I’m sure we know what has been come to call the Lord’s Prayer. Many of us know it by heart actually. As a matter of fact I bet several of you started saying it in the quiet space in your mind as soon as you read the title of this post. But what if that’s not really the Lord’s Prayer?

Now don’t go burning me at the stake for saying something heretical! I’m not saying Jesus didn’t pray the words of the Our Father. But the intent of that prayer was to teach us the basics of what prayer could and should look like. But it wasn’t His prayer. It was supposed to be our prayer.

Jesus’ real prayer can be found in John 17 and really opens up his heart. Jesus’ prayer isn’t for bread or health or anything like that. He’s so much bigger than just bread and keep me out of temptation. His prayer was for you and me. He prayed the biggest prayer ever heard. It was a prayer for your future and mine. He prayed for things that we don’t even think of most of the time.

Jesus’ prayer, what I think of as the Lord’s real prayer was all about the Father bringing us together as the body of Christ. It was about us loving one another and looking out for each other. It was about the father keeping us under his wings and protecting us from the world, from evil and from ourselves. The point of Jesus’ real prayer was that what he began in us would be finished by the Father and the Spirit.

I’d strongly recommend you read the words of the Lord’s Prayer of John 17. Pick a version of the Bible that you can understand well. Read it slowly. Think about the words he says and things for which he asks. This is Jesus’ heartfelt prayer and you are the focus of these words.

If you’d like, feel free to check out a message all about this other Lord’s Prayer.