I was prayerfully reading Luke 11 this week and took note of a few items in the Lord’s Prayer. This is a template for how our prayers are to be. Jesus wasn’t saying we need to repeat this prayer every time we pray, but rather, when we pray, we pray in this manner.


The first key in this prayer is going before God reverently. This is why it starts with ‘Our Father, hallowed be Your Name’ or ‘Father’, depending on your translation. I love what Philip Crannell writes in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia about this verse: “To ‘hallow the name’ includes not only the inward attitude and outward action of profound reverence and active praise, but also that personal godliness, loving obedience and aggressive Christ-likeness, which reveal the presence of God in the life, which is His true earthly glory.”


We approach Him with reverence and praise. We should be praying with an attitude of thanksgiving and praise.


Along with this, we also pray for His will to be done on earth. We should pray for Him to give us daily wisdom on how to do the various things God has called us to do to expand His Kingdom on the earth. This is why it says ‘Your Kingdom come’. We must serve with God in expanding His Kingdom in our sphere of influence.


The Lord’s Prayer also mentions our daily bread, which is a prayer for God’s providence. Again, we do this from a place of praise and thanksgiving, not a place of being desperate.


Additionally, as believers, we walk as forgiven people and also forgive others. We can only forgive others through God’s empowering because of His love that has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.


We can also pray daily for God to empower us not to give in to temptation. Jesus, being God in the flesh, lived without sin even while tempted at every point of His humanity. Keep in mind, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness after fasting for forty days. I don’t know about you, but I would be a bit hangry!


Reflecting on the Lord’s Prayer will help guide us with principles for a victorious prayer life in the victory Jesus already purchased for us in our absolute perfect salvation.