I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 KJV
‘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. ”
Matthew 6:9-13 NIVUK
The UK Government has a somewhat unique approach to democracy. And I don't mean our kooky traditions or an ancient debating chamber, where participants emit sounds during debates that make you think a wild boar has been let loose.
No, I mean the fact that if a hundred thousand people sign a petition online, then the petition's proposal is debated in Parliament.
Now that's quite unique.
But I bet every prayer meeting organiser is delighted God doesn't work that way. Could you imagine the chaos if we had to have a certain number of people in our prayer meetings for our prayers to be answered? I have no doubt that there would often not be enough people.
So how many people does it take for God to answer our prayers?
The answer?
One.
‘I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so that I would not have to destroy it, but I found no-one.
Ezekiel 22:30 NIVUK
One single person can prevent destruction. Just one.
Now isn't than an eye-opener?
You see, many of our ideas about prayer are completely un-Biblical and wrong. We don't need big numbers of people in prayer meetings or prayer initiatives to 'strong-arm' God into responding. We don't need to stay up into the wee small hours or fast or deprive ourselves to manipulate Him into doing what we want. We definitely don't need to do what some cults do nowadays: ritual self-harm to get His attention. That didn't work even in Bible times (1 Kings 18:16-39).
So if all these don't work, what is the point of prayer?
Let me tell you something it isn't. It's absolutely not a means of us persuading God to do what we want.
Neither is it, as many secular scientists would have us believe, just another relaxation technique, like meditation or scented candles or lying in a darkened room or taking a walk in nature. It's way more than that.
So what is prayer?
In the Hebrew, the original word didn't just have a religious meaning. It also meant 'to intercede'. In other words, to stand up for someone in a legal dispute, to make representation.
Jesus' instructions on how we should pray, however, bring a much deeper dimension to our prayer life.
Firstly, our prayers should be rooted in WHO GOD IS:
‘This, then, is how you should pray: ‘ “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
Matthew 6:9 NIVUK
Right at the very start of our prayer, we are encouraged to recognise God as our Father.
Now, I'm aware that there are some pretty poor examples of fatherhood out there. I can say honestly that I've witnessed first hand the effects of this, growing up in a town with tremendous social problems, and seeing lives disillusioned and destroyed by awful examples of poor male leadership. And many of the mothers I saw also contributed to the pain and mess.
So before we get hung up on incredibly negative stereotypes of either parent due to our own experiences, let's set aside the negative connotations and concentrate on what the word 'father' is in the original Greek and what it means.
As well as the male who is before you in the ancestral line, the Greek word 'pater' also refers to an ancestor, someone who looked after you in loco parentis, and it was also used as a title of honour, something Jesus rejected (Matthew 23:9).
The phrase refers to someone who is both a protector and provider. And that fits very much with the context of the rest of this prayer. Jesus is, in effect, telling us to approach God as our intimate and loving protector and provider.
But He is not just anywhere - He is in Heaven. By implication, this means that He is Divine and has all the resources of Divinity at His disposal.
What makes Christian prayers more powerful than any others is not who prays or how we pray but Who stands behind them. Our God is our loving Father - our protector and provider. This should make a phenomenal difference to our prayer life.
Our prayers should also be rooted in WHO WE ARE.
Paul states in 1 Timothy that we should make supplications, or petitions, to God. A supplication or petition is made from a weaker person to a stronger person to get help for something they cannot do.
Paul is using a picture from Jewish history here that is really striking. Ancient kings could be quite capricious and brutal. Imagine: King Xerxes could even have taken a dislike to the very wife he chose for himself from his harem and had her killed if she'd entered his presence presumptiously or said something he didn't like (Esther 4:11). Even King Solomon had someone put to death for asking for something he didn't appreciate (1 Kings 2:22-25).
Yet this picture is not true of God. Yes, He is our King. But He is also our loving protector and provider. So we can come before Him with confidence as the weaker person asking for help from the stronger.
Hebrews goes even further. It explains that Jesus experienced the same tests and temptations as we do, but did not give into them (Hebrews 4:15). He became flesh and blood and experienced all that it means to be human (Hebrews 2:14-18). Because of this, we can approach Him with confidence and find grace and strength when we need it (Hebrews 4:16).
And that is the secret to a strong, fulfilled prayer life. It is not to do the spiritual equivalent of strutting our stuff before God. There's no point. He knows who We are. No, it is to be open, frank and honest and admit our weakness and failings.
The Bible is full of examples of this, the best of which is the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18:9-14. The Pharisee was full of himself but left the Temple empty. The tax collector came to the Temple empty and left full of grace.
Prayer is not prayer unless we admit we are the weaker person and in need of God's help. Prayer is the means of getting that help. Any else is not prayer, it's just posturing.
Prayer is also rooted in WHAT WE LIVE FOR.
The Lord's Prayer, at least in its traditional form, is bookended by similar verses:
‘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.
Matthew 6:9-10 NIVUK
'For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever, Amen.'
Matthew 6:13 NIVUK
These verses are easily misunderstood. A bit like the boy who heard them for the first time in church, who ran home and told his parents excitedly, 'I know what God's name is!'.
'Do you now?' his parents said, with that jaded smile that parents of young children have.
'Yes!' he exclaimed. 'It's 'Harold'. Like it says in the Bible: 'Harold be your name'.'
You see, in ancient times, people used to appear before their betters, bow low and pay them all sorts of long-winded, flowery and completely overblown compliments in order to try to persuade them to act on their behalf. So much so that some people did this during prayer too. Jesus was dead against it (Matthew 6:5-8).
And some people still do. Whether it's praying out loud in a sing-songy voice in an ancient and long dead language, or performing your prayer like a Shakespearean sonnet, or flapping your mouth any old way and pretending you're speaking in tongues, Jesus is absolutely against making an exhibition of praying. Prayer should never be a spectator sport.
These verses are actually headed in precisely the opposite direction.
This is a prayer for Our Father in Heaven's Name to be hallowed. Do you know what this means? It means that it should be sacred, special, holy, separated from the mundane and unclean. Revered, even. Not used flippantly in speech as if it's nothing. Not degraded and dragged through the mud by the immoral actions of those who say they follow Him but do nothing of the sort.
It's also a prayer for His Kingdom to come - not ours, and for His will to be done - not ours.
So right at the top of this prayer, right in the introduction, you have a hallowed Name, a Kingdom to come and a will to be done.
But who is going to do these things? Who will hold Our Father's Name as hallowed? Who will cause His Kingdom to come? Who will do His will?
The answer is simple: people will. People will do all these things.
And what is the will of God?
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment – to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
Ephesians 1:7-10 NIVUK
His will is to extend the Kingdom of His Son by bringing all things to unity under Him.
So let's skip to the end of the prayer:
'For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever, Amen.'
Matthew 6:13 NIVUK
Do you see this? When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we are praying for Lord to have His rightful place, because it is His. We are praying for Him to truly be Lord.
But over whom?
There is only one species that can hallow God's Name, help His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven and give Him His rightful place.
People.
That is why we are instructed to pray this prayer:
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’
Matthew 9:36-38 NIVUK
The Lord's Prayer is very much a missionary prayer as it is a prayer for God to have His rightful place in this world and on the hearts of men. This cannot happen if they can't hear the Gospel and respond to it (Romans 10:14-15). Hence the prayer for workers to be sent into the field.
If we are Christians - followers of Christ - then we are living for the glory of God (John 17:1-5). If we are living for the glory of God then we must be involved in ensuring that He has His rightful place in the hearts of all people. The only way this can happen is through missions. That is why Jesus told us to pray for workers.
Do you need more evidence?
How about the reason why Paul urges us to pray for those in power?
This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:3-4 NIVUK
He wants us to pray for those in power so that we live quiet and peaceful lives (1 Timothy 2:2) and so that they present no hindrance to the progress of the Gospel and the extension of the Kingdom of God.
And if we truly are Christians, this is what we live for.
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