… our Lord Jesus Christ instructed His followers to dwell on the basic theology of our faith when he asserted that we should daily pray the prayer he taught His disciples. Christians may be surprised to learn that the Lord’s Prayer is not a magic incantation of perfect words, but an exercise in understanding Christian theology while we ask the all-powerful God of the universe to listen to our pleas. In other words, if all we do when praying the Lord’s Prayer is mouth the words without a deep understanding of the meaning, we have become the very thing Jesus told us not to be: Gentiles (heathen or pagans). Matthew tells us that Jesus said, “And in praying do not heap up empty phrases [italics mine] as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7).
Let us study, then, the theology, the meaning, of the Lord’s Prayer.
Dr. K. Irish is a Professor of American History at George Fox University. His paper can be downloaded here.
The Lord's Prayer: A Mathematician's Creed 