A while back I listened to The Bible Project’s series on The Lord’s Prayer. Something that stuck-out to me is that the prayer is at the very center of the Sermon on the Mount, suggesting that Jesus intended this prayer to be a central part of the believer’s life.
Apart of our course work in college required us to attend an Orthodox Mass. While attending the church, the priest conversed with us about different elements within the liturgy, as well the the rituals of the church as a whole. From the words spoken, to the iconography, something he continually emphasized was the importance of repetition. In the Orthodox church, many of the elements are repeated the exact same way every week. He informed us that the repetition commits it to memory, and causes it to be a habit, which allows one to focus and meditate on the meaning as it is repeated week to week. Likewise, in the painting of an icon, the layers of paint and technique is the same everytime it is painted. Each layer a prayer. Each section a cause for meditation. The repetition leads the material to become habit. A tool that shapes the heart and soul of the believer.
With this in mind, I started saying the Lord’s Prayer daily. And I will say it has shaped me. The daily practice of saying ‘Your Kingdom Come.’ The examination of asking forgiveness, and also forgiving others. The repeated supplication that God would supply our needs, knowing we have a good generous father, so we may also lend ourselves to generosity.
It has become habit to the point that when the world seems heavy the words I find myself meditating on are ‘your Kingdom come.’
This has become a really meaningful practice for me. And one I think my oldest might be ready to explore. So for Lent we’re going to start memorizing The Lord’s Prayer together.
Do I think this is a practice she will readily embrace with open arms. No. Do I expect her to start saying this as a daily meditation in her own life. Nope. But I do know this is the planting of a seed. That this heart formation is important. Meditation on these words is meaningful. She also has a goal of memorizing The Lord’s Prayer for her Bible Quiz League. So we both have a little motivation for her to learn it. And as we learn together we can pray that these seeds will blossom into a life-long journey of discovering Jesus, and seeking His Kingdom.
Lent with The Lord’s Prayer
We will be memorizing The Lord’s Prayer as we Pray n’ Play: The Life of Jesus along side the younger siblings. Pray n’ Play: The Life of Jesus already highlights ways that Jesus embodied the Lord’s Prayer in his ministry:
- Our Father in Heaven– Jesus’s Baptism: And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”-Matthew 3:17
- Your Kingdom Come- The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): This passage is a laid out envisioning of what God’s Kingdom and will look like here on earth.
- Give us this day our daily bread- Jesus feeds the 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21): God is generous, and provides. We can trust God and live out abundant generosity.
- Forgive us our sins– when Jesus healed the man with a disability in Mark 2:1-12, he did so to prove he was God, able to heal sins. But that wasn’t his first act of grace towards the man. When he first met the man, his first act was to forgive his sins. The healing happened to prove Jesus has the power and authority to forgive sins.
- Don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one- Christ’s ultimate rescue from the evil one was through his death and resurrection. We have power over sin and death, because Christ defeated both! May we walk in Christ’s resurrection power.
Click here to Download ‘Pray n’ Play: The Lord’s Prayer’ Memory Verse Pack
Other tools we will be using in our study:
- Pray n’ Play: The Life of Jesus
- How Can I Pray by Steph Williams
- Loved by Sally Lloyd-Jones- Amados/Loved Bilingual Read-Aloud
- The Lord’s Prayer for All God’s Children by Natasha Kennedy
Baby Devotions 