Suppose It Had Been “My”?

The first word of the Lord’s Prayer—”Our” (Mt 6:9)—determines the very nature of the Christian faith. Suppose it had been “My”. That would have changed the whole nature of the Christian religion. Instead of our faith being “our”-centered it would have been “my”-centered—and that would have started us off wrong.

In the field of prayer, as in many other fields, to start wrong is to finish wrong. The word “our” involves a shifting of emphasis from me to the Father and to my brothers and sisters in the kingdom. It implies a renunciation—a renunciation of myself. We see something similar in the first words of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (the renounced in spirit), “because the kingdom of heaven is theirs” (Mt 5:3). All the resources of God’s kingdom belong to those who are renounced in spirit. So, in the first word of the Lord’s Prayer, we find an implied demand that we adopt an attitude of self-surrender—to the Father and to His interests and the interests of others in His kingdom. If we do this, then everything opens to us. If not, then everything is closed. The rest of the Lord’s Prayer has no meaning and dies if the “our” is not alive.

Furthermore, this “our” must stretch beyond our own fellowship, local church, or denomination to include the whole family of God—everywhere. We will never get very far in prayer unless we come to it prepared to sacrifice self-interest and willing to merge into God’s greater plan for the whole.

Further Study

Lk 18:9-14; Mk 10:35-45; Mt 23:12

How did Jesus answer James and John?

What was wrong with the Pharisee’s prayer?