R.T. Kendall - Lords Prayer, The: Insight and Inspiration to Draw You Closer to Him

Dr. R. T. Kendalls insightful teaching and writings have had a significant impact on my own thinking. I respect Dr. Kendall greatly and am honored to call him my friend.

James Dobson, founder, Focus on the Family

Prayer should be on top of every Christians agenda; the Lords Prayer should be at the top of their prayer guides; and R. T.s new book may be placed at the top of simple, clear expositions of the Lords Prayer.

Michael Eaton, Th.D., Nairobi, Kenya

This will make the Lords Prayer famous among a new generation of believers.

Colin Dye, pastor, Kensington Temple, London

Dr. R. T. Kendall takes the most famous prayer in the world and illuminates its timeless truths. It is one thing to recite the prayer; it is quite another to understand why it should be prayed today. Let one of the best Bible teachers in the world show you.

Canon J. John, evangelist

As his pastor and friend, I can tell you that R. T. Kendall knows prayer and knows our Lord, so when he writes on the Lords Prayer, I pay attention. This book will give you fresh insights and encouragement and should be read not just once but multiple times.

from the foreword by Ed Stetzer, president,
Lifeway Research, Southern Baptist Convention;
author, Compelled by Love

I believe that true genius makes the complicated seem simple. False genius makes the simple seem complicated. The genius of God is in the Lords Prayer, and the genius of R. T. Kendall has made it reachable, touchable and doable. That is the genius of this book, for the Lords Prayer must be done, not simply recited. First do this book. Then do the Lords Prayer.

Mark Rutland, president, Oral Roberts University

I have known and loved R. T. Kendall for four decades now. If ever a book on prayer was born out of a life of prayer, it is the one you now hold in your hands. This is not just another theoretical treatise but a book that issues out of a life well lived and immersed in communion with God.

O. S. Hawkins, former pastor, First Baptist Church,
Dallas; president and CEO, GuideStone Financial Resources,
Southern Baptist Convention

Few can parallel R. T. Kendalls outstanding ability to make the Scriptures come alive and to lead us by the hand into an experience of their power and helpfulness to us. I commend this volume to you, knowing you will be greatly blessed if you feed on its truth and take its advice. May this book immediately be put into effect by your transformed experience of the Lords Prayer.

Terry Virgo, founder, Newfrontiers;
author, No Well-Worn Paths

The Lords
Prayer

The Lords
Prayer

Insight and Inspiration to Draw You Closer to Him

Dr. R. T. Kendall

2010 by R. T. Kendall

Published by Chosen Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.chosenbooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kendall, R. T.

The Lords prayer : insight and inspiration to draw you closer to Him / R.T. Kendall.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-8007-9489-7 (pbk.)

1. Lords prayerCriticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Spiritual lifeChristianity. I Title.

BV230.K38 2010

242.722dc22 2009045001

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked ESV is taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked RSV is taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked TNIV is taken from the Holy Bible, Todays New International Version TM Copyright 2001 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked KJV is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked NLT is taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

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To Charlie, Lyndon and Rob

Contents

by Ed Stetzer

by Mark Rutland

by O. S. Hawkins

by Terry Virgo

The Lords Prayer

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. 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 6:913

W E LIVE IN a world in which communication feels, at times, like a pandemic. Words, ideas and even emotions move with unstoppable velocity. The human race has honed the science and art of transporting content to one another. But we are, I fear, at the mercy of the medium and are losing our own messages.

A century ago people communicated through a limited number of methods. Primarily we talked to one another. Over the last few decades, all that has changed. Mobile phones, email, blogging on the Internet and a myriad of instant messaging options have transformed our communication methods. In the current technology, Twitter is the most popular form of communication. To participate, you tweet your message for the entire world to read via the Internet. But there is one caveat: Your message must be fewer than 140 characters. Even with this limitation, many use Twitter as a primary form of communication to give and receive information.

Correspondence is occurring more frequently and at a faster pace, but possibly with an atrophying impact. We dance along a tightrope of increased communication lacking any depth or significance. With such self-imposed limitations placed on our communications to one another, there must be a spiritual consequence. It cannot be denied that in a time when tools for communication are growing more powerful, our ability to relate is weakening. In speaking more rapidly, we are listening less intently.

But by Gods blessing, there is an answer to such a predicament. God has endowed us with a form of communication that can be ignored by man but that never loses its power with Him: prayer. It remains the ever-present answer to our communication weakness. It requires no great skill of oratory. Prayer humbles us before God and emboldens us before man. Prayer can be as short as an Internet instant message or as long as a great work of literature. Whether brief or lengthy, God is awaiting our response to His initiatives through prayer.

One of the great lessons we learn about prayer is that, although it is a form of communication between God and His people, it is not merely for communication. Prayer is one of the primary vehicles by which God delivers us into the middle of His plan and purposes. As Jesus taught His disciples, prayer was to show them how to speak and how to listen to the Father. Whereas we live in a world in which it is easy to make one-way declarations, prayer demands a listening ear as well.