The Lord's Prayer - book review

The Lord’s Prayer

Insight and Inspiration to Draw You Closer to Him

By R.T. Kendall

Dr. R.T. Kendall, minister and author, begins this book with a discussion of why we pray.  He then takes us line by line through perhaps Christianity’s best-known prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, dissecting the meaning and intent behind each carefully chosen word.  Instead of allowing us to recite the prayer from memory, often not even hearing ourselves as we speak, Dr. Kendall challenges us to understand and study what we are praying with these words.  As he states, “The purpose of this book is not only to examine each line of the Lord’s Prayer, but to learn how to interpret the will of God”.

As a Christian, I found this book to be very helpful.  It brought new insight into what God wants from us in this prayer He sent us.  Based on this point, I highly recommend this book.  However, there is one area with which I absolutely cannot and do not agree with the author, and I imagine this is one that will cause division among readers.  Dr. Kendall asserts on page 46 that ONLY Christians have the right to pray the Lord’s Prayer.  Jews and other believers in our God are excluded in his opinion because “Only those who receive Him (Jesus) and believe in His name have the right to be children of God and, therefore, to pray the Lord’s Prayer”.   I believe that God wants to hear from all of His children, lost and found.

This is a major barrier for me in recommending this book; however, the rest of the book is an excellent guide.  I leave it to the individual reader to determine whether this message of exclusion cancels out the other important and valid points in the book.

FTC Required Note: I have received a complimentary or advance reading copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review.