The Lord's Prayer

This week I want to take a brief look at the Lord’s Prayer. My plan is three posts:

(1) After this manner pray ye – the prayer itself
(2) So much negativity – objections to praying this prayer
(3) Positivity restored – objections shot down

Yesterday we considered the prayer itself, After this manner therefore pray ye. I know there are those who rarely pray this prayer, perhaps never in the church they attend, so I encouraged all my readers to pray this every day this week. I also know there are those who object to the present day use of the Lord’s Prayer. And that’s what I want to consider today, the objections offered by those who say this is not a prayer for Christians today.

So much negativity

In presenting a list of objections from those who don’t pray this prayer let me quote the Apostle, I speak as a fool. I don’t pretend this list is exhaustive, these are just some of the objections I’ve encountered in my many years in ‘non-liturgical’ circles.  In no particular order:


Everything Jesus said/taught was to Jews under the Law and has nothing to do with us. This is therefore not a Christian prayer. The entire ministry of Jesus was under the Law, all his teaching was part of the Old Covenant, not applicable to us today. The Gospel as we know it was preached by Paul. Paul is the one we should follow. Paul does not mention the Lord’s Prayer. This is not for us.
This would be the view of what is known as dispensationalism. Or perhaps more accurately, early or extreme dispensationalism.

There is a milder form of dispensationalism which, while not as extreme, still casts a jaundiced eye on this as being Jewish and not Christian, law and not grace. The thought is, it is good as far as it goes, but the Apostles and thus the Church have moved on to a higher spiritual realm of prayer.

Before giving us this prayer, Jesus said, But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. The repeated use of this prayer falls under the category of vain repetitions. Besides, everybody knows that churches who use this prayer say the same things every week, and most likely aren’t even aware of what they are saying or what it means.

Which brings us to liturgy and ritual. Bad, just bad. Repeating the Lord’s Prayer is part of empty, mind-numbing ritual which should be avoided.

This is a Catholic thing, right?

True prayer is extemporaneous, spontaneous, unplanned, unprepared. Spiritual prayer is from the heart, depending on the Holy Spirit for the words and direction. Therefore, using the Lord’s Prayer, or any other written or prepared prayer, is not spiritual, is not praying in the Spirit.

Jesus gave this as a model for prayer, an outline of proper things to be prayed for. This was never intended as a prayer to be prayed.


Whew! That’s enough negativity for one day! Once again I encourage you to pray the Lord’s Prayer every day this week.


Wednesday – Positivity Restored: objections shot down!