How to Pray the Lord's Prayer: Line by Line

When his disciples asked how to pray, the Gospels record a specific answer — this walks through it phrase by phrase.

Luke's Gospel records the setting directly: "one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray'" (Luke 11:1, NIV), and what follows in both Luke 11:2-4 and, in a longer form, Matthew 6:9-13, is the closest thing the Gospels give to a template prayer. This guide goes through the Matthew version (NIV) phrase by phrase.

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name"

The opening address matters as much as any single request that follows. Tradition Many scholars note that addressing God as "Father" in personal, direct terms was not the default mode of address in the Jewish prayer tradition Jesus came from, which more often used formal titles; this more intimate address is widely read, across traditions, as characteristic of how Jesus taught his followers to approach God. "Hallowed be your name" is a request that God's name be treated as holy — not an instruction to God, but an orientation for the person praying.

"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"

This line asks for something to happen on earth that the pray-er believes already happens fully in heaven. Tradition Across nearly all Christian traditions, this is read as central to the whole prayer — a request not primarily for personal benefit but for a larger reordering of things, which the rest of the prayer's more personal requests then sit inside rather than replace.

"Give us today our daily bread"

A request for material provision, stated modestly — daily, not stockpiled. Contested The Greek word translated "daily" (epiousios) is genuinely rare and its precise meaning debated among translators and scholars; some read it as "daily" in the ordinary sense, others as closer to "for the coming day" or even with a stronger, more theologically loaded meaning some early interpreters connected to spiritual sustenance. Most modern translations, including the NIV, render it "daily" as the most defensible plain-sense reading, while naming that certainty about the exact nuance isn't fully available.

"Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors"

Matthew uses "debts"; Luke's version uses "sins" (Luke 11:4) — different wording for what both Gospels treat as the same request. Contested The clause is structured as a genuine condition, not just a request: forgiveness given is tied to forgiveness received, and Matthew's Gospel returns to this point immediately after the prayer (Matthew 6:14-15). Traditions differ on how strictly to read that conditionality — as a hard requirement, or as a description of what forgiven people naturally do — but none reads the pairing as accidental.

Some links in this section are partner or affiliate links, and we may be paid a fee at no cost to you. It never changes what we recommend or the order anything appears in. Full disclosure · how we source this.

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one"

Contested This line has prompted real translation and interpretive debate — including a widely reported 2017 statement from Pope Francis suggesting the Italian Catholic liturgy's wording be revised because "lead us not into temptation" can misleadingly suggest God actively causes temptation, rather than the sense many scholars argue the Greek supports: something closer to "do not let us fall into temptation" or "do not abandon us to the test." Different translations and traditions render this line differently; the underlying request — for protection from testing and from evil — is not itself contested, only the precise English wording that best captures it.

The doxology: "for yours is the kingdom..."

How different traditions have used it

Tradition Catholic, Orthodox and most Protestant traditions include some version of this prayer in regular worship, though wording (particularly "trespasses" versus "debts" versus "sins," and whether the doxology is included) varies by tradition and by the historical translation a given church adopted. Its use across nearly every Christian tradition, despite these wording differences, is one of the more genuinely shared practices in a faith with a great deal of denominational variation.

Praying it slowly

• Read Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4 side by side once, to notice the differences
• Pray one phrase at a time rather than the whole prayer at speed
• Notice which line you rush past — that's often worth more attention, not less
• Treat the "as we forgive" clause as a real question to sit with, not a phrase to skip over

The prayer is short enough to memorise in a sitting and, by most traditions' own account, deep enough that memorising it is the beginning of praying it, not the end.

Praying it in community versus alone

The prayer's opening word — "our," not "my" — is often noted across traditions as significant: even prayed alone, the wording assumes a community of others also praying it. Tradition Catholic and Orthodox liturgical practice generally prays it corporately, aloud, as part of formal worship; many Protestant traditions use it both corporately and as a model for private prayer. Some traditions encourage praying it slowly as a meditation in its own right rather than only as one prayer among many in a service.

Using it as a template, not just reciting it

Beyond reciting the prayer word for word, many traditions of Christian spirituality use its structure as a template for personal prayer — addressing God, then asking for God's purposes to be done, then bringing personal need, then forgiveness, then protection — as a shape to fill in with one's own words rather than only the fixed text. Tradition This approach, sometimes associated with teaching attributed to figures like Augustine and later spiritual writers across several traditions, treats the prayer as a pattern for prayer generally, not only a text to repeat.

A note on translation differences you'll encounter

If you've grown up with one wording (commonly "trespasses" in traditions using older English liturgical texts, versus "debts" or "sins" in others), encountering a different version can feel jarring the first time. All are legitimate translations of the underlying Greek and Aramaic tradition behind the prayer; the differences reflect different translation choices and liturgical histories rather than theological disagreement about what's being asked.

Praying it when you don't feel like praying

Many traditions of Christian spiritual writing specifically recommend the Lord's Prayer for moments when personal words don't come easily — reciting a fixed, shared text doesn't require generating your own language in a difficult moment. Tradition This is one of the practical reasons liturgical traditions in particular have kept a fixed prayer text in regular use rather than relying only on spontaneous prayer.

However it's used — recited in a service, prayed slowly alone, or held as a template for one's own words — the prayer's brevity is itself notable. Unlike many later Christian prayers that expanded significantly in length and formality, the version the Gospels attribute to Jesus is short enough to say without notes and plain enough that its content, rather than its language, carries the weight.

General information for study, not pastoral or theological advice for your specific situation — traditions read some of these passages differently, and this site names that rather than picking a side.