Rev. Adam Hamilton - The Lords Prayer: The Meaning and Power of the Prayer Jesus Taught

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Find out more about Adam Hamiltons childrens book The Most Important Prayer of All: Stella Learns the Lords Prayer at AdamHamilton.com/ LordsPrayer

Also by Adam Hamilton

24 Hours That Changed the World

Christianity and World Religions

Creed

Enough

Faithful

Final Words from the Cross

Forgiveness

Half Truths

Incarnation

John

Making Sense of the Bible

Not a Silent Night

Seeing Gray in a World
of Black and White

Simon Peter

The Journey

The Walk

The Way

Words of Life

Why?

For more information, visit AdamHamilton.com.

THE LORDS PRAYER

The Meaning and Power of the Prayer Jesus Taught

Copyright 2021 Adam Hamilton

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act, the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Rights and Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, 810 12th Avenue South, Nashville TN 37203 or e-mailed to .

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021945161

978-1-7910-2125-2

Scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are from the Common English Bible. Copyright 2011 by the Common English Bible. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.CommonEnglishBible.com.

Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, 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 quotations marked KJV are from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crowns patentee, Cambridge University Press.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

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MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

In memory of my grandmother, Sarah Loretta Lorson Hamilton, who first taught me the Lords Prayer when I was a small child.

In Luke 11, one of Jesuss disciples approaches and makes a simple request: Lord, teach us to pray, just as John [the Baptist] taught his disciples (v. 1). In response, Jesus teaches the disciples what has become known as the Our Father or the Lords Prayer. No other prayer is more important to Christians than this prayer. It is the Lords prayerthe prayer he taught us to pray. There are a host of other prayers we overhear Jesus praying in the Gospels, and Ill mention them below. But only with this prayer does Jesus say, Pray like this.

Each word is saturated with meaning, a meaning that we often miss when we pray it by rote as we gather in our churches for worship. Each of its six petitions (five given by the Lord, one added by the early church) reflects the major themes from Jesuss life and ministry. The prayer is meant by Jesus to shape our lives and, through us, to shape and change the world.

Over the years this prayer has come to mean a great deal to me. I pray it with my church family every weekend in worship. I pray it and meditate upon its words in my morning walks. I pray it together with my seven-year-old granddaughter at bedtime when she spends the night. Ive prayed it with broken people sitting in my office. Ive prayed it at every wedding Ive officiated. I pray it at every hospital call I make. I pray it with the dying, and with their friends and family at each funeral or memorial service.

I once visited a woman in hospice care. Helen hadnt been responsive in hours. Her eyes were closed, her breathing had become more labored, and the hospice nurse said that the end was imminent. She had not spoken since the previous day. I pulled up a chair to the bed, gently took her hand in mine, spoke to her, and also to her family sitting around the room. I reminded her of Christs love and his promises. I read Scripture to her. And I told her how grateful I was to have been her pastor. I then took anointing oil and, with my thumb, made the sign of the cross upon her forehead, a reminder that she belonged to Christ. Finally, with each of her loved ones touching her, we prayed, giving thanks to God for Helens life and entrusting her to Gods care. At the end of this prayer, I said words I had spoken thousands of times before. Now, let us join together in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray saying,

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come,

thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us, not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen.

As we concluded, one of her children spoke up and said, Did you all see that? Another replied, Yes, I was watching her. She moved her lips, speaking the Lords Prayer with us. It was a holy and beautiful moment. These were the last words Helen would attempt to speak before she passed a few minutes later. Ive seen this happen again and again. (Ill share another similar story later in the book.) Each time it happens, it reminds me of just how important this prayer is to so many. It is deeply embedded in the hearts and minds of most Christians.

We know from the feeding of the multitudes and his meal at the Last Supper that Jesus gave thanks before he ate. In Matthew 11:25-26, we read of a short prayer of praise Jesus offers. In John 11, just before raising Lazarus from the dead, we overhear his prayer of thanks. In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, Jesus commended the lowly tax collector who simply prayed, God, be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:13 KJV). In John 12, as Jesus approaches Jerusalem knowing he will die there, he prays for God to glorify your name! (v. 28).

The entirety of John 17 is a prayer Jesus prayed for his disciples, including his request that they may be one as we are one (John 17:21-22 NIV). In the garden of Gethsemane, just hours before his crucifixion, he prayed, Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done (Luke 22:42 NIV). And from the cross we recall that he prayed Psalm 22:1 (NIV), My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, and Psalm 31:5 (NIV), Into your hands I commit my spirit. From the cross he also prayed, Father, forgive them, for they dont know what theyre doing (Luke 23:34). All of these and others are important