The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 emphasizes God’s daily provision of the necessities of life and the expectation for his people to be forgiving.
That’s according to Ministers Gian Carlo Villatoro and Greg Fleming, who say Jesus’ example was about magnifying God in one’s daily prayers.
“We need to start right there, exalting the name of our Great Lord God,” said the Rev. Villatoro, pastor of Victory Church. “It is not about trying to impress Him, it is for us to see how great he really is.
“This will lead us to be thankful and express our gratitude to him.”
Villatoro said prayer is about expressing oneself and depending entirely on God.
“One of the most important things in our lives is acknowledging that he is everything and that without him we are nothing,” he said. “Prayer is about committing to his lordship in our lives. It is absolutely beautiful when we finally see him as the king of the universe and the king of our lives.
“We learn to accept his will and obey his commandments. Prayer is about the forgiveness that we need from him and the forgiveness that we need to impart to everyone else, including the forgiveness of ourselves.”
Villatoro said prayer is also about protection and deliverance.
“We pray when we leave our homes and go to work,” he said. “We ask all the time for our Lord to send His angels around us and protect us wherever we go.
“Prayer is about magnifying the Lord. We should finish our prayers all the time by magnifying him.”
Fleming, minister of Downtown Church of Christ in Midland, said the Lord’s Prayer broke new ground.
“These words are unexpected and uncommon,” Fleming said. “Otherwise why would Jesus need to share this teaching at all?
“Jesus here trains his committed disciples who come to him up on a mountain, not the great crowds following him below. He tells these apprentices that prayer’s proper focus is on a heavenly rather than an earthly audience and that prayer is not made more effective by stacking up words.
“Rather, prayer rightly begins with praise recognizing the hallowed name of our Father followed by an evangelistic plea that God’s Kingdom rule over all creation would be realized on earth as in heaven.”
Only after this praise and plea is made does Jesus instruct his apprentices to ask that the Father’s twin mercies of the provision of daily bread and the provision of forgiveness of debts be realized, Fleming said.
“On seeing sin as a debt, Jesus likewise commends asking for rescue from the spiritual perils of testing and evil,” he said. “It seems to me that Christ’s call to forgive, with one’s own forgiveness by God hinging on one’s readiness to forgive others in Verses 12 and 14-15, reveals a key aspect of what Kingdom living looks like.
“As Heaven’s forgiveness spills over into the relationships among humans on earth, God’s reign begins to be seen on earth as it is in Heaven.”
