the perfect father. He's all wise, all loving, patient, kind, generous and always willing to listen. If we're prepared to be quiet with Him, He's always willing to communicate back. What a wonderful thing it is to pray to our Father!
Jesus teaches us to pray to the Father. Jesus doesn't teach us to pray to Himself or to the Holy Spirit. It's not forbidden to pray to Jesus or the Holy Spirit, and sometimes it's a good thing to do. It's not wrong to say, "Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for me" or "Holy Spirit, please inspire me with the right words to speak". But generally our prayers, especially our intercessory prayers, are prayers to the Father, not to the Son or to the Spirit. It's Jesus who makes it possible for us to communicate with Father by dying on the cross so we could be set free from our sins and adopted as God's children. It's the Holy Spirit who inspires us to pray and sustains us in prayer. But it's the Father who hears our prayers.
When we pray to "Our Father in heaven", we remember that God is in heaven, and we are on earth, which teaches us a measure of humility before Him.
Ecclesiastes 5v2
Do not be quick with your mouth , do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything
before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.
When we come before God in prayer we should do so with an attitude of reverence and awe at His surpassing greatness. Don't think you can lecture God. Don't think you can tell Him when He's getting it wrong. Don't think you can call Him to account, "How dare you, God?" Don't speak carelessly or flippantly to God. He is the king of the universe. Who do we think we are?
I don't often kneel to pray because my knees won't stand it, but it's a good idea to kneel to pray because it reminds you to be humble before almighty God.
And we pray, "hallowed be your name".
This is the first thing we pray, our first petition, because it's the most important thing. It's fitting that we pray for God' name before we pray about our situations, our problems. What's more important, God's name or my little issues? So we put what's really important first. Hallowed be God's name. "May everything I do, Lord, tend to the glory of God. May I improve your reputation among men and women, and not damage it by my behaviour and my words. May the nation in which I live come to respect you again. May the television programmes I watch not take the name of Jesus Christ in vain. May God be honoured in our land and across the whole world."
That's a prayer worth praying! I ache for God's name to be properly respected, honoured, worshipped, set apart from all other names and all other words. I hope you do. How can we be Christians, saved through the precious blood of Jesus, forgiven our sins, brought into relationship with almighty God, and not yearn for His name to treated as He deserves?