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Saturday, 2 November 2013

Luke 11:1-4 - The Lord's prayer

Jesus was praying and after He had finished one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Evidently John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray. 
Jesus then gives them what we variously call the "Lord's prayer", though it is perhaps more accurate to call it the disciples' prayer as it is what we are meant to pray. This is very similar to the version given in Matthew 6:9-13. I don't think Jesus requires us to pray this word for word (though there is no harm in doing this), but more of a pattern of prayer, and showing the essential elements. 
First, we address God as Father, or Father in Heaven. We have a relationship with God. God's intention is that we live in a family relationship with Him, and all His actions are geared at achieving this. 
Next we pray for His name to be honoured, and His kingdom to come. The form in which most of know the prayer obviously expands this, and other parts of the prayer a little. But our goal is for God's kingdom to come, His rule on the earth.
Then we pray for our daily provision. God provides our needs day by day and it is right to ask Him for our needs.
We also need to pray for forgiveness, we also need to forgive others. It is a normal part of life that we need to be forgiven, and we need to forgive others.
We also ask God not to lead us into temptation. It is so easy for us to be trapped, we ask God to keep us away from such traps.

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