I have dealt with this "model" prayer Jesus has given us for many years; and the conclusion that I have come to about it is; Our nature draws us into sin, and Jesus is saying; " Don't lead us in the way our flesh draws us, but deliver us from our sinful ways." The punctuation marks we put in that model prayer make a big difference.
You know, in my class "Contemporary Christian Preaching", we were taught to read the chapter before and after our text.
But in this case, it is better if one also reads what Luke recorded.
"Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." -Lk. 11:1 (KJV)
This was a lesson on
how to pray, not one that necessarily was meant to be repeated.
John Gill wrote:
"Verse 9
After this manner therefore pray ye,.... That is, in such a concise and short way, without much speaking and vain repetitions;
making use of such like words and expressions as the following: not that Christ meant to pin down his disciples to these express words, and no other; for this prayer is not a strict form, but a pattern of prayer, and a directory to it, both as to brevity, order, and matter; for we do not find the disciples ever making use of it in form; and when it is recited by another Evangelist, it is not in the selfsame words as here; which it would have been, had it been designed as an exact form.
Besides, Christ does not bid them pray in these very words, but "after this manner"; somewhat like this: not but that it is very lawful to use the very express words of this prayer in any of the petitions here directed to; and which indeed were no other than what good people among the Jews did frequently make use of; and which were collected and singled out by Christ, as what he approved of, in distinction from, and opposition to, other impertinent expressions, and vain repetitions, which some used; as will appear by a particular consideration of them."
http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/matthew-6.html
God Bless
Till all are one.
