The power and significance of the prayer Jesus taught.
Most Christians know the Lord’s Prayer by heart. We pray it often, at different times and in different settings. We remember it as the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. But do we really understand and appreciate the meaning and power of its words, what we ask of God each time we pray it?
When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, Jesus gave them this prayer. He likely taught it to his followers often, not just one time. He never intended the Lord’s Prayer to be a museum piece, framed and placed on a mantel or in a display case. It was Jesus teaching God’s people, through his disciples, how to pray.
In The Lord’s Prayer: The Meaning and Power of the Prayer Jesus Taught, pastor and bestselling author Adam Hamilton guides us to really know—and really pray—the Lord’s Prayer. He explores each of its rich lines and their meaning in the Bible, illuminating what we ask of God and what we ask of ourselves through its words. And he teaches us how to use it as a pattern for our own prayer life.
Six video sessions feature Adam Hamilton guiding participants through the study. The video sessions are approximately 15 minutes in length and, when combined with the six book chapters, make an ideal six-week group study. All videos sessions are closed captioned.
Session 1: Our Father, Who Art in Heaven, Hallowed Be Thy Name
Adam Hamilton introduces the Lord’s Prayer, its roots in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and the relationship between our prayers and our acts of faithfulness. He explores the first line of the Lord’s Prayer, including what it means to call God father, how heaven is as big as the universe and as close as the air we breathe, and how we are called to hallow God’s name through our witness as Christ’s followers.
Running Time: 15:58
Session 2: Whose Will Be Done?
Adam Hamilton discusses the second line of the Lord’s Prayer, and what it means to focus our hearts on God’s kingdom and God’s will instead of our own will. The Kingdom of God was the central focus of Jesus’s life and ministry, and when we pursue God’s will, the kingdom comes in our hearts and begins to shape the world around us.
Running Time: 16:29
Session 3: Our Daily Bread
Adam Hamilton explores the third line of the Lord’s Prayer, “give us this day our daily bread.” This petition involves both the food and other necessities we need to survive, and our spiritual need for fulfillment and transcendence. When we ask for our daily bread, we are asking God to use us to make sure that all have their needs met, and in doing so we find our own spiritual needs met as well.
Running Time: 14:09
Session 4: Forgive…As We Forgive
Adam Hamilton discusses our need for forgiveness and the freedom we experience when we extend forgiveness to others. Both our own sin and sins committed against are burdens that we carry in our hearts, and forgiveness releases us of that burden. When we pray, “forgive us our trespasses,” we are asking for God’s forgiveness and tuning our hearts toward the forgiveness of others.
Running Time: 16:16
Session 5: And Lead Us, Not into Temptation
Adam Hamilton explores the petition, “Lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” When we pray this, we are praying for God to lead us—not into temptation, the way we often lead ourselves. Through this prayer we attune our hearts to following God’s lead and resisting temptation.
Running Time: 14:54
Session 6: For Thine Is the Kingdom, Power, and Glory
Adam Hamilton discusses the final words of the Lord’s Prayer, which are not found in earliest manuscripts of Matthew’s Gospel but were added very early on by Christians. The concluding doxology returns us to seeking God’s kingdom, power, and glory. By praying “thine not mine,” we shape our hearts to God’s will.
Running Time: 15:56
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