Praying the Lord's Prayer
By J. I. Packer
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About this ebook
In his book Praying the Lord's Prayer, an excerpt from Growing in Christ, J. I. Packer presents a powerful truth: prayer is a natural activity between the Heavenly Father and his children. As Packer works through each phrase of Christ's pattern of prayer, readers will begin to grasp the basic principles and guidelines of prayer. As readers apply the truths of this book to their prayer lives, they will experience intimate communication with God and will strengthen their own conversations with their Father in heaven.
J. I. Packer
J. I. Packer (1926–2020) served as the Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology at Regent College. He authored numerous books, including the classic bestseller Knowing God. Packer also served as general editor for the English Standard Version Bible and as theological editor for the ESV Study Bible.
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Reviews for Praying the Lord's Prayer
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just superb super amazingly amazing.... I loved it , I will study the verses..
Book preview
Praying the Lord's Prayer - J. I. Packer
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Praying the
Lord’s Prayer
Other Crossway books by J. I. Packer
Faithfulness and Holiness: The Witness of J. C. Ryle
God’s Plans for You
Growing in Christ
Life in the Spirit
A Passion for Faithfulness:
Wisdom from the Book of Nehemiah
A Quest for Godliness:
The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life
TitlePraying the Lord’s Prayer
Copyright © 2007 by J. I. Packer
This book was formerly part of Growing in Christ, copyright © 1994 by J. I. Packer, originally published under the title I Want to Be a Christian.
Published by Crossway Books
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.
Cover design: The DesignWorks Group, www.thedesignworksgroup.com
First printing, 2007
Printed in the United States of America
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.® Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations indicated as from
JB
are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, copyright © 1966, 1967, 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations indicated as from
NEb
are taken from The New English Bible, copyright © 1961, 1970 by The Delegates of the Oxford University Press andThe Syndics of the Cambridge University Press. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations indicated as from Phillips are taken from The New Testament in Modern English, copyright © 1958, 1959, 1960, 1972 by J. B. Phillips. Used by permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Packer, J. I. (James Innell)
Praying the Lord’s prayer / J. I. Packer.
p. cm.
This book was formerly part of Growing in Christ by J. I. Packer, originally published under the title I want to be a Christian
— T. p. verso.
ISBN 13: 978-1-58134-963-4 (hc)
ISBN 10: 1-58134-963-7
1. Lord’s prayer—Devotional literature. I. Title.
BV230.P23 2007
2007008246
226.9'606—dc22
TO
JIM, TOM,
AND ELISABETH
who by what they
are even more than
by what they say
share the strength they
have been given
Contents
The Lord’s Prayer
"Pray then like this:
‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
[For yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory, forever. Amen.’"]
MATTHEW 6:9-13
(Material in brackets is found in some ancient manuscripts, though not all.)
T
hree venerable formulae together add up to Christianity: the Apostles’ Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer, summarizing respectively the Christian way of believing, behaving, and communing with God.
The Lord’s Prayer in particular is a marvel of compression, and full of meaning. It is a compendium of the gospel (Tertullian), a body of divinity (Thomas Watson), a rule of purpose as well as of petition, and thus a key to the whole business of living. What it means to be a Christian is nowhere clearer than here.
Like other Reformation catechisms, the Anglican Prayer Book Cate-chism centers on the three summaries. On the Lord’s Prayer it says:
Question: What desirest thou of God in this prayer?
Answer: I desire my Lord God our heavenly Father, who is the giver of all goodness, to send his grace unto me, and to all people, that we may worship him, serve him, and obey him, as we ought to do. And I pray unto God, that he will send us all things that be needful both for our souls and bodies; and that he will be merciful unto us, and forgive us our sins; and that it will please him to save and defend us in all dangers ghostly [i.e., spiritual] and bodily; and that he will keep us from all sin and wickedness, and from our ghostly enemy, and from everlasting death. And this I trust he will do of his mercy and goodness, through