In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus is teaching us HOW to pray in contrast to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the meaningless repetition of the Gentiles. Both types of prayers have SELF as the focus of the prayer.
In the Lord’s Prayer, however, Jesus teaches us that GOD is to the focus of our prayers — it is all about Him! His Name, His Kingdom, His Will, His Provision for us, His Pardon to us, His Protection over us. It all about God and what God is doing. Have you ever noticed that?
And here is the strength and beauty and depth of the Lord’s Prayer — because life is all about Him! As the Doxology so aptly points out: Because God has absolute Rule and absolute Power and absolute Glory — we can pray meaningfully and with assurance knowing that these are never empty requests!
We think of Elijah on Mount Carmel. The Baal priests prayed like the Gentiles Jesus talks about — they screamed and danced; cut themselves and worked themselves up into a frenzy. There was no response from Baal. Elijah, on the other hand, prayed a simple, quiet prayer of faith and trust in Yahweh — and the water soaked sacrifice was burnt up with fire from heaven.
Think of Isaiah. He prophesies that after Judah has been taken into captivity - the city and temple destroyed - God will call them back to Jerusalem as His people. And then Isaiah lays out power after power that the Lord has and so it will happen as He promised.
God has also revealed His the glory, especially in what He has done in Jesus, bringing us salvation through His suffering and death on the cross. The Lord is worthy of all praise and honour and adoration — and that is what the doxology does! It brings the Lord’s Prayer to a crescendo of praise.
And so, we may pray with confidence — the Lord is God and there is none other like Him! We are assured of His love and care because this Sovereign Lord is also our heavenly Father!