Prayer Series XXIX

We continue with excerpts from Reformed Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer.

Matthew 6:5-15, Luke 11:2-4

Division of the Lord’s Prayer

There are three parts in the Lord’s Prayer: the Preface, the Petitions and the Conclusion.

Thomas Vincent

The Preface

The Preface . . . Our Father, who art in heaven, teaches us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father, able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others.

Westminster Shorter Catechism

Those who can say Our Father, who art in heaven . . . have been adopted into His family. He has taken them out of the old family in which they were born, given them a new name and a new spirit, and made them ‘heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ’; and all this of His free, sovereign, unmerited, distinguishing grace.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Our Father, Truly the word Father . . . teaches us that all our prayers ought to be offered to none other than to Him who is our Father . . . and not [to] another for Him or with Him . . . And truly this prayer can be offered to no creature. For to which of the angels or the saints can you say without sacrilege: Our Father, who are in heaven?

Henry Bullinger

God . . . gives Himself [the] title Our Father, an expression of love and condescension. That He might encourage us to pray to Him, He represents Himself under the sweet notion of a father. The name Jehovah carries majesty in it; the name Father carries mercy in it.

Thomas Watson

… Continued tomorrow

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RESOURCES:

The Lord’s Prayer: Explained and Applied (by Wilhelmus à Brakel)

Sermon on The Lord’s Prayer by Charles Spurgeon – “A Heavenly Pattern for Our Earthly Life”

C.S. LEWIS COMMENTARY ON THE LORD’S PRAYER

What Is the Purpose of the Lord’s Prayer? (GTY Ministries)

What is the Lord’s prayer? (by James Ussher)

The Lord’s Prayer: Its Spirit and Teaching (by Octavius Winslow)

The Lord’s Prayer (eBook) (by A W Pink)

The Lord’s Prayer (eBook) by Thomas Watson