The Lord's Prayer: Take a Closer Look

Book excerpt: The Lord's Prayer has been called a model prayer by many good theologians. But it is also true that it is among the least scrutinized of all teachings in the Bible, and therefore one of the least studied and understood. We need to remind ourselves that when Jesus gave this teaching to us it was for the express purpose of establishing a good communication with God out in the joys and scuffles of daily life. This book is offered to take the reader back to that purpose. We need to put ourselves back in the shoes of those who heard this teaching on prayer for the first time. When we do, we find our identity, our destiny, and our purpose for living at the very foundation of what Jesus told us here, along with the corollaries too. We discover that this and this alone is the foundational teaching on communicating with God in the New Testament, and when all else is stripped away it is the one understanding we cannot do without; it becomes our anchor point. It not only focuses our understanding on the truth behind all things; it exposes a great deal of falsehood as a consequence. How could it not? When the road we walk is rock solid at its base, the quicksand is easy to spot and avoid. This book takes each element of this prayer and discusses it in-depth, and each element reveals more than what first meets the eye. Of course, this prayer-teaching by Jesus of Nazareth is of necessity coupled with a great deal of related New Testament teaching throughout the book.