A Model Prayer and an Actual Prayer

Pray, then, in this way: “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name…”

Matthew 6:9^NKJV

This morning we look at two questions from the Westminster Larger Catechism. Question 187 asks, “How is the Lord's prayer to be used?” It gives the answer, “The Lord's prayer is not only for direction, as a pattern, according to which we are to make other prayers, but may also be used as a prayer, so that it be done with understanding, faith, reverence, and other graces necessary to the right performance of the duty of prayer.” Question 188 asks, “Of how many parts doth the Lord's prayer consist?” It answers, “The Lord's prayer consists of three parts; a preface, petitions, and a conclusion.”

We noticed last time that both Matthew and Luke record Jesus’ instruction to His disciples on how they should pray to God.  Most appropriately then these verses have come to be known as “The Lord’s Prayer.”  Two thousand years ago Jesus taught His disciples, and so today His Word still teaches us, how we are supposed to pray to God.  That is, what is the right way to pray? What is the God-pleasing way in which believers in Jesus Christ should pray to God?  How do we know how to approach God in prayer in such a way that we can be confident that He will hear us and accept us?  And the answer is we can know and be confident to stand before God in prayer when we pray according to the teaching of Jesus, according to this model prayer that He gave to us for that purpose.

Is the prayer then simply a model?  That is, should we not actually repeat Christ’s words in our prayers but exclusively use His instruction as a topical outline for our own utterances?  In other words is it right to actually pray “The Lord’s Prayer” as a prayer?  I have known Christians who have answered this question in the negative, saying in effect, “The Lord’s Prayer teaches us the form of prayer, how to frame our own prayers, but it is not an actual prayer, and so it is wrong to repeat Jesus’ words on prayer as a prayer.”  In my experience Christians who take this position are concerned about mindless utterances and repetitions people make in prayers, where they say words that they either do not believe, or do not mean, or both.  Jesus actually warns against this sinful practice in verse six, stating that this is the way “Gentiles,” pray, which in context we should understand as this is the way unbelievers pray. 

Can and do professing Christians abuse “The Lord’s Prayer” in this fashion?  Absolutely!  What could be easier than to repeat a memorized phrase while not actually meaning it or believing it?  However, simply because we can so abuse something does not make it wrong.  It is also true that people can utter their own spontaneously chosen words in prayer and not really mean them or not really believe them.  Therefore, the sincerity or insincerity of a prayer does not necessarily depend upon whether or not you are repeating someone else’s words or speaking your own words.  It depends rather on your own faith and intention in what you are saying. 

The Westminster Divines agreed with the Lutherans, the Roman Catholics, and the Greek Orthodox that “The Lord’s Prayer” is both a model for prayer and it is also an actual prayer.  As long as the words are said with understanding (we know their meaning), with faith (we believe them), with reverence (we speak them in humility and in the fear of God), and with other necessary graces (in order to make the prayer sincerely and rightly prayed), then the actual words of “The Lord’s Prayer” can be spoken by Christians as a real prayer that God will hear and answer.  Thus, the prayer is framed as a complete unit in and of itself: it has an introduction, a body of requests, and a conclusion.  If you are a believer you can repeat the words of “The Lord’s Prayer” whole and entire, with no additions of your own words, and know that your prayer is heard by God and pleasing to Him and He will answer it for His glory and your good.