“The petitions in the Lord’s Prayer are divided into two categories: (1) Godward petitions focusing on God’s honor, and (2) manward petitions focusing on human needs. The Godward and manward petitions should be seen as a whole. Augustine teaches that in the Godward petitions we ‘ask for eternal goods’ and that in the manward petitions we ‘ask for temporal goods, which are, however, necessary for obtaining the eternal goods.’” (17)
“We follow this model prayer to learn that our purpose in life is the same as Jesus’ and to kindle the hope of the gospel in our hearts and lives.” (17)
“The first petitions repeat the pronoun ‘your’ three times: (1) ‘hallowed be your name,’ (2) ‘your kingdom come,’ and (3) ‘your will be done.’ The second petitions include eight personal pronouns: (1) ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ (2) ‘forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors,’ and (3) ‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'” (29)
“We ask the Father to give us our daily bread, to forgive our sins, and to protect us from temptation and evil not ultimately for us—but so that we will hallow the Father’s name by causing his kingdom to come…” (31)
“All theology should lead us to doxology. The ultimate goal of learning biblical and theological truths is not just to renew our minds, but also to renew our heart affections so that our lives are renewed to the honor of God.” (35)
“Jesus begins his teaching on prayer by emphasizing the communal nature of the Christian faith as he instructs his disciples to address God not merely on their own behalf by saying, ‘my Father,’ but on the behalf of others by saying, ‘our Father.'” (42)
“Likewise, Jesus teaches that we should not pray ‘Give me this day my daily bread’ but ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ and not ‘forgive me my debts as I also have forgiven my debtors’ but ‘forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.’ And he does not teach us to pray ‘lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil’ but ‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'” (44)
“By instructing his disciples to pray by using the pronouns our, us, and we instead of me, my, and I throughout the prayer, Jesus is emphasizing the communal nature of the Christian faith and the bond of unity in the family of God and the body of Christ as a group, as the nucleus of the future church. And he is telling them how the church ought to pray together.” (45)
“The name Father indicates God’s astonishing familial relationship with his people through Jesus Christ. The New Testament teaches that followers of Jesus share in the relationship that Jesus the Son has with God his Father. This means that the love that God has for all who are in Christ by faith is the same love that the Father has for his one and only Son.” (46)
