The Meaning of the Lord's Prayer

© Adrian van Leen

Need a prayer?  Praying is the way we talk to God. When we pray he hears us. Whenever we talk to him we are praying. If you would like more prayers not listed here, please visit my page of helpful prayers. 

I try to make it a priority to say this prayer everyday.It talks about everything we should do on a daily basis.

Below you will find what I believe the meaning of the Lord's Prayer is.

We start the prayer with acknowledging that God is above all others. We are saying to God that we come to you for our wants, hopes and needs and that we do not pray to anything or anyone else.

The Lord's prayer is a prayer in which we are asking for him to come and be a part of our lives. We ask for the strength and the courage to fulfill his will just like he has planned for us in heaven. We are letting God know that we want to follow him and we want what he wants for us.

We ask that he provides us with all we need. This includes food, housing, money, health as well as strength, hope and courage. I believe that what we are asking for with this part of the prayer is all the necessities that we need on a daily basis, including the blessing of waking up in the morning.

Next, we ask him for forgiveness for any of the sins that we have committed. We also want to be able to forgive others who have hurt us or have done wrong to us. That is important because without God's help, that is sometimes extremely hard to do.

We ask God to protect us from the bad and from evil and to help us make the right choices everyday of our lives.

Then we praise God and let him know that we thank him for providing us with all of these wonderful things!

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,

The power, and the glory,

For ever and ever.

Amen.

Here are few more prayers about strength, hope and love.

Prayer for Strength

John 11:41-42 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 

Prayer for Hope

Isaiah 43:2 

When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. 

Prayer for Faith

Matthew 21:22 
And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

Prayer for Love

1 Corinthians 13:4-8  

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.


Teach Your Children Well

5 Tips to Get Closer to God

Creating a relationship with God is not something that you will do overnight as I have said before. It requires complete change from within. Do not get me wrong, there are going to be times when we do not do the right thing, but asking God for forgiveness and trying your best to not repeat past mistakes is what is important. 


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5 Tips to help you follow God

1. Be Kind to others. It is very important to treat others and forgive others just as God does for us.

Ephesians 4:32

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each 

other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

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2.Trust God. He wants you to trust him. Don't worry, when you start your relationship with God, he will start to show you things that will help you to gain his trust.

Psalm 62:8

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Selah

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3. Hope. Hope for what you believe in. Keep what you hope for in your heart. Amazing things will happen if you do.

Romans 4:18 

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be.

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4. Have patience. Even though a lot of us lack patience, it is very important to realize than when the time is right it will happen. Have a good attitude while you wait.

Hebrews 6:12 

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

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5. Love the people who have hurt you, forgive them.

Luke 6:32 

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them.

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There are Times - Love Poem

Love is a powerful emotion. It can make us feel a lot of different things. It is important to always hold on to faith and do what we feel in our hearts. We will not always be able to figure it all out, we will not always know what the outcome will be, but these kind of situations helps us to grow in our hope and faith. It helps us to learn about ourselves and our desires and allows us to grow in our relationship with God by trusting that he will bring us to the place we are suppose to be. Sometimes when things look impossible, when we think that what we want is not what God wants, he will surprise us. He will not only give us the desires of our heart but he will give us above and beyond what we could have imagined. It might not even be what we were praying for exactly, but you will see that it will all work out. It will one day make sense. So keep praying for what you feel. Do not give up on your hopes and desires. God is working things out for all of us. In ways we cannot even comprehend.

The Emotions of Love

There are times I can’t figure out

Why I feel the way I do

This world is filled with so many things

But yet I think of you

There are times I think I’m crazy

Nobody else gets how I feel

But when I sit and think about it

I know my love is real

There are times I wish I could walk away

And leave you in the past

FULL POEM

       

Importance of Faith

Having Faith

Post 1 on creating your relationship with God

I will back track a little from my previous post. I spoke about seeking God when you were feeling down and felt like you had no where else to turn. It is true, most of us seek God when we fell as though we will not make it. When the pressure is so high that we cannot take it anymore. You will realize that at first, you wanted to seek God for selfish reasons. I will admit it. I wanted prayers answered. I wanted what I wanted to happen and I though that finding God was the only way that could happen. Do not worry if you feel like that at first. I believe that is what God wants us to do. We are kind of being selfish. We do come to him because we want and or need something. You will find that that is what God wants in the end. He wants us to be able to come to him for what we need. He wants us to be totally dependent on him. He is there to be our rock and our supporter. But you will find as you grow into your journey that not only will you look to him for all of your problems and your needs, but you will get stronger and stronger in your ability to handle situations that do not turn out the exact way you have hoped for. You will learn that your way is not always the best way. You might think that it is right now, but there are plans that God has for us that we know nothing about. We cannot even imagine what they are. We have to learn to trust that he has our best interest. The impossible is so possible. Having faith is the key. The more you do not see something happening in your life that you want, the more you should pray about it. Do not give up on your dream. That is how the miracles occur. Because your dream no matter how big or small could turn into something more amazing than you ever dreamed of.

Here is an article that I wrote regarding faith.

This is how the bible defines faith


Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.


Do not get me wrong, there are going to be plenty of times when it will be impossible to keep faith, well at least for a little while. You might fight with yourself and try to talk yourself out of beveling that your prayer could be answered, but if what you are hoping for is a true desire then no matter what, it will find its way back to your heart and you will pick yourself up and start having faith once again. (In another post I will discuss your desires and what role they play in our lives).  


How you get to the point of strong faith is really your own journey. You will go through many many different things while you create your relationship with God.
For me I experimented with so many different things. I had doubts and I had moments of excitement. It has been a ride!


In the beginning, I tried contacting angels, I tried reading all I could on the internet, I just wanted to know the right way to talk to God. What I found is that there is no right way. There is only your way. As I discussed in my last post, there are so many different opinions out there, contradicting  options from people of the "same" religion that I was getting extremely confused. I was always questioning myself. I was not sure if God would hear me if I said the wrong words. If I prayed at the wrong time. Do what feels right to you. Your biggest indication of your relationship with God is what you feel in your heart. If it feels right, I believe that it is right. 


There will be times as you grow deeper into your spirituality that you will feel as thought God is not listening or that he has left you. It still happens to me at times. As a matter of fact the past couple of days there were a few moments when I said, why are you not here? But then I remembered that so many times before, the silence was a hint that something wonderful was going to happen. He is working for me you know! Where my eyes cannot see wonderful things are happening and I cannot wait.


To be continued....

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How to start a relationship with God

I am going to write a series of posts on how I created my relationship with God. I will go through my journey and you will see you are not alone!

So are you ready to start a relationship with God, but really you do not know where to start? You know deep in your heart that you believe in God but that is all you know. Usually if you are seeking God for the first time something has happened in your life in which you need help, guidance and strength.  Well though the event might not be so great you will be pleasantly surprised as to how your life will change once you bring God in.

For me it started when I lost a very important relationship. I was a mess. Could not get out of bed, crying all day and a miserable mess. I needed something. I needed help, courage, encouragement, inspiration and most of all someone to listen. Yes friends and family will listen, but at times you want to let things out that you really do not want others to know. You want to feel unconditional love and need something more powerful than the words "you will be ok".

So that is why I started my wonderful journey with God. I always knew I believed.  I believed that there was a higher power. Someone who had created us and someone who could be there for us in our lives, but that was all I knew. Nothing else. Where would I start? How would I get to know him? Believe me building a strong trusting relationship with God is not something that will happen in a day, a week or even a year, but every day you will learn something new, building up to something like nothing else.

In my post Creating a relationship with God you will see that I am not really going to go into religion. I believe that it is great to have a support group and be around people who believe the same as you do, but I want to talk more about creating your own unique personal relationship with God. What works for some does not work for others.

Back to how I started. Well the first thing that I did was started a journal. I felt like I should write my feelings down and express every emotion that I was having. I would address my entries to God. I was letting him know everything I was feeling. I had no idea if he was paying attention, if he knew what I was feeling I just figured that it would not hurt. I knew I wanted to feel better. Writing can be a very emotional experience. I would be crying my eyes out as I wrote the words on the paper, but I needed a release and that was a great start.

I also began to talk to God. I would just say what I was feeling out loud, hoping that he was listening. At first I never really felt like he was listening or that I was receiving any type of answer. And to be honest I wanted an answer now! I wanted to say God I know you are there. Just answer me. Just give me what I want. I do not want to feel like this anymore. I thought that if I talked to God and believed in him, then I would have access to the magic God button and he would just be there to make everything better the second I asked. Oh was I wrong. That is not the way it will happen at all. But do not get discouraged or disappointed, just know that the journey you will go through will be the biggest learning experience of your life.

After a while, strange things began to happen. I would flip through the TV channels and stop on channels pertaining to God. When I would start to listen I would realize that the topic they were speaking about pertained to my situation. I would hear an answer to a question that I had asked. The first time it happened my eyes opened so wide that I thought my eyeball would pop out. I could not believe it. I was hearing an answer to what I had asked. It was actually very exciting. It did not happen just once, it happened quite often. Other things would happen as well like I would be thinking about something and then turn on the radio. I would then hear a song or someone speaking of the same thing I was thinking about. I started to build some trust. I still had a long way to go, but I knew, I just felt it in my heart that he was there. He was listening and he was letting me know.

OK, now God had got my attention. I would listen to the words very carefully and take in all the inspiration and hope that these "messages" were providing. It was so soothing and calming and I started to feel better. As time went on I began to go to the library and take out books regarding inspiration, spirituality, hope and faith. I was studying and learning about God, who he was, what he does for us. At this point what I really needed was encouragement and I certainly was getting that.

I new that I needed to grow spiritually and I new that I had a lot to learn but I knew I was on my way. It was actually something that I became very passionate about. My heart just felt different. I felt different. Though I did not totally understand everything, I started to feel safer than I have ever felt before.

To be continued...


If you are interested in watching or reading up on people who can provide you with great inspiration, the two shows that I started to watch the most often were Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer. I just felt a connection to those programs. They might help you or my might find something that you are connected to more. Remember this is your journey.

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Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life - Camera

The Confident Woman Devotional: 365 Daily Inspirations - Joyce Meyer -

Creating a relationship with God

What are you? That is a question that you might be asked when speaking of your spirituality/religion to another person. Most people will give an answer like, Catholic, Christian, Jewish etc.


Or when you are filling out an application you might be asked to circle one of the below.

• Catholic
• Lutheran
• Jewish
• Episcopalian
• Islamic
• Christian
• Other
• None of the above

Ok, so you, yes you which one did you circle? So since you circled that one, does that mean that your God is the real God? Why of course it does. It is what you believe. You will be quick to say of course I believe in the real God. 

Well guess what. I have circled something different. Is my God the real God? Of course he is, he is what I believe in. My God is real to me.Do not get me wrong, I do not think that your God is not the real God. But I also believe that my God is the real God. Well is he the same God. I think so. But that does not mean that we are going to believe the same things. Absolutely not!

I think that there should only be two choices on the above list. 

• Child of God
• Atheist

Why do I think this way you might ask? Well for starters growing up when my family did go to church we went to Catholic church. Then as a teenager, I believed in God, but had no type of relationship with him. I did not attend any church. As I got a little older and wanted to pursue my spirituality I went to a Christian church. Before choosing "what I was" I would often go on line and read up on God. Trying to find guidance and something that I believed in. Christianity was the closest to what I felt in my heart so I went to a Christian church.

As my journey with God got stronger, I started to feel that one specific church was not necessarily for me. While I do not think that church is not a good place to go for guidance and uplifting and learning, I felt that my relationship with God was unique. Being around a support group and around people who have the same beliefs as you is a wonderful thing, and I am not against it at all, I am just saying, having your own special unique relationship with God is what is important. 

Have a read the Bible? Yes, from start to finish. And you are taught in church to study the Bible. To go to it when you are seeking answers. I believe that that is a great thing to do. They say that while reading, sometimes a passage will just pop out at you and that might be the answer to your prayer or the guidance that you are seeking at that time in your life. Still I believe that this is all true, but what you think that passage means and what I think that passage means can be two totally different things. Are you right or am I? We both are. The words will come to us with different meanings with different situations that are occurring in our own personal lives. 

Like I said before, when I was trying to figure out who I was and what role God played in my life, I would look things up on line. I would search and search for the answers that I was seeking. And to my surprise there were many different opinions on the same subject. Many of the different opinions came from people who say they were the same religion. Well how could that be? Who do I believe. Who's advice is right? I strongly believe that your own advice is the correct advice. What you feel in your heart is the right advice. 

I believe that no two people have the same relationship with God. He made each of us to be unique. So therefore each of us need different things from God. Sure we should all try our best to do the right thing. We should always try to stay on the right path and follow in the footsteps of God, but that thing that is right for you, is it right for me? Maybe not. If I cannot memorize each verse of the bible I do not think that God is going to be mad at me. He did not give me that gift. Though somebody else might be able to repeat the whole bible from start to finish, does that mean he is closer to God than I am? I do not think so, he might have given me another gift that that person does not have.

What about people with totally different beliefs in different Gods? Are there different Gods? I do not know that. I do not think so.  Do you? Maybe God wanted different people to believe different things. It could be for diversity or to test your faith with your own beliefs. Who am I to say that your God is fake? Your God may well be my God. 

Do I think that different people have different rules? Well not exactly. But what if I see the rule as something different than how you see it? Then what. Again is my way right or is yours?

I think that the most important thing is creating a relationship with God. I was so often confused not knowing if what I was doing was correct. Was God going to be mad at me? Did I pray correctly? Will my prayer not be answered because I forgot the last verse? No I do not think so. God is all about giving YOU what you need. To guide YOU in your life. How can somebody else tell you what God is going to do in your situation? They cannot, they are not God. You have to search deep inside of your heart. You have to feel what he is telling you. What I pray for might sound silly to you, but it might be what I need.

 By all means study, form your own opinions, get support from those around you, but create your own unique relationship with God. Do not be scared to have your own opinions or thoughts. I no longer go to Church on Sundays. Not because I do not like church, or that I do not believe in it. But all day every day I will randomly speak to God. Ask his advice, pray, thank him for all that he has done for me. What do you think is more important to God? Picking one day a week to go sit with him in his house or talking with him all day long about everything. Confiding in him as a friend, a provider a leader.  There is no right or wrong answer here, but for me that works. That is the way we build our relationship. I cannot say it is the right way for you, but I can say with confidence that it is the right way for me.