The Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer gives us a pattern to pray by. Read the Lord's Prayer and find out more about prayer.

The Bible teaches a lot about prayer; go to our Bible quiz page to learn more about it.

The Lord's prayer is found in Matthew 6:9-13. It was given as part of the Sermon on the Mount. In the verses before the Lord's prayer, the Lord taught us two very important things about prayer:

1. Don't pray so everyone will see you and think you are a great person (like the "hypocrites" who stood on the "corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men" [Matthew 6:5]).
2. We shouldn't use vain repetitions (Matthew 6:7). That means that we shouldn't say the same things over and over in our prayers so they become meaningless. We should pray from our hearts.

Jesus gave us the perfect pattern of what a prayer should be in the Lord's Prayer.

The Lord's Prayer reads (Matthew 6):

9. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

[We should reverence and respect the name of God]

10. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

[We should acknowledge God's hand in all things and not try to get Him to do things we want as much as we should seek His will for us in our lives.]

11. Give us this day our daily bread.

[We should ask God to help us with our needs]

12. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

[We should repent, turn away from our wrongdoings and forgive others so God will forgive us.]

13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

[We should ask God to deliver us from evil and to help us with struggles and temptations we may have. As at the first, we should also show reverence and respect for His name at the closing of our prayers.]

A lesser-known fact about the Lord's prayer is that it is also partially given in Luke 11:2-4. Here, the wording is somewhat different. This can be taken to mean that our words shouldn't always be the same in prayers, we should pray from the heart. Remember, the Lord did teach us to not use vain repetitions.

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