There's a relationship between the Lord's Prayer, the Bible chapters: Exodus through Deuteronomy, and one's own personal journey of faith. If you understand a personal journey of faith to be a cleansing of your heart with the exaltation of God as the goal, then you will see how the OT through Deuteronomy serves as an analogous macrocosm as well as a "how to" text in the process of going through a personal cleansing and purification of the heart.
Notice how the petitions of The Lord's Prayer not only summarize this cleansing process of one's walk of faith, but it also displays the steps of faith laid out in Exodus, Deuteronomy and Leviticus in a reverse and graduated order - so that where we start the prayer is actually the accumulation of everything that follows, the goal and purpose by which we live, our ultimate desire for eternity. There's a lot to unpack here. But check it out:
The beginning of the Lord's Prayer (Hallowed Be Thy Name) is a petition, not a salutation. It can be read as what all living things aspire to and what the human race will (hopefully) do at their end...it's the prize, the goal, the culmination. Yet, this is where Christ has us begin....starting with our eyes on the prize.
So take that prayer from the end and work towards the beginning, and it seems that the end of the prayer is the beginning of a person's walk of faith: the point at which they turn to God to the point at which they hallow His name.
Here are the petitions backwards:
1 Deliver us from the evil one
2 Lead us not into temptation
3 Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
4. Give us this day our daily bread.
5. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
6. Thy kingdom come.
7. Hallowed be thy Name.
But Jesus teaches this prayer in the reverse order - starting with the culmination:
1 Hallowed be thy name
2 Thy kingdom come
3 Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
4 Give us this day our daily bread
5 And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us
6 Lead us not into temptation
7 But deliver us from the evil one.
Personal journey of faith:
1. When we are in a painful place done we often find ourselves saying something like, "oh, God, please get me out of this." Isn't that a turning point for a lot of people? Deliver Us From the Evil One is a call to get God's help. It's the cry of the people that started the whole exodus...so Exodus is a great story for seeing this action on a grand scale.
2. And once we decide to trust God and hopefully give ourselves to Christ, temptation become weaker. It's weird but true. We begin to be able to over come our obstacles (often failing to recognize that God is doing the work in us). The Bible offers many tools and examples of how to strengthen oneself against personal temptations. Clearly exemplified in Exodus and Leviticus.
3. Forgive others. Even secular counselors advise this as a cathartic part of the healing process. Examples shown by Jesus...through the Gospel, but for sure during his murder.
4. We ask forgive us. Humbling oneself to God. Examples all over the Bible, but one I am touched by is the woman washing Jesus' feet with her hair and tears.
5.Feed us each day what we need (to give us strength to do all these previous things). Examples in Numbers, Deuteronomy, and the Gospel.
6. Doing 1-5 is, in fact, doing God's will on earth as it is done in heaven.
7. Finally our prize eternally as well as the result of all this (this which takes a life time for most - especially me) - our goal, prize, our final expression and all that God wants is for mankind to Hallow His Name. Make it Holy. Treasure it above all things. It is our final and ultimate joy.
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