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After reflecting for a long time on these prayers, I have some thoughts on them that I think will help you to understand our basic prayers better, and to pray them better. I’ll explain some of the Our Father today.

Our Father, who art in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name

We say this first, because it ought to be our first priority. What does a name mean? What we value, what we stand for, a representation of our very essence. And what does God stand for? Everything good, and nothing bad. So if we embed God’s values deeply in our hearts, we are going to be okay. So we ask for this first. We must also learn what it is, by daily holy reading.

Thy Kingdom come,
Thy Will be done
on Earth as it is in Heaven

After asking that God’s values and virtues be embedded deeply in our hearts, now we have to put them in action, by doing God’s will now, to prepare the Kingdom of God and help build it up, before the final culmination in the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.

Give us this day our Daily Bread

Now that we’ve asked to do God’s will, we ask in this prayer for everything we need in order to do God’s will: food, clothes, whatever resources we need for the specific plan God has for each of us. But what do we need most? The Bread of Life, for “without me you can do nothing” Jesus said. Having God With Us will help us to do God’s will most perfectly—assuming we receive Jesus with the right heart, and not like the Pharisees or Sadducees.

And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us

This is all the way down here, because it should not be our job to constantly worry and ask whether we are in God’s favor.

Would a King be very happy if a servant was so anxious about whether he was pleasing the king, that he always did his job poorly, and asked every 20 seconds if he and the king are still friends?

Now God is a Good King, and he will not get annoyed at you. But his priorities are the ones above. So do those, and trust that you are in his friendship.

If you do abandon him out of human weakness or frailty or confusion of mind, then trust that he will take you back if you prioritize him again. Remember, he never abandons us, it’s only we who abandon him. And as long as we still have breath in us, he is ready and willing to take us back, no matter what.

And lead us not into temptation

So far, we want to have God’s values in our hearts, to put them in action, to get what we need to accomplish it, and to trust that he will help us as long as we’re trying to do things his way. That’s all the previous prayers so far.

But the very one thing which could ruin all of this is if we are led astray by the serpent more permanently.

So now, we ask that, as we do God’s will, he spare us from any temptations that would be too much for us.

Jesus says that temptations must happen in this life, and that doesn’t exclude you and me. But Jesus also said “it is the Will of my Heavenly Father that any of these little ones be lost.”

So we must ask here that God lead us on a path that doesn’t include our ruin, and now that we’ve asked, remember that Jesus Christ is never “yes and no” but always “yes”, and trust completely that he has said “yes” to our request. So that, now, we can walk confidently in whatever path God puts in front of us.

But deliver us from evil

Evil means “something bad” or rather “not having something good that we should have had”. Like jail is “an evil” because it’s a lack of freedom.

Now, evil has its use in this life. For example, ever since sin entered the world, “not having something good” can be used as a punishment to enact justice, as well as correcting our paths like a father disciplining his child.

Because of this, being delivered from evil should be our last concern. God can bring good out of any bad thing, and the Cross is the Greatest Example of this. So if God can bring so much good out of us crucifying the Son of God Himself, surely he can bring good out of the things we have to endure that are far less.

It’s also the last prayer because it’s going to happen last, at the end of time. On that day, we won’t need any more prayers, because we will have God With Us, and always. He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Pain and sorrow and death will be no more. Every evil will be cast into the lake of fire, and all the rest of us will rejoice with God forever, with no more bad things ever happening again. I’m pretty excited for that day.