Is there a benefit to memorizing the Lord’s Prayer verbatim?

Hey, thanks again for sending in your questions related to our recent sermons.

This last week we covered the portion of the Sermon on the Mount that includes what is

called the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, and so forth.

So the question this week comes in asking, is there benefit to memorizing the Lord’s

Prayer verbatim?

Is there benefit to memorizing the Lord’s Prayer verbatim?

In the sermon we talked about the broad concepts that the Lord’s Prayer covers.

So begin with God, ask for God’s kingdom and will to come, ask for our own provision, look

to God as our definition of right and wrong and that he would lead us away from wrong,

finally asking for forgiveness and forgiving others.

So these kind of broad categories is what we want to be up and running in our hearts

while we are praying.

But is there a benefit to memorizing it verbatim?

Can we memorize the Pledge of Allegiance?

I’d say absolutely.

It’s certainly more than zero.

There is some benefit to memorizing it verbatim.

And that’s just so you can keep in mind what it says while you’re praying.

If you memorize it verbatim, you’re probably going to have a better idea of what these

broad categories are.

And so you can certainly get some benefit out of it.

But even if you’re just repeating it verbatim, I mean these are Jesus’ words, so it’s always

good to memorize exactly what Jesus says.

This is scripture, we want to memorize scripture, absolutely.

But as you are repeating it verbatim, of course we want to be really meditating on what each

of those sections of the prayer are and how we can be applying them to our lives right

now.

The only thing I would caution against or to say is wrong is the idea of if we say it

five times or a hundred times, that that somehow buys us forgiveness from God.

That is really when we encounter a problem.

Memorizing it, no problem at all.

Scripture, of course, memorize it and it will help you remember the big categories.

But if you take the next step and say, okay, by saying it verbatim, I’ve unlocked some

kind of magic that will give me some kind of blessing or it will buy me some kind of

forgiveness.

That is wrong and we need to identify that as incorrect.

Like we said in the sermon, forgiveness means that we are declaring we are not going to

pay the debt that we owe.

Forgiveness is an accounting term.

It is the debt is canceled.

That is what we are asking for when we ask for forgiveness.

So if we come to prayer and say I’m asking for forgiveness, but within asking for forgiveness,

I’m somehow going to pay for my forgiveness by saying the prayer a certain number of times,

then you are kind of undermining what you are asking for.

When you are asking for forgiveness, you are not producing a payment to be forgiven through

your actions.

You are asking that Christ would pay your payment, that Christ would pay your debt.

So that is what we can’t do.

The prayer, no matter how many times you pray it, is not contributing to our forgiveness

in any way.

Christ paid it all.

So that is where we have to draw the line and say no, not okay.

For a lot of people, that is where memorizing it leads to.

But memorizing itself is good.

We want to memorize scripture as much as we can, of course.

So thanks for the question, and we will see you next time.