Someone once said to me, “None of us really has any original thoughts.  Whatever we think and say and write, we have heard from someone else, or have read it somewhere.”  If we look at Jesus in His humanity, that is also true of Him and of this prayer He has composed.  He got it from other sources, basically from two sources: from Jewish prayers, and from the Old Testament Scriptures.

But we could also look at Jesus from the perspective of His divinity.  That is, since He is really God, He inspired all of the Old Testament writings; and since He created all people, including the Jews, He gave them the words of their prayers.  Hence, all things are really from Him, including this prayer.

It would be good for us to keep this in mind.  However, I would like to look at the prayer from the perspective…