pilgrim people

Many Reformed and Presbyterian churches today include in their liturgies a corporate prayer known as the "Lord’s Prayer" - that prayer which Jesus taught his disciples to pray as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Both the Heidelberg Catechism and Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms teach the Lord's Prayer as God's prescribed direction for our prayers:

Heidelberg Catechism Q.118: What has God commanded us to ask of him? A: All things necessary for soul and body, which our Christ our Lord comprised in the prayer which He Himself taught us.

Westminster Larger Catechism Q.186: What rule hath God given for direction in the duty of prayer? A: The whole word of God is of use to direct us in the duty of prayer; but the special rule of direction is that form of prayer which our Saviour Christ taught his disciples, commonly called 'The Lord's prayer'.

Some confessional churches even make this a regular part of worship every week. It may be, however, that you have wondered why Protestant churches pray these same words so often. If prayer is to be genuine communication with God our Father, can we really say that praying the Lord’s Prayer every week qualifies as genuine prayer? Won’t this practice lead to a form of cold, dead religion? Perhaps you have asked similar questions and doubted the wisdom in such a practice. Let me therefore offer a few answers in defense of what many – both today and throughout the history of the Christian church – have understood as a wise and biblical practice. Why, then, pray the Lord’s Prayer?

Over the next several blog posts, I will be giving several reasons why we should pray the Lord's Prayer regularly, beginning with this: because Jesus taught us this prayer.

In his “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus instructed his listeners not to “heap up empty phrases as the heathen do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this…” (Mt 6.7-9a). Jesus goes on to give us that prayer we know as the Lord’s Prayer. God is not impressed with the quantity of words we heap up; rather, he desires prayer that is done in faith and emphasizes the worship, kingdom, provision, grace and protection of the Father – all of which are contained in this prayer given by Jesus.

Sometimes people object to praying the actual words of the Lord's Prayer on the grounds that Jesus said to pray "like this." In other words, we should only use the Lord's Prayer as a guide but not pray the very words themselves. I find it interesting that this objection is rarely made of the Psalms, which is a whole book of prayers and songs. Who would object to singing or praying the very words of a divinely inspired psalm?

But more to the point, we should remember that the gospel of Luke records another occasion when Jesus taught us this prayer. On that occasion, “Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ And he said to them, ‘When you pray, say…’” (Lk 11.1-2a). Again Jesus goes on to give us that prayer (albeit in a slightly different form) we know as the Lord’s Prayer. But here, Jesus lovingly commands them with a simple imperative: “When you pray, say…”

He commands us to use these words because it is a model prayer and easily memorized. In his compassion and pastoral concern for his own, the Son of God supplies us with a prayer that is helpful in our weakness, a fact that he himself knows by experience. As the writer to the Hebrews said, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4.15). Jesus knows that, due to our frailty and sinfulness, we find prayer to be hard work in this life. It not only requires faith, but humility and concentration. We often find our prayers to be disorganized in thought and lacking in fervency. Sometimes we do not even know what to pray! When that happens, we have the Lord’s Prayer.

This prayer is not full of empty phrases; rather, it contains the most important aspects of our communication to our Father in heaven, namely, adoration, confession and petition for body and soul. When we pray this prayer in faith, we should not be concerned that we are offering up vain repetition; rather, we should be comforted to know that we are praying the very prayer that the Son of God – our Prophet, Priest and King – taught us to pray.

As Calvin noted, “For he prescribed a form for us in which he set forth as in a table all that he allows us to seek of him, all that is of benefit to us, all that we need ask. From this kindness we receive great fruit of consolation: that we know we are requesting nothing absurd, nothing strange or unseemly – in short, nothing unacceptable to him – since we are asking almost in his own words.” (Institutes, 3.20.34)