This coming Sunday at Haven (4:30pm 27/4), we gather around the Lord's Table and focus on the One who died and rose again for us. We’re also going to contemplate what is called ‘The Lord’s Prayer.’
The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, when they asked him how they should pray.
Most Christians know the prayer by heart in their own language, and it is used today by every Christian tradition, though there are sometimes minor variations in the wording. The prayer is a pattern or template showing the key ingredients of true prayer:
- We bless God and pray for our world, our communities and our lives to be shaped by God’s will;
- We pray for daily needs to be met,
- We ask for forgiveness for wrongdoings, strength to resist temptation and protection from danger.
I think the best remembered version is in an older language style:
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,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
