Why doesn the Lords prayer follow the popular division into adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication?
A. The six supplications of the Lord’s prayer include adoration, confession, and thanksgiving, but not by artificially dividing one aspect of prayer from another. When we pray for God’s name to be hallowed, for his kingdom to come, and for his will to be done, we thereby express our adoration of God. When we ask for God to forgive us our sins, we thereby confess our sins. We must ask God for things with thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6-7). When we ask for forgiveness, we thank God for his promise to forgive us because of Christ’s blood. When we ask for our daily bread, we thank God for how he has been meeting our physical needs each day. When we ask for deliverance from the Evil One, we thank God for his promise to save us from Satan. Thanksgiving cannot be separated from adoration (Neh. 12:46; Ps. 69:30; 100:4; 147:7; Heb. 13:15).
