Skip to main content

Rediscovering the Power of The Lord’s Prayer


The way Jesus and his disciples prayed and how they understood their roles in praying The Lord’s Prayer are very different from the ways we pray today. We must learn our role in prayer before learning about the meanings of the Hebrew words Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Below are some key insights about prayer in Jesus’s Jewish culture.

1. Prayer is the human side of an unending dialogue between God and humans.

2. God speaks to people through the grandeur of nature, the drama of history and the Jewish Scriptures.

3. God speaks to humans of his love for them, of his purposes for creating them, and of the ultimate goodness of all existence.

4. Humans speak to God through prayer – ongoing personal dialogues and collective (community) prayers.

The Lord’s Prayer is a collective prayer -- our Father, our daily bread, forgive us, our sins, we forgive, do not bring us, and protect us.1 The entire prayer uses the plural. It’s not a prayer about me and my; it is about we and us.

In the Jewish culture, collective prayers play an educational role in the community. They teach enduring values, wisdom, principles, laws, commandments, etc. that educate those praying about the things that are shared by members of Jewish communities throughout the world. The ultimate purpose of prayer in the Jewish culture is this -- bring people closer to God so they may more faithfully perform his will.2

In my religion and culture, when we said “Amen!” at the end of a prayer – that was it! We had done our part. We had made God aware of something we wanted or needed – now it’s up to Him!

In Jesus’s religion and culture, the “Amen!” signaled the beginning of the next phase of prayer – becoming actively involved in making the words they had just prayed a reality! This is the most important step in rediscovering the power of The Lord’s Prayer, so I will repeat it.

Immediately after saying “Amen!” the disciples became actively involved in making the words of the prayer a reality in their lives and world!

When the disciple asked Jesus to teach them how to pray -- he was asking Jesus to give them instructions about what they are supposed to do. Praying The Lord’s Prayer repeatedly was an educational exercise as well as reminders of their roles in making the Kingdom of Heaven a reality on the earth. This is doing God’s will. God’s will is something that humans do. God expects -- and empowered those created in His image -- to do their parts too, not only in this prayer, but in every prayer they pray.
______________________________________________

Make others aware of this information by
“Liking the Real Yeshua Facebook Page.”
______________________________________________

Become a “Helping Friend” by donating and helping fund our work.
Donate now -- Click Here
BHC’s “Helping Friends” made it possible for you to read this!
Donate it forward!
______________________________________________

Let Your Amazon Purchases Help Fund the Real Yeshua Project!
Click on the link below to login to Amazon when you make a purchase --
http://smile.amazon.com/ch/75-2842635
______________________________________________

1 A Prayer to Our Father: Hebrew Origins of the Lord’s Prayer by Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson, © 2009; p. 146.
2 The Prayer Book: Weekday, Sabbath and Festival; translated and arranged by Ben Zion Bokser © 1983; Behrman House Publishers, Inc., New York, NY; pp. viii, ix.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why did they lay their coats at Saul's feet?

The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew   sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the   sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Are Saul and Paul the Same Person?

There has always been some confusion over whether Saul and Paul is the same person. The confusion begins in the Book of Acts. ● “Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul . . . he brought him to Antioch . . . for a whole year they taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called ‘ Christians ’ in Antioch .” ( Acts 11:25-26 ) ● “ Then Agrippa said to Paul , `You almost persuade me to become a Christian .’” ( Acts 26:28) ● “ Then Saul , who also  is called   Paul . . . ” ( Acts 13:9a ) Based on the three verses above, we would assume they are references to the same person – but is he the Paul we read about in the Epistles? The name “ Saul ” doesn’t appear in the Epistles. In order to answer that question we must examine the stories of the “ conversion experiences ” of Saul in Acts and Paul in Galatians . Pay close attention to the time periods and places mentioned in both accounts. Saul’s experience is found in Acts 9 and...
Post a Comment
Read more

Light: The Creator’s Gift to the Entire Creation!

  Traditionally, this is called the “creation of light,” but in verses that follow, the Creator will speak again, but nothing will be created. Therefore, we shifted our focus to the Hebrew word translated “light.” The Hebrew word has two additional meanings, other than “light.” Continue reading at - http://mailchi.mp/6b8feacc4ba8/light-the-creators-gift-to-the-entire-creation
Post a Comment
Read more