Matthew Henry's Paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer
A paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer, in the words of the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism.
Prayer is a spiritual discipline that must be learned and cultivated in the life of the believer. We learn how to pray by spending time in prayer. The more time we spend in prayer the more comfortable we are entering into the throne room of our heavenly Father bringing to him our praises, confession, thanksgiving, and supplications.
We also learn how to cultivate a healthy prayer life by meditating upon the Scriptures, praying with others, reading about prayer, and reading the prayers of other saints. Spending time each morning reading the collected prayers of the puritans in The Valley of Vision has blessed my time in prayer tremendously. I have learned from these saints of old how to pray earnestly, passionately, and humbly. These men thought deeply on the things of God and meditated often on the Scriptures, and their prayers are saturated with rich theology and Scripture.
Yesterday I was introduced to this paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer by Matthew Henry. I was encouraged by it and spent time praying it this morning. I pray you too will find Henry’s prayer beneficial, and that by reading it and praying it your prayer life will be enriched.
Another paraphrase on the Lord’s Prayer, in the words of the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism
Our Father in heaven, we come to thee as children to a Father able and ready to help us.
We beseech thee, let thy name be sanctified; enable us and others to glorify thee in all that whereby thou hast made thyself known, and dispose of all things to thine own glory.
Let thy kingdom come; let Satan’s kingdom be destroyed, and let the kingdom of thy grace be advanced; let us and others be brought into it, and kept in it, and let the kingdom of thy glory be hastened.
Let thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven; make us by thy grace able and willing to know, obey, and submit to thy will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread; of thy free gift let us receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and let us enjoy thy blessing with them.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. We pray that for Christ’s sake thou wouldst freely pardon all our sins, and that by thy grace thou wouldst enable us from the heart to forgive others.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Either keep us, O Lord, from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. Lord, we take our encouragement in prayer from thyself only and desire in our prayers to praise thee, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to thee: And in testimony of our desires and assurance to be heard through Jesus Christ, we say Amen.
This prayer comes from Matthew Henry’s Method of Prayer, Section 9: Short Forms of Prayers, and can be accessed here.
Grace and peace,
Chase
Thank you for sharing this. I enjoyed reading it very much!