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Why Do We Pray the Long Ending of the Lord’s Prayer? Because it Belongs to the Great Tradition of Faith

Jesus teaching the disciples to pray

Wait, what? What is the long ending of the Lord’s Prayer?

To clear things up right now, the long ending refers to this line: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”

So, what’s the issue?

Observant readers will note that in most modern English Bibles, this line is put in a footnote, not in the text. Is it an original part of the Bible? Why do we pray it?

Here’s the short answer

It’s probably not part of the Bible.

Based on best methods and explanations of the ancient manuscripts we have, this line was not part of the original prayer. It is absent in many of the earliest and best manuscripts as well as the earliest commentaries on the Lord’s Prayer from key early church leaders. Not to mention that there are a few different versions of this long ending scattered in different places.

Why do we pray it?

Because the church has prayed it this way for about as long as we can look back into time.

This ending likely made it into the Gospel manuscripts via using the prayer in church services. It brings a nice, theologically profound, closure to the prayer. As we pray for God’s kingdom to come, as we ask for God to meet our daily needs, we wrap those prayers up in words reminiscent of what the angels proclaim in the heavenlies: Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is filled with his glory.

So, we continue to pray this longer ending as part of the people of God stretching across the centuries longing for the kingdom, the power, and the glory of God to be established in all things.

If your appetite is whetted, find some more answer over here

Here’s a decent place to get a longer answer informed by some basic discussion of the textual tradition and the practices of the church emerging in the Reformation Era: Why Do We Say the Long Ending of the Lord’s Prayer?

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AI Answers the Question, “How Does God Deal with All Those Prayers?”

Deep Thought thinking

How can God possibly hear and answer all those prayer requests? It’s a mind-boggling prospect that one person can interact with so many prayers in an intelligent way. How is that possible, even for God? That’s a question people have wrestled with for ages.

Keep reading below, or watch a short reflection on how AI helps us think about God answering prayers

A Bruce Almighty prayer machine

This question is the premise for an extended gag sequence in the Jim Carrey movie Bruce Almighty. Like many Jim Carrey movies, it’s funny, and really weird, and in this case much more sacrilegious than most. Bruce, Jim Carrey’s character, receives the powers of God. As he’s walking down the street, he starts hearing peoples’ hopes, dreams, and prayer requests. This happens all the time, and it is overwhelming to have to deal with. So, he sets up an email system to handle the millions and billions of requests. But that is too hard, too. To avoid having to deal with them, he just answers “yes,” to all. Chaos ensues.

The gag is premised on the simple idea that God is more powerful than a person, but still finds it overwhelming to have to carry on so many relationships and field so many requests (often contradictory) at the same time.

But we have a different way to picture it, now.

The power of AI helps us picture the power of God

Large Language Model AI, like Chat GPT, have upset the status quo in many ways.

Here’s a good way.

The existence of these AI tools that seem to be able to answer most any question in the blink of an eye—all around the world—gives us a conceptual tool to make a little bit more sense of how God deals with prayers. We made this machine. It is subject to the limits of human power and engineering, and yet it’s power is mind-boggling incredible.

How much more than this AI can the God who created the universe and created us carry on a relationship with everyone all at once and never be overwhelmed. Never be taxed. Never be worked too hard by it.

That’s what God can do.

That’s what God does with our prayers.