Dr Paul Allen

Prayer is the language (Photo credit: Lel4nd ) This prayer, often called the “ Lord’s Prayer ,” when it could more accurately be titled the “Disciples’ Prayer ,” is not a set group of words to repeat. When Christ said to “pray, then, in this way,” He didn’t mean pray with these exact words. His intention was to give them a pattern for the structure of their own prayers , especially since He had just warned them of the dangers of meaningless repetition. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t recite it, as we do with so many passages in Scripture. Memorizing it is actually helpful so you can meditate on its truths as you formulate your own thoughts. The prayer is mainly a model we can use to give direction to our own praise, adoration, and petitions. It is not a substitute for our own prayers but a guide for them. The initial benefit of this prayer is the way it exhibits the believer’s relationship with God . “Our Father” presents the father/child relationship; “hallowed be Thy name,” the...

Moses with the tablets of the Ten Commandments, painting by Rembrandt (1659) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) ‎In form the divine name Yahweh is either a simple indicative or a causative indicative of the verb ‘to be’, meaning ‘he is (alive, present, active)’ or ‘he brings into being’, and the formula in which the name is disclosed ( Ex. 3:14, I am who I am) means either ‘I reveal my active presence as and when I will’ or ‘I bring to pass what I choose to bring to pass’.  In the setting of Ex. 3-20 this refers both to the events of the Exodus as those in which Yahweh is actively present (and which indeed he has deliberately brought to pass) and also to the preceding theological interpretation (Ex. 3:1-4:17; 5:22-6:8) of those events vouchsafed to Moses . Yahweh is thus the God of revelation and history and in particular reveals himself as the God who saves his people (according to covenant promise) and overthrows those who oppose his word. j.a.t. (1996). Naioth. In D. R. W....