The Lord's Prayer (Westminster Expanded Version)

My friend Daniel Sturgeon, pastor of Stranraer Baptist Church, recently turned the Heidelberg Catechism's exposition of the Lord's Prayer into a prayer itself.

As he explained:

"The question/answer format slightly disguises the fact that the last 10 questions of the Catechism are an expository expansion of the Lord’s Prayer itself, so I’ve taken the words of each answer and set them together. This is a lovely way to pray the Lord’s Prayer, that helps me (and hopefully you) to savour and digest the meaning of each line in this most familiar of prayers."

He then went on to do the same thing with the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The result is below:

Our Father, who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name
God, enable us and others to glorify you in all those things whereby you make yourself known; and, we pray, dispose all things to your own glory.

Thy kingdom come
Let Satan’s kingdom be destroyed; let the kingdom of grace be advanced; bring us and others into your kingdom, and keep us in it; and may your kingdom of glory be hastened.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
God, by your grace, make us willing and able to know, obey, and submit to your will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread
Of your free gift, God, let us receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and let us enjoy your blessing with them.

Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors
For Christ’s sake, freely pardon our sins; which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because by your grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
God, either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever, Amen
We take our encouragement in prayer from you only, God, and we praise you. We testify that we desire to be heard, and we testify our assurance that you indeed hear.