One of my first significant discoveries about praying the Lord’s Prayer in a meaningful manner was when I saw the two clear halves of this prayer. The repeated pronouns tell us this. The first repeated pronoun is “Thy” or “Your.” These tell us that the first three requests are related to “Your name, Your kingdom, and Your will.” The second repeated pronoun is “us.” It is used four times in the second half of the prayer. The requests here are “Give us, forgive us, lead us and deliver us.” Praying around these pronouns has given me many hours of meaningful time in His presence.
Just recently, after praying this prayer for over 30 years, I found myself praying the second half of this prayer in a way I had never prayed before. That’s one of the joys of this prayer… It is inexhaustible!
A little more explanation is necessary. Just as the first three requests of this prayer point us to the three big desires of God’s heart, the four requests of the second half point to the four big needs of mankind: our need for His provision, His pardon, His direction, and His deliverance. As I have pondered these four areas of need, I know of no need I have that does not fall under one of them.
So, recently I found myself praying that today I would clearly recognize my need for His provision. That I would not think I have everything I need, in and of myself. That I would be quick to turn to Him as my only true and sufficient Provider. Then I prayed that I would not only recognize my need, but that I would receive His provision. That I would not only see that He is my only true Provider, but that I would receive the provision He offers me today. Finally I prayed that as I received His provision, I would also be quick to share that provision with others. That I would be able to notice the needs of others like my Father notices my needs and that I would be as quick to help meet their needs as my Father is to meet my needs.
This pattern (of recognizing, receiving and sharing) worked so well for the “Give us” request that I tried if for the “Forgive us” request. It worked even better! So, I went on to both the “Lead us and Deliver us” requests. This little pattern has given me more ways to glean good/God prayers from Jesus’ simple, yet profound instruction. In fact, I could say, it is another way in which this prayer has become a Living Prayer.
To help summarize this process, here is a PDF file of what I call Praying The Second Half. Please remember that this chart is much more rigid and sterile than the prayers that preceded it. And it is much more abbreviated too. In fact, we could say that this chart is only a “dehydrated” version of my prayers. So, my encouragement is to let the Water of Life be added to this process and see how the Lord leads you in times of meaningful, fresh prayer. Take some time with it, listen for and to His Spirit and see how He teaches you to pray.
Thank you, Tychicus
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