Our Father: Enjoying God In Prayer

by Richard Coekin

Rare book

Genres: Christian, Prayer

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 17, 2009

About the author

Richard Coekin is Director of the CoMission church network and Senior Pastor of Dundonald Church, sw London. A renowned Bible teacher and the author of several books including Our Father and Ephesians For You, Richard is also Chairman of the London Men's Convention. He is married to Sian and they have five children.

Reviews

[Neil Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best study of the Lord's Prayer I've read thus far in that it is both accessible and deep and gives God all the glory. The worked examples are really entertaining and true-to-life. It's not often you get such honest anecdotes about the struggle we all have to pray as our Saviour taught us. May His kingdom come!

[Chris Wray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent exposition of the Lord's Prayer. Richard Coekin led me to appreciate afresh the profundity of this brief and familiar prayer, and to use it more in my prayers. When we are tired, short on time, or otherwise distracted, it is immensely helpful to have such a God given resource to draw on and inform our praying.

Coekin begins by providing some great reasons to learn from the Lord's Prayer. First, this prayer comes from the Lord of prayer, Jesus Christ himself. As God, he knows exactly what kinds of prayers God will answer and where our prayers go wrong. As the Son of God, he understands the privileges we now enjoy as God's children and how to approach and please the Father. As a man, he is sympathetic to the realities and frailties of our human condition, and can sympathise with our weaknesses. Second, he reminds us that the Lord's Prayer is wonderfully flexible and has many applications for our daily usage as both a direct prayer and a framework for prayer. Third, the Lord's Prayer provides an extraordinary summary of the impact of the gospel on our daily lives. Through Christ, God is our Father (the opening address), our Lord (the first three petitions) and our Saviour (the second three petitions). The Lord's Prayer also crystallises Christ's priorities for our whole lives. It should bring fresh direction to both our praying and our living, as prayer is both the expression of and the agenda for our heart's desires.

Next, he moves on to consider the Lord's Prayer itself, beginning with the opening address. Coekin points out that the fact that the prayer is addressed to "Our Father" is significant, as it highlights the fact that the key to growth in prayer is "not better technique but better theology; not lessons in how to pray, but in whom we pray to; not meeting the 'prayer warriors' of history, but meeting our Father in heaven." Understanding what it means to call God Father begins with Jesus, the original Son. Once we grasp that this intimate language of fatherhood belongs within the heart of the Trinity itself, we will start to realise the immense privilege it is to be able to call God 'Father' as his adopted children.

Coekin then unpacks the six petitions in the Lord's prayer in turn, and as noted above, he groups them under two headings. The first three petitions express our primary commitment to our Father's reputation, rule and plans as our Lord. The second three petitions express our humble reliance on his provision, pardon and protection as our Saviour:

1. God as Lord
- 'Hallowed be your name' - may your character be honoured by all.
- 'Your kingdom come' - may your rule be established over all.
- 'Your will be done' - may your plans be accomplished in all.
2. God as Saviour
- 'Give us today our daily bread' - provide the resources we need for life.
- 'Forgive us our debts' - pardon our sins to save us from your wrath.
- 'Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil' - protect us from temptation (trials) and Satan.

- Hallowed be your name
When we pray 'hallowed be your name', it is not like repeating a magical spell. Rather, we are signifying that Jesus is present in power to save, and are asking that everyone will recognise God's power to save in Jesus.

Specifically, we are asking for the Father to be respected, that is, that he would be worshipped as holy and adored with reverence, honour and respect by everyone everywhere. We are also asking for our Father's name to be hallowed in speech, in behaviour, and evangelism. In summary, Jesus is teaching us to enjoy God as our sovereign, redeeming, saving Father as reverent worshipers.

- Your kingdom come
When we pray 'Your kingdom come', we are asking our Father to rule over us through Jesus, our saviour and king. We are welcoming his laws, trusting his power, celebrating his triumphant death and expressing our deep longing to see him face to face in glory. We are praying for God's kingdom to be established, we are praying for evangelism, and we are praying for the end of the world when Jesus will return in judgment. In summary, Jesus is teaching us to enjoy our Father as the king, as his loyal kingdom citizens.

- Your will be done
We need to take account of two aspects of God's will, his secret will and his revealed will. God's secret will is what he chooses to decree will happen without telling us, and is being done everywhere. This truth is particularly difficult for us in three areas: sin, suffering and salvation. Concerning sin, we should remember that God's secret will is not responsible for our sin. Concerning suffering, we should remember that God's secret will does not delight in suffering but rather wills it for a greater good.
- We have all contributed to bringing suffering upon ourselves through our wilful rebellion against God
- God has joined us in our suffering in the person of Jesus.
- Jesus has thereby opened a costly way into a pain-free world, so we can't justly say that God has stood by and done nothing about the suffering in the world.
- God graciously alleviates our suffering with countless blessings and can even bring good out of it.
Concerning salvation, we should remember that God's secret will includes personal salvation.

God's revealed will, on the other hand, is found in Scripture and not in 'signs', is to put everything under Christ, and is to make us like Christ. God's secret and revealed wills are perfectly complementary, and in making decisions, we need to trust his secret will and obey his revealed will with prayerful wisdom as we surrender our lives to his will. In summary, Jesus is teaching us to enjoy our Father as our sovereign guide as his obedient servants.

- Give us today our daily bread
We ask our Father to provide for our everyday needs (bread). This includes our physical, spiritual and future needs. Coekin draws helpful parallels between the Exodus and journey to Canaan and the crucifixion. He remarks that as the Lord's Supper reminds us that the crucifixion delivered us from bondage, the Lord's Prayer reminds us that his crucified body continues to sustain us on our journey to the promised kingdom of God. 'Give us today our daily bread' is therefore a request for God's sustaining nourishment of our material, spiritual and eternal needs through Jesus Christ. In summary, Jesus is teaching us to enjoy our Father as our daily provider, as needy beggars.

- Forgive us our debts
In this petition, we are asking for our Father's pardon and deliverance from sin. It is simultaneously an expression of faith, a confession of sins and a commitment to forgive. Three important doctrines to consider here are justification, redemption and propitiation.
- In Christ we are justified - the language of the law court. We are declared righteous.
- In Christ, we are redeemed - the language of the slave market. We have been liberated and bought back from slavery.
- In Christ we have a propitiation - the language of the temple. God's justice has been satisfied.
Through the death of Christ in our place on the cross, we are accepted by justification, freed by redemption and cleansed by propitiation. On this basis, our debts to God are completely forgiven and pardoned. Common to all three of these perspectives on the death of Christ is his amazing willingness to suffer the penalty due for our sin in our place, drawing God's wrath away from us and onto himself on the cross. This is called 'penal substitutionary atonement.'

When we pray 'forgive us our debts', we are confessing our sins to God, admitting that we need his forgiveness. It is also a commitment to forgive others. Devotion to Jesus derives from understanding both the scale of our debt to God and the cost to Jesus of cancelling that debt. In summary, in this petition, Jesus is teaching us to enjoy our Father as the forgiver of sinners.

- Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
We are praying for protection from temptation. The term that Jesus uses here refers to trials that either test our faith or lure us into sin, but with qualifications in each case. We can experience trials that will test our faith and prove that it is genuine (suffering, sickness, doubt, etc). We should ask our Father to spare us such trials, even while knowing that we must try to rejoice in the value of them if he does send them. The lure to sin comes in temptation, and it is right to pray that we should be spared this because we want our Father to lead us in paths that avoid the places where our desires tempt us to sin, or where Satan is likely to assault us with lies. Coekin comments helpfully here on Satan's common tactics to encourage us to sin, based on his temptation of Eve in the garden. First, he questions the reliability of the words of scripture ('Did God really say...') Second, he questions the reality of judgement ('You will not surely die...') Third, he questions the goodness of God ('God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.')

This leads into the other great danger from which we need our heavenly Father's protection, that is, from Satan himself. The NT teaches us that we will face the attacks of Satan from three particular directions. These are disunity and division in churches, suffering, and false teaching. While the devil assaults us through disunity in our churches, doubts in our suffering, and lies of religion, we can resist him by clinging to the gospel of God in faith. We ask our Father for strength to survive both the testing of our faith so that it might be purified, and the questioning of our faith by Satan, that we might retain our confidence in God. In summary, Jesus is teaching us, as endangered travellers, to enjoy God as a victorious deliverer.

Finally, Coekin considers the conclusion of the Lord's prayer. It is a simple but climactic doxology, an expression of praise to God that brings us back to our Father to find our deepest satisfaction in honouring him. We end the prayer with this humbling reminder of our lowliness, weakness and shame and that our Father is great (yours is the kingdom), strong (yours is the power) and wonderful (yours is the glory). This is the right attitude in which to finish praying and go out to worship him with our whole life. This truth purifies our ambitions, as we pledge ourselves to work not for the extension of our little kingdoms, but for the advancement of his kingdom (in evangelism) as citizens of his kingdom (in holiness) in hope of his kingdom (for the glory of the King). This truth purifies our confidence, as we pledge ourselves to work, not in reliance upon our strength but upon his. This truth also purifies our pride, as we pledge ourselves to live, work and pray at all times and in all places to enhance the glory and reputation of God rather than ourselves.

In a useful appendix, Coekin defines prayer more generally. Prayer means speaking to God, and is our side of the personal conversation that lies at the heart of a Christian's relationship with God. God speaks to us through the words of scripture, and we respond to him in words of prayer.
He summarises the six reasons John Calvin gave for praying as dependence, purity, gratitude, appreciation, enjoyment and trust. Some other important principles that he draws from John Bunyan are that real prayer is:
- Sincere, i.e. honest and genuine.
- Sensible, i.e. fervent and passionate.
- Affectionate, i.e. confident in God's goodness.
- Through Christ in the strength and assistance of the Spirit, i.e. empowered and conveyed to the Father by the Holy Spirit.
- For such things as God has promised, i.e. claiming what God has offered in his word.
- For the good of the church, i.e. not selfish but for all God's people.
- With submission in faith to the will of God, i.e. surrendering to God's will rather than asserting our own.
By contrast, fake prayer that insults our Father and receives nothing is dishonest (mindless or proud), passionless (apathetic or careless), doubtful (sceptical or cynical), superficial (disengaged or repetitive), unspiritual (unbiblical or unconverted), selfish (loveless or self-indulgent) or demanding (proud or manipulative).

This was a very helpful book on prayer generally and the Lord's prayer specifically, and has earned a permanent place in my library.

[Gareth Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really accessible guide to using the Lord's Prayer as a model in our prayers. Richard Coekin interweaves theology, engaging illustrations, and stories to demonstrate how Christians can use the Lord's Prayer to great effect in their own lives.

[Liz Betbeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great practical guide to using the Lord's prayer to inform and guide our personal prayer. Very encouraging.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading this book on the Lord's Prayer. Especially enjoyed the chapter on 'give us this day our daily bread'.