Matthew 6:9-13,I think every Christian wants to improve their prayer life, and perhaps there's no better prayer to pray then the Lord's Prayer. The Puritan Thomas Watson has a rather thick volume on this prayer. It is very devotional, so you might want to get it. He said that the believer's lifeline is prayer, and then he calls this the prayer of prayers. Think about it, there's no prayer that has probably been uttered more than this prayer. No prayer has had as much global impact then the Lord's Prayer. Think of it, for 2,000+ years, thousands, maybe millions upon millions of people have prayed this prayer, sometimes every day. And one of the great reasons why we should pray this prayer and keep on praying this prayer is because it does help cultivate humility. Humility. Arguably next to the grace of love, there's no grace more important than humility. Notice how even the Sermon on the Mount begins, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” St. Augustine said when someone asked him, “What is a Christian?” he said,

And there are six great reasons why this prayer is humbling.

Number one, it begins on a matter of adoption. Only true sons can call God Father. And yes, we are sons, not because we deserve it, but because of grace. Think what John said, “Behold what manner of love that we should be called the sons of God." So we don't boast in the wrong sort of way when we think of ourselves as sons, privileged, but it's because of grace and mercy.

Second reason why this prayer, the Lord's Prayer, is a humbling prayer, it should humble us, is because of adoration. Not only because of adoption, but adoration. “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be your name.” We come into the presence of God. He's far, far above us. He is in heaven, there's a great distinction between God and us and we are here to worship Him, honor Him, love Him, and adore Him. This prayer forces us to get our eyes off ourselves by way of praise and thanksgiving.

Why is the Lord's Prayer a humble prayer? The blessing of adoption, the duty of adoration, thirdly submission, “Thy kingdom come.” We are submitting to the King of Kings and prioritizing His kingdom, not our kingdom. I remember someone said,

The Lord's Prayer reminds us that there's a sovereign King whose kingdom is a kingdom of grace. It has come, past tense; it is coming, present tense; but it will come. This prayer anticipates the future coming of Christ, the King of Kings. And we also can say it should humble us, it should make us realize that we are to submit to this King when we pray, “Thy will be done and not my will.”

So why is this prayer a humbling prayer? Adoption, adoration, submission. Here's the fourth reason why the Lord's Prayer is a humble prayer, it should help cultivate humility. It's a dependent prayer. “Give us our daily bread.” This prayer reminds us that we are creatures, dependent creatures. That's why we need food, that's why we need sleep. We come into this world dependent and we leave this world dependent.

The fifth thing that is humbling here is the need of confession, “Father, forgive us of our sins.” This is by far the most humbling thing we have to face - the reality that we are sinners, not just once in a while sinners, but everyday sinners. We are forgiven in terms of justification, but there must be a continual seeking forgiveness in terms of sanctification. And just like we need daily bread, we need daily pardon.

The Lord's Prayer is a humble prayer, adoption, adoration, submission, dependency, confession…and then the last petition here is equally humbling, it has to do with temptation. Every day, we are faced with temptation from without and from within; from within, the flesh and from without, the devil and the world. And so we need strengthening, resisting grace. We never fight this fight on our own, do we? Jesus said, “Without me, you can do nothing.” So we go to the throne of grace, realizing, again, how privileged we are, we are sons of God, but also how needy we are, we are still sinners.