The Lord's Prayer with Jesus teaching his disciples

The Lord’s Prayer: Full Text, Meaning, and How to Pray It

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The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” It appears in two places in the Bible, and Christians across many traditions have prayed it for centuries. Below you’ll find the full text, what it means, and how to pray it meaningfully.

The Lord’s Prayer

“This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today 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 the evil one.”

(Matthew 6:9-13, [NIV])

This is the New International Version (NIV), a widely used English Bible translation. You’ll notice it ends at “the evil one,” with no closing line of praise. Other Bible translations and church traditions, including the King James Version, include a closing line of praise: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

What Is the Lord’s Prayer?

The Lord’s Prayer is the model prayer Jesus gave his disciples when they asked him to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1). It’s short, but it covers nearly everything a person could bring before God praise, daily needs, forgiveness, and protection, all in a few lines.

Christians have prayed it together for so long that it’s often just called the “Our Father,” after its opening words. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls it “the most perfect of prayers” a description many Christians, whatever their tradition, would recognize as fitting. You’ll hear it prayed in church services, in private devotion, and at moments of grief or celebration, across many branches of the Christian family. And because it comes to us in two slightly different forms, in two different Gospel accounts, it has never belonged to one tradition’s exact wording alone it has always been shared, and slightly varied, even within the New Testament itself.

Where the Lord’s Prayer Comes From

The Lord’s Prayer appears in two Gospels, given in two different settings. Both present it as a model for how God’s people should pray.

Matthew 6:9-13 and the Sermon on the Mount

The version above comes from Matthew 6:9-13, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. Just before giving the prayer, Jesus teaches about prayer itself. He tells his followers not to pray in a way meant to be noticed and admired by others, and not to babble on with empty, repeated words, as though a long prayer earns more of God’s attention (Matthew 6:5-8). Then he says, “This, then, is how you should pray” and gives them these words.

The Sermon on the Mount, where this prayer appears, is a major section of Jesus’s teaching on what it looks like to live under God’s rule covering everything from anger and generosity to worry and how we judge others. The Lord’s Prayer sits near the center of it, presented as a pattern for the way Jesus is teaching his listeners to live. It’s the longer of the prayer’s two biblical versions, and it’s the one most Christians know by heart.

Luke 11:1-4: A Second Account

The prayer also appears in Luke 11:1-4. Here the setting is more personal: Jesus has just finished praying on his own, and one of his disciples asks him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” Jesus answers with a shorter version of the same prayer.

Luke’s version is noticeably shorter. It opens simply with “Father,” rather than “Our Father in heaven.” It leaves out “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” and the closing request to be delivered “from evil.” And where Matthew has Jesus’s followers forgiving their “debtors,” Luke has them forgiving “everyone who sins against” them closer to the “sins” wording some churches use today.

None of these differences change what the prayer is asking for. Both Gospels are telling us the same basic thing: Jesus didn’t leave his followers to guess at how to pray. He gave them a pattern of words, recorded in more than one Gospel account, for coming before God.

What the Lord’s Prayer Means

The prayer moves in a clear direction. It opens with God – his name, his kingdom, his will – and then turns to what we need: bread, forgiveness, protection. Nothing in it is wasted; every line is doing something.

“Our Father in Heaven”

Jesus begins by calling God “Father” a close, personal way to address him, not a distant or formal one. And he says “our,” not “my.” This is a shared prayer, meant to be prayed alongside other believers even when you’re praying it alone. Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus uses an even more intimate word for Father “Abba,” an Aramaic word for “Father” (Mark 14:36).

The Lord’s Prayer opens in that same spirit: not a formal address to a distant ruler, but a child speaking to a father he trusts. “In heaven” reminds us that this Father is also the God who rules over all things near enough to be called Father, and great enough to be worthy of the kingdom language that follows a few lines later.

“Hallowed Be Your Name”

To “hallow” something means to treat it as holy. This isn’t a request that God’s name become holy it already is. It’s a request that his name be honored and treated as holy by the people praying it: in how we live, how we speak of him, and how seriously we take who he is. The Ten Commandments already warned God’s people not to misuse his name (Exodus 20:7); this line asks for the opposite that his name would be spoken and lived out with real honor, not carelessness.

“Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done”

This is a prayer for God’s rule to be real here and now, in the ordinary decisions of daily life, and also a prayer for the day when his kingdom is finally and fully established. It’s the same kingdom Jesus preached about from the very start of his ministry, when he announced, “The kingdom of God has come near” (Mark 1:15). Praying “your kingdom come” is asking for more of what Jesus was already doing a request for today, and a request for what’s still to come, held together in one line.

“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”

This line is a simple, honest request for what we need to get through today food, provision, the basic things that keep us going. Some readers hear an echo here of how God provided manna for Israel in the wilderness, one day’s portion at a time (Exodus 16) provision that had to be trusted for, not stored up. Many Christians have also read the line more broadly, as a request for whatever we need, spiritual as well as physical, to live faithfully one day at a time rather than worrying about tomorrow.

“Forgive Us Our Debts, As We Forgive Our Debtors”

This line asks God to forgive us, and it ties that request directly to our own willingness to forgive the people who have wronged us. You may have heard it prayed with different words “debts,” “trespasses,” or “sins” depending on the church or translation you grew up with. Catholic liturgical tradition uses “trespasses,” while many Protestant Bibles, including the NIV quoted above, use “debts.” The difference comes down to translation history and church tradition, not disagreement about what the line means.

“Lead Us Not Into Temptation”

This is a request for protection that God would keep us from falling into temptation, and give us the strength to resist it when it comes. It’s an honest admission that we need God’s help to stand firm, not just our own willpower. Jesus himself faced this kind of testing in the wilderness before he began his public ministry (Matthew 4:1-11), so this isn’t a request from someone who doesn’t understand the struggle. Some modern translations render the line as “do not bring us to the time of trial,” but the meaning underneath is the same: a request for God’s help in the time of trial, and through whatever can’t be avoided.

“Deliver Us From Evil” – and the Ending Some Bibles Add

The prayer closes with a request for rescue from evil, or, as some translations put it, from “the evil one.” According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the closing line of praise became part of the Church’s liturgical tradition very early on “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” Some Bibles include this line as part of Matthew 6:13; others, including the NIV quoted above, leave it out of the main text. Both practices go back a long way, and neither is a mistake the earliest surviving Greek manuscripts of Matthew generally do not include this doxology, while later manuscript traditions do.

Jesus’s Teaching on Prayer

It’s worth going back to what Jesus said right before he gave this prayer. In Matthew 6:5-8, he warns against two things: praying in a way meant to be noticed by others, and praying with piles of empty, repeated words, as if God needs to be talked into listening. This wasn’t a completely unfamiliar idea to his Jewish listeners structured prayer was already part of Jewish tradition but Jesus was warning against empty repetition that loses sight of what prayer is for, rather than simply condemning repeated words.

Then he gives his disciples this prayer. It’s short. Every line carries weight. There’s nothing wasted in it and nothing showy about it. In a sense, the Lord’s Prayer is Jesus’s answer to both warnings at once a prayer that’s honest instead of performed, and full instead of padded. It doesn’t need to be long to be real, and it doesn’t need an audience to matter.

That matters for how we pray it today.

How to Pray the Lord’s Prayer Meaningfully

You can pray the Lord’s Prayer exactly as it’s written, and that’s not wrong Jesus gave it to his disciples as a prayer to pray. But it also works as a pattern for your own prayer, if you slow down and let each line become personal.

Try pausing at “hallowed be your name” and simply spending a moment honoring who God is, before asking him for anything. Pause at “give us this day our daily bread” and name what you actually need today. Pause at “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” and let it become a real moment of forgiving someone, not just a phrase you say. Pause at “lead us not into temptation” and bring to mind whatever you’re actually struggling against right now. This kind of intentional prayer can also help us pray without ceasing throughout the day.

There’s also value in praying it exactly as written, together with other people. Because it opens with “our,” not “my,” it has a communal sense even when you’re alone. Praying the same fixed words that other Christians are praying, in other places and other centuries, is its own kind of connection you’re not inventing new language for God, you’re joining something much older than yourself.

Remember what Jesus said just before he gave this prayer: the problem was never simply praying the same words. The problem is praying without paying attention, as if the words alone were the point. Prayed slowly and honestly, this prayer holds up under repetition because it was never meant to be recited without thought in the first place.

It’s also worth knowing this prayer is there for the moments when you don’t have your own words. Grief, fear, and exhaustion can make prayer feel impossible to start. On those days, the Lord’s Prayer doesn’t need you to come up with anything it simply needs you to mean it, one short line at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Lord’s Prayer the same as the “Our Father”?

Yes. “Our Father” is simply the prayer’s opening words, and it’s a common alternate name for the same prayer, especially in Catholic and other liturgical traditions. You’ll see both names used interchangeably across most Christian writing.

Did Jesus write the Lord’s Prayer himself?

Jesus taught it directly to his disciples as a model for how to pray, recorded in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4. He gave it in response to their request, “Lord, teach us to pray,” and the two accounts differ slightly in wording and length.

Why do some churches say “trespasses” and others say “debts”?

It comes down to translation history and church tradition, not disagreement about what the prayer means. Catholic liturgical tradition uses “trespasses”; many Protestant translations, including the NIV, use “debts”; and Luke’s Gospel itself uses “sins.”

Is it wrong to recite the Lord’s Prayer word for word?

No. Jesus gave these exact words to his disciples to pray. His warning in Matthew 6:5-8 was against empty, thoughtless repetition not against praying the same words with attention and sincerity. Saying the same words every day can actually help you pray honestly, the same way a familiar hymn or a well-worn habit can.

How many petitions are in the Lord’s Prayer?

Christian traditions count this differently. Depending on how the opening address to God and the individual requests are divided, some count six petitions and others seven and Luke’s shorter version naturally counts differently still. None of these counting methods disagree about what the prayer is actually asking for; they’re simply organizing the same requests in slightly different ways.