Praying the Our Father

[Jstanford1026]

Jesus gave us the our father prayer and said to “pray like this” or “this is how you are to pray.” How do we know that Jesus is telling us to repeat this prayer and not just providing the our father as an example of how to pray on our own?

 

[RoseScented]

In all seriousness, we pray the words that the Lord gave us because he gave us those words (well, translated now). How could the words the Lord used not be something we’d want to be coming from our own mouths and hearts. We should make them our own and bring ourselves closer to being one with him.

However, the format also shows us how we should pray: glorifying God and petitioning him for things from the bread on our table to the forgiveness of our sins and being our strength for we can do nothing alone. We should not simply just pray petitioning for things, we must remember to spend time in prayer glorifying God. Sometimes it’s hard to remember to turn away from our own needs when we are in distress and the Our Father is a good reminder.

 

[poche]

You don’t have to pray the Our Father. There is a praise of repetition in the New Testament. There is the case of the Pharisee and the Publican. The Pharisee entered the Temple and said this long extemporaneous prayer while the Publican entered the Temple and simply repeated “Lord have mercy.”
Then there is the story of the blind man who when Jesus passed by kept crying out, “Lord Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” The people in the crowd told him to be quiet, but he kept at it. Finally Jesus called him to him and gave him his sight.
In both these instances there is repetition of prayer. In the case of the Publican he went home justified while the blind man received his sight.

 

[Jstanford1026]

Thank you for the response. Would you say that repetition of prayer shows God our persistence of need for him?

 

[Jstanford1026]

Thank you for the response.

 

[DaveBj]

Back in the 1980s a charismatic Protestant pastor, Larry Lea, wrote a book entitled Could You Not Tarry with Me One Hour in which he used the Our Father as a skeleton for fleshing out a full hour of prayer. I no longer agree with some of his theology, but I thought (and still do) that the concept was valid.

D

 

[Todd_Easton]

In Acts 2:26 reference is made to Christians devoting themselves to the prayers, suggesting rote prayers. The early Christian writing, Didache, chapter 8, says, in part:

… as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, thus pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us today our daily (needful) bread, and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (or, evil); for Yours is the power and the glory forever. Thrice in the day thus pray.

 

[poche]

It shows our persistence. It also shows our love for him. How many times is sufficient to say “I love you.” to the one you love? Also people who love one another spend time with each other.