The Whole Prayer, Read Once Through

At the start of this series the prayer was a few lines. Now it is a pattern you can pray in about two minutes. Today we read it once through, and see where the last petition returns us.

Matthew 6:9–13; John 17:15

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The Prayer, Five Days In

Earlier in this series we read the first five petitions one at a time. Here is what each one turned out to carry, in the order the prayer gives them.

DAY 1
Our Father in the Heavens
The address comes first and is plural from its second word. The prayer begins with a relationship before it makes a request.
Matthew 6:9 (KJV)
DAY 2
Hallowed Be Your Name
Holiness begins with God. Our part is to stop profaning the name while we ask him to keep it holy.
Matthew 6:9 (KJV)
DAY 3
Your Will, on Earth as in Heaven
The middle petition is the hinge. The Son prayed the same request in the Garden before the cross.
Matthew 6:10 (KJV)
DAY 4
Give Us Today Our Bread
The bread is asked for day by day. Its key word appears in only two places, and the manna that was kept overnight spoiled.
Matthew 6:11 (KJV)
DAY 5
Forgive Us, as We Forgive
Received mercy and given mercy are one shape. The cross is where the release was given in full.
Matthew 6:12 (KJV)

After this manner therefore pray ye: 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 debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV)

The whole prayer, read once through before the last petition is opened.

Deliver Us, and the Word Evil

The last petition is short, and its final words are open to two readings. The Greek is ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ (apo tou ponērou). The adjective ponēros can be read as a masculine noun, ‘the evil one,’ or as a neuter noun, ‘evil.’ The Berean Standard Bible takes the first reading: ‘deliver us from the evil one.’ The King James takes the second: ‘deliver us from evil.’ Both readings keep the same plea. The disciple asks to be drawn out of a place where harm is near.

Jesus prays a similar request for his own disciples in John’s Gospel: ‘I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil’ (John 17:15, KJV). The request is not that the disciples be removed from danger. It is that they be kept in the middle of it, and kept from the one who wants them harmed.

This is the sixth petition’s quiet promise. We are not asked to pretend the world is safe. We are asked to ask for rescue, and the one who is asked has already promised to keep the people he has taught.

A large, gnarled juniper tree stands alone in a flat desert beneath a dark sky and pale horizon. — A single juniper stands alone in open desert, a place of shelter in the wilderness where we ask not to be led into temptation.

The Arc of the Whole Prayer

Read the prayer through once more from the start. It begins with a Father. Then it asks that his name be made holy, that his kingdom come, and that his will be done. Only after those three does it name a body’s need, a debt, a test, and a danger. The order is not an accident. It is the shape of a life that begins with the honor of God and is cared for by him in the ordinary places of its days.

The King James text then closes with a doxology: ‘For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.’ The Berean Standard Bible does not print that line in Matthew 6:13, and the two translations differ at the close. The reading does not build on that difference. What both texts share is the movement. The prayer that starts with God’s name ends with his rule.

So the whole arc is a return. We begin with the Father, we ask for our daily needs in the company of others, and we end by setting our needs back inside the kingdom that belongs to God.

A tall column of red and yellow light rises from a city under a night sky with clouds, and people stand in the street. — A column of fire rises over the city in the dark, a light that goes before the people when the way is hard.

The prayer begins with a Father and returns to a kingdom. Everything in between is asked for in that frame.

Praying the Whole Prayer Tomorrow

The recap is meant to be used, not only read. A practical way to hold the whole prayer is to pray it in order, once each morning, for the rest of the week. Begin with the address, then say each petition slowly. When you reach the fifth, pause and name the debt you have been holding. When you reach the sixth, pause and name the test you are facing today. Then close with the kingdom.

This practice takes about two minutes. It does not require special words. It requires the willingness to say the prayer as the disciples were taught to say it, in the plural, to a Father who is already listening.

If a petition is hard, leave it there and go back to it tomorrow. The prayer was given to people who would need to learn it slowly. It was never meant to be mastered in a week.

Two red hands reach toward each other across a cream background, one above and one below, nearly touching. — One hand reaches down toward another across the page, the hand held out to lift us from evil.

Where Each Petition Meets an Ordinary Day

The petitions are easiest to pray when each one is tied to a moment you already live through. In the morning, the address and the name meet the first minute of the day, before the phone or the news. At work, the will petition meets the decisions no one else sees: the email to send, the deadline to keep, the small truth to tell. At the table, the bread petition meets the question of what to buy and who to feed. When a relationship has gone sour, the debt petition meets the conversation you keep postponing. When a habit or a temptation is pulling at you, the last petition meets the decision to step away.

None of these moments is too small for the prayer. The disciples were taught a pattern for ordinary days, not for exceptional ones. The more often the petitions are attached to real moments, the less they feel like words to be recited, and the more they become the way a person speaks to the Father through the day.

Sources & Further Study

Greek of Matthew 6:13

ῥῦσαι (rhysai) and ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ (apo tou ponērou), verified at the Matthew 6 interlinear on Bible Hub, Strong’s G4506 and G4190 as printed there. The King James and Berean Standard Bible translations are read from the repo’s corpus.

RELATED SCRIPTURES

Matthew 6:9–13 (KJV)

The whole prayer, with the doxology the King James Version prints at the close.

Matthew 6:9–13 (BSB)

The same prayer in the Berean Standard Bible, which ends at ‘deliver us from the evil one.’

John 17:15 (KJV)

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

REFLECT

What is the one petition from the whole prayer you will pray first tomorrow morning?

Your writing is kept to your account, and only yours.

BACK TO SERIES

Finished reading? Mark this day read.

CLIPPINGS

BEFORE YOU GO

Anything you want to keep from today?

Your writing is kept to your account, and only yours.

EUANGELION

Deliver Us, and the Word Evil

The Arc of the Whole Prayer

So the whole arc is a return. We begin with the Father, we ask for our daily needs in the company of others, and we end by setting our needs back inside the kingdom that belongs to God.

Praying the Whole Prayer Tomorrow

If a petition is hard, leave it there and go back to it tomorrow. The prayer was given to people who would need to learn it slowly. It was never meant to be mastered in a week.

Where Each Petition Meets an Ordinary Day

The Whole Prayer, Read Once Through

Our Father in the Heavens

Hallowed Be Your Name

Your Will, on Earth as in Heaven

Give Us Today Our Bread

Forgive Us, as We Forgive

Deliver Us, and the Word Evil

The Arc of the Whole Prayer

Praying the Whole Prayer Tomorrow

Where Each Petition Meets an Ordinary Day

EUANGELION

EUANGELION

EUANGELION

The Whole Prayer, Read Once Through

Our Father in the Heavens

Hallowed Be Your Name

Your Will, on Earth as in Heaven

Give Us Today Our Bread

Forgive Us, as We Forgive

Deliver Us, and the Word Evil

The Arc of the Whole Prayer

Praying the Whole Prayer Tomorrow

Where Each Petition Meets an Ordinary Day

EUANGELION

EUANGELION