It's more than a template, not less. Jesus did say "in this manner, pray," so it genuinely guides us. But read through the finished work, its lines become a portrait of Christ: the Father He reveals, the provision He gives, the forgiveness He accomplished, and the kingdom He is bringing.
The Grace Answer
The Lord's Prayer usually gets taught as a template: start with worship, move to submission, request provision, ask forgiveness, close with praise. And it is fair to call it a model, because Jesus said, “In this manner, therefore, pray,” and Luke records, “When you pray, say...” He really did give it to guide us. The mistake is shrinking it to a mechanical sequence you fill out in the right order, because the prayer is doing something far richer than organizing your prayer time.
Read the lines through the finished work of Christ and they open up. “Hallowed be Your name.” His name is holy. “Your kingdom come, Your will be done.” The kingdom arrived in the King, is present now among His people, and will one day be fully revealed, so the line both rests in what Christ began and reaches for its completion. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Jesus teaches simple dependence on the Father for daily provision, while the larger Gospel shows that our deepest bread is Christ Himself, the Bread of Life. Line by line, the prayer keeps pointing past itself to Him.
How the cross changes our position
The petition about forgiveness deserves special care. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” was taught before the cross, when Jesus' hearers still stood on the near side of the finished work. The line is not less true; what changed is the covenantal ground believers now pray it from. At the cross, forgiveness was accomplished once for all. So the New Covenant pattern is no longer forgive us in proportion to our forgiving. It is “forgive one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” You forgive because you have already been forgiven, not to unlock a forgiveness still in doubt.
So pray it, often, and let it shape you. Just don't reduce it to a formula, and don't imagine every line was already exhausted the moment Jesus spoke it, because creation still groans and the kingdom still awaits its consummation. Every line either finds its fulfillment in Christ or turns your hope toward the completion of what He began. It was always more than a template. It is a portrait of the Father Jesus reveals and the grace He secured, and you get to pray it as someone the finished work already brought home.