The Lord’s Prayer
Jesus speaking in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)
Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 Pray then like this:“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
(Some manuscripts add For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen)14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV). ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Starting with Our Father
When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he didn’t begin with theology or technique. He began with relationship:
“Our Father…”
These two words are easy to say and easy to overlook. Many of us memorized the Lord’s Prayer as children. It flows so quickly from memory that we may never stop to consider the gravity of how it starts.
Yet these first words of the prayer may be the most revolutionary of all.
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, could have said, “Pray to my Father,” as if his relationship with God were unique (which it is). Or he could have said, “Pray to your Father,” as a teacher instructing students. But instead, he says, “Our Father.”
From the very beginning, we are invited into the relationship that Jesus himself has with God. He is not merely giving us a model to imitate—he is opening the door to a family we do not deserve to be part of. When we pray “Our Father,” we are not groveling before a distant deity. We are standing shoulder to shoulder with Christ, speaking to the same Father he knows and loves.
This is both astonishing and deeply personal.
More Than a Title—A Relationship
Throughout the Bible, God is called by many glorious names:
El Elyon – God Most High
El Shaddai – God Almighty
Yahweh-Rapha – The LORD who heals
Yahweh-Tsidkenu – The LORD our righteousness
Adonai – Master
Creator
Judge of all the Earth
Every one of these titles is true. They express God’s majesty, holiness, and justice. But when Jesus teaches us how to speak to God in prayer, he does not begin with any of those. He begins with Father.
Why?
Because the kind of relationship God wants with us is not just formal or religious—it is intimate and familial. Not cold obedience, but warm belonging. Not servitude alone, but sonship and daughterhood.
And so Jesus gives us the word Father—not because the others are wrong, but because this is the name that opens the door to love.
The Father Who Runs to Embrace Us
One of the clearest pictures of this relationship comes from Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32). A young man takes his inheritance early and wastes it all on reckless living. He ends up broke, alone, and starving—feeding pigs just to survive.
Anyone who has worked with pigs knows how unpleasant that is. Pigs smell bad. Their pens are messy. And in Jesus’ culture, pigs were not just dirty—they were unclean, forbidden. To feed pigs was to reach the bottom.
There were no showers for the journey home. No clean clothes. No cologne to cover the stench of failure. But the son returns anyway, rehearsing his apology and expecting rejection.
Instead, the father sees him a long way off and runs to meet him.
No scolding. No judgment. No delay.
Just an embrace.
The father throws his arms around his filthy son and calls for the finest robe, a ring, and sandals. He throws a feast. Not because the son deserved it, but because the father loved him.
That is the Father Jesus tells us to pray to.
When we say “Our Father,” we are not calling on a harsh master. We are calling on the One who runs toward us while we’re still a mess. The One who embraces us while we still smell like the pigsty. The One who gave his own Son to bring us home.
A Life of Gratitude
God could have demanded distance. Instead, he gave us adoption. He could have remained majestic and unapproachable. Instead, he opened his arms.
This is why the greatest commandment is not just to serve God, but to love him—with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). Because we were not saved to become robots. We were welcomed to become children.
So we begin prayer not with fear, but with love. Not with a checklist, but with trust.
“Our Father…” is more than an introduction. It’s a declaration that we are not alone, not forgotten, not rejected. We are known. And we are loved.
Next in the Series: Who Art in Heaven – Approaching God with Awe
AI Assistance: I wrote most of this article. Alex (ChatGPT, OpenAI) and I discussed the article thoroughly. After that, Alex collected all our notes and restructured and rewrote the materials into a general blog, greatly improving it. I reviewed, adjusted, and finally ran the article through Grammarly, enhancing its clarity and readability even further.