Observations on Lord's Prayer

Before we consider each petition of the Lord's prayer, we want to extract the general and implicit lessons from Christ's teaching on prayer. Some of the implicit lessons of the Lord's Prayer are: 1) Prayer is a duty. Woe to us if we are prayerless. 2) There is a way to pray, a methodology. 3) There is a family dynamic to prayer. God is our Father and we are to consciously think of Him as such when we pray. Because He loves us as a Father, we are encouraged to pray with boldness and confidence. But, because He is in heaven, we are to respect Him and be in awe of Him. 4) There is a purpose for prayer. It was not given to call for room service. It is God-centered, not man-centered. 5) There is a corporate aspect to prayer -- "OUR Father"; Give US this day OUR daily bread. We are to think of the fact that we are not isolated individuals, but a body of Christ.