WSC on the Lord's prayer

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and
forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
(Matthew 6:9-13 ESV)

There's a wonderful summary of the meaning of the Lord's prayer in the Westminster Shorter Catechism...

“Our Father in heaven...” teaches us firstly to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence as children to a father able and ready to help us; and secondly, that we should pray with and for others. (Six requests follow...)

1) “Hallowed be your name...” we pray that God may enable us and others to glorify him in all in which he makes himself known; and that he would overrule all things for his own glory.

2) “Your kingdom come...” we pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed, that the kingdom of grace may be advanced and ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it; and that Christ's return and the kingdom of glory may come quickly.

3) “Your will be done on earth...” we pray that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey and submit to his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.

4) “Give us today our daily bread...” we pray that by God's free gift we may receive a sufficient share of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them.

5) “Forgive us our debts...” we pray that God, for Christ's sake, would freely pardon all our sins; and we are encouraged to ask this because, by his grace, we are enabled from the heart to forgive others.

6) “Lead us not into temptation...” we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

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