The Lord's prayer - one line at a time
What is the correct ways to pray? Are there many ways? Is the Lord prayer a formula to memorize and simply repeat without thinking? Let's look at the Lords prayer line by line. Matthew 6:9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” 5 implications of calling God our Father God likes to be called Father The opening words of this prayer would have jolted the Jews like an offensive electric shock. Addressing the Almighty Adonai with familiarity and intimacy would have seemed highly distasteful, if not disgraceful. In the entire 39 book corpus of the Old Testament God is referred to as “Father” only fifteen times, and none of those are addressed directly to God in prayer. To these religious Jews , the words, “Our Father,” would stick in the throat like a splintered chicken bone. But after Jesus arrived, the name Father is used 165 times in the four Gospels alone! And in every prayer of Jesus he always addresses God as Father (except