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In this episode...

Applying the Lord’s Prayer as a Framework

https://faithfulontheclock.com/applying-the-lords-prayer-as-a-framework

In Episode 161 of Faithful on the Clock, you’ll learn how the Lord’s Prayer can serve as a framework not only for how to pray, but how to lead and live.

Timestamps:

[00:04] - Intro

[00:39] - The context of the Lord’s Prayer

[02:42] - The problem with becoming too focused on recitation

[03:53] - Jesus’ basic framework inside the Lord’s Prayer and how it offers flexibility

[06:34] - The Lord’s Prayer as a leadership framework

[08:15] - The world’s business practice vs. the Lord’s Prayer; being a visible light in private worship and service without performing

[10:56] - Prayer

[11:48] - Outro/What’s coming up next

Key takeaways:

• Jesus gave us a framework, not just a script. The Lord's Prayer begins with "This is how you should pray," meaning Jesus was teaching an approach to prayer rather than requiring us to repeat exact words.
• The Lord's Prayer is still valuable to recite, but don't let it become a performance. It can help when you don't know what to say, but the goal is always an authentic relationship with God, not checking a religious box.
• The prayer has two simple parts. First, recognize God's authority and invite His will and presence. Then ask Him to provide and protect.
• The framework applies far beyond prayer. The same pattern can shape your leadership, decisions, projects, meetings, and everyday work by keeping God in the right place and focusing on what truly matters.
• The world's framework is often about visibility; God's is about faithfulness. Success isn't ultimately measured by applause, impressions, or recognition, but by serving God with the right motives.
• Expect God's approach to look different from the world's. People may not understand a leadership style rooted in humility, stewardship, and obedience, but God's way produces the right kind of reward.

CTAs:

• Put the framework of the Lord’s prayer into practice. Instead of starting your prayers with requests, begin by acknowledging who God is. Then ask Him to provide and protect according to His will.
• Audit one one meeting, presentation, sales call, or customer interaction this week. Ask yourself: "Am I following a rigid script, or am I working from a framework that allows authentic connection?"

What’s coming up next:

Episode 163 of Faithful on the Clock offers advice on how to faithfully cope as we wait for God to deliver our success and blessings.

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Hello, everybody. I’m your host, Wanda Thibodeaux, and this is Faithful on the Clock, the podcast for Christian professionals where all the coffee brews to get your faith and work aligned. Most of us are familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, which is arguably the most famous prayer in the Christian tradition. Today, I’m going to focus on just one word of that prayer to help you make it your own — and to help you be more flexible and faithful in how you approach other elements of your personal and professional life. Let’s get to it.

If I haven’t shared it before, I was raised Catholic. So, my dad would always take us to mass and whatnot. And in mass, Catholics celebrate Communion, which is the sharing of some bread and wine. And that practice is meant to help us remember the last supper that Jesus had with his disciples. It’s something Jesus told us to do and that helps us remember Him and the Passover and the sacrifice He made for us. But inside the mass, we would always recite the Lord’s Prayer. Word for word, it is there at every mass.

Other denominations recite the Lord’s Prayer, too. You’ll find it in a lot of places because it is so foundational. But what I want you to notice is what comes right before the Lord’s prayer in Scripture. The context of this prayer, Jesus is teaching His disciples. And He’s pointing out that a lot of people like the Pharisees would pray aloud and make a big show of it to win the approval of others. And He tells them, don’t be like that. Don’t be like those hypocrites who make the prayer a spectacle to impress those around them. Go say your prayer in secret — have it just be between you and God. And so, if we look at Matthew 6:9, there’s a transition sentence between that acknowledgement and the Lord’s Prayer, and Jesus says, “This then, is how you should pray.”

So, remember the context. This is something Jesus offers to shift the approach or behavior, in the whole prayer practice. And if we look at all the translations of the Bible we have available for that line that comes before the Lord’s Prayer, the only translation that can maybe be interpreted as a command to recite the prayer is the Disciples’ Literal New Testament, which says, “Therefore, you be praying as follows.” All the other translations say something like “how” or “in the manner of,” or “like this.” They do not say, “This is what you should pray.” And that one word — how instead of what — makes a massive difference.

Now, I want to recognize here that, in those times where you don’t have words of your own yet, or maybe if you’re a new Christian and are still getting comfortable talking to God, the Lord’s Prayer can kind of break the silence between you and God. And for a lot of people, going back to Jesus’ own words, there’s something profoundly comforting in that and in the direct reminders of God that the prayer has. So I’m not saying never say it word for word or trying to say that reciting it is always a bad thing.

But in my experience, what I have seen a lot in the church is that the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer actually keeps people from deeply coming to God. It becomes almost this checklist item that they — and I use this word on purpose — perform. And maybe they’re not doing it out on the street for everyone to see, but there’s this element of, “Well, if I just say the right script, I’ll be fine and it’ll look good and I can move on with my day.” And that’s exactly what Jesus didn’t want. He wanted prayer to be something intimate and personal and something that built the relationship between Him and His people.

So, if we look at the Lord’s Prayer in the context of what comes before it and see it as an example of the change in prayer posture, what Jesus is actually giving us is not a script, but a simple but really beautiful framework. And in that framework, he really only has two points. He starts out with a recognition of God’s sovereignty and holiness, giving praise to the name that’s above all others. And once He’s acknowledged Who God is, He basically says, the way Heaven is, all of that goodness and blessing, complete the prophecies of Samuel, David, and Isaiah and bring that here. Dwell with us and let what you want be above everything else as you lead us. So, this first part of the prayer, it’s really about accepting the authority of God and asking God to be present with us. Then Jesus continues and asks for daily food, forgiveness, and protection against the devil. So, the second half of the prayer, He’s saying, because your authority and presence is what it is, save and provide for us. And those three things He asks God to provide are the essentials we need. We all need food to save our physical bodies, the forgiveness of sin saves our spirit, and protection from the devil saves our joy and ability to serve. So, if we look at the whole thing together, we can essentially summarize the framework as, acknowledge who God is in submissive humility, then ask Him to provide and protect. And there’s a ton of flexibility in that. I mean, if you’re struggling and something’s tempting you — maybe you want to give in to your anger and tell a coworker off, or maybe you’re coming home and you have an addiction nobody knows about just to cope with the stress of everything your boss is asking of you, that’s where you cast your anxieties on Him and say, “God, I need help. Lead me away from this, because I can’t resist it alone.” You can say, “God, thank you for the way you are perfectly in control,” or you can say, “Every time I say your name, I know there’s nothing that compares to you, and Lord, I submit and thank you for that.” And again, that is drastically different than what people at the time were doing, when they’d just ramble on and on in public to look good. You know, there were, as Jesus put it, many words to those prayers, but they were pretty empty because they weren’t truly focusing on and respecting God. And I can tell you, some of the most life-changing prayers I’ve ever prayed, I had no words at all. I had to just let the Holy Spirit groan it all for me.

So, here’s how I wanna tie this back to leadership and the business space. How many times, like with this prayer, do we just recite in our jobs? Say or do the expected thing, never really show who we are? How many times do we go through the motions without actually being present and focusing on what matters? And how many times do we come to God asking for what we want, putting ourselves first without acknowledging the authority God has to take the helm? In my experience, we do it a lot. And believe me, I’m guilty of this, too. We all are.

What I want you to understand about the Lord’s Prayer is that, even as it teaches us how to talk to God, it’s also a framework for how to more broadly behave in our relationship with Him. And that’s something we can apply everywhere, even outside of prayer. We can give Him authority over what we do, every task, every project, our entire lives. We can focus on asking for His presence and the things that are really gonna matter and sustain us, rather than putting on a big long show to look good to our social media followers or land a big client. It’s not just about how to pray — it’s about how to live.

So, even when you’re building out a team or presenting something, you can ask yourself, “Am I putting authority in the right place? Am I giving the right people control, and are those people who will listen to God?” And you can ask, “Am I keeping it short and simple with a focus on what’s essential?” This is the framework all of your bullet points and procedures can sit inside.

The difficulty in this is that most companies still are working out on the street according to the world’s framework. Success is measured by our visibility, by being seen, praised, and talked about. Everything is about how to get more views or impressions, get people using word of mouth, and in a lot of cases, that visibility often becomes the currency that opens doors to bigger stages, podcasts, television appearances, and keynote opportunities. But I mean, have you ever sat through a meeting where most of the hour was spent listening to accomplishments, awards, or growth numbers? Yeah, those achievements matter. But after a while, it starts to feel like we’re all just clapping because the applause light gave us the cue, like it’s self-congratulation rather than leadership. That’s what Jesus was pushing back against. He wasn’t saying people should never see you or that people can’t ever know about your service. He’s clear — He says to be a light to the world and to not hide our light under a basket. His concern was that people use visibility and act to seek approval from people, rather than to privately and personally deepen their relationship with and obey God. The same marketing plan can be driven by pride or by stewardship. The networking event can be about building a platform for yourself or about faithfully serving the people God wants you to reach.

The world tells us to make ourselves impossible to ignore for our own benefit. Jesus teaches a quieter framework. Do the work because it's faithful for the benefit of God. Serve because people genuinely need serving. Let the work ultimately be between you and God, and let your reputation grow as the fruit of faithful stewardship, rather than as the product you're constantly trying to sell.

So, don’t be surprised if, when you try to apply the framework or approach of the Lord’s Prayer to your business or job, people look at you sideways. They are gonna try to quantify the value of what you’re doing by how many people can see you doing it, rather than by whether someone comes to see God. They’ll tell you that their way is the right way and that’s just how business works and all of that. But God’s way is the way. His how is the right how, and He promises that if we follow it with the right focus and motivation, we’ll have the appropriate reward.

So, let’s just close out praying with the framework God taught us.

God, You are greater than anybody or anything. And we ask today that, because You are sovereign and know what’s best, You manifest according to your will, not our own. Just like You gave Israel manna, nourish our bodies as we do Your work. If we trip up, Lord, honor the ultimate sacrifice we know Your Son Jesus made and forget that sin forever, seeing the intent of our hearts and knowing that, even though we’re human and not perfect, we wanna be like You. Keep the devil away from us and hedge us from repeating those mistakes. Hedge us against all the ways He tries to lead us away from You. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

This episode likely has given you a lot to think about, but at the same time, I pray that it’s given you some hope in the sense that we can start to let go of all the performing the world tells us we have to do. Let’s start to use this framework as the gift it is everywhere we can in a more focused, simplified approach to how we lead. I’ll invite you once again to become a member or give a one-time donation to this show at faithfulontheclock.captivate.fm/support. In our next episode, we’re talking about what to do as you wait on God to deliver success and blessing. I’ll see you right back here in two weeks, and be blessed.