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“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father
which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give
us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we
forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and
the glory, for ever. Amen.” – Matthew 6:9-13.
Introduction
The disciples did well in asking Jesus to teach them to
pray for we have been given the most wonderful and concise prayer of
all time. How could such a short prayer contain so much?
Let us go through the Lord's Prayer phrase by phrase
and make a few comments and observations.
Our Father which art in heaven.
It is God whom we are addressing. God, who alone
is uncreated. That thought is beyond our comprehension, so at
once we are out of our depth! There are I believe, three
infinities. Time, space and power. Uncreated God is
eternal and has always lived throughout the infinity of time.
Space is distance in every direction. There is no limit to
space; it is unending in every direction. All that God has
created by His infinite power extends into space. It may extend
into all space. To say it doesn't is putting limitations on
God, and, of course He has no limitations. Therefore He is
perfect. That may take some thinking about, but I believe it
has to be the case.
Do you find that when you are considering such sublime
matters that you can see some things but cannot find adequate words
to prove your point? I do. And my next observation, too,
is of a similar kind, for I believe that because God is perfect He is
also Love. That may not seem an obvious conclusion but surely
it must to be true; for God not to love and care for His creation
would be unthinkable. So, because He loves His creatures He
shows them kindness, mercy and compassion.
God knows all, understands all, and has all wisdom.
This is God's power. Again, this is a point which needs some
thought. For by His knowledge, understanding all wisdom God
created all things and dwells in all things. This is heaven; this is
the universe.
When God created the earth He formed it to be inhabited
and the angels rejoiced and God saw everything that He had made and
it was very good. That is, good in the sense it was pleasing to
Him - it gave Him pleasure. And God gave man a free will. Man
had a choice - to serve God or not. And the Tree of the
knowledge of good and evil was placed in the Garden. The word “good”
here is again the word often translated “pleasant,” so it
was the tree of the knowledge of that which was pleasant and evil.
To the mind of selfish man so much that is sinful seems
pleasant and desirable and men became lovers of pleasures more than
lovers of God. Not that all pleasure is sinful - that would be
nonsense. We all find great pleasure in God's creation, in the
beauty and wonder all around us, but there is much pleasure in
selfishness and greed - the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes
and the pride of life. (1 John 2:16). But those who endeavour
to put God first separate themselves from these desires and lusts,
for God is separate from them. He sets Himself apart from all
sin and transgression, and this we acknowledge when we say
Hallowed be Thy Name.
“Hallowed” means set apart; as does “holy.”
Set apart from all that is not good in His sight, but even more
than this. The angels are holy; they give God pleasure, they do
His will, but God is separate from them in as much as He is increate,
while all else is created. That makes God holiest of all - to
be sanctified and glorified. Do we think of God with due
respect? He is our God, our King, our Creator and we cannot
esteem Him too highly in our thoughts.
And what a contrast to ourselves. Man is so small
and feeble; weak erring creatures of the dust; imperfect in thought,
knowing very little, understanding even less, having a very faulty
wisdom of his own, and, in such a state he cannot have access to the
Tree of Life lest he continue in this sad state.
Is it too much to think of the Garden of Eden as being
a small part of heaven; a place where God's will was done up until
Adam and Eve sinned? God was their King and they obeyed His
authority, but when they did transgress God was no longer their King
for they had obeyed another authority - that of self-will. And
over the past 6,000 years most people have been pleasing themselves
and very few want to please God, their Creator. But down
through the ages there have been those few who have been prepared to
listen to what God has to say, and they find that it is God who
devises ways of bringing people back to Him. As a result these
are the ones who pray
Thy Kingdom come.
Eden restored, and much, much more, for at this time
the elect will become the youngest of the angels of heaven. Their
work is to rule over the cities of the world. Immortals ruling
over mortals, caring for their needs, teaching, advising, guiding in
the ways of goodness, purity, truth and love. All those
qualities we see and admire in Jesus Christ will be theirs. The law
for the whole world will go out from Jerusalem . Not man's law
but God's, and Jesus Christ will be King over all the earth. Psalm 72
tells us a lot about that age. The Psalmist looked forward to
the time of Jesus' reign when he wrote: “Give the king thy
judgements, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He
shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with
judgement. The mountains (those ruling for Christ) shall bring peace
to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness...”
Verse 16: “There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon
the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like
Lebanon,” is, I believe, a reference to the work of the elect
in the Kingdom, for Jesus was the corn of wheat, that single grain,
which fell into the ground and died, which brought forth fruit to the
glory of God (John 12:24). And here we have a handful of corn
in the earth (the elect) yet to be placed in the top of the mountains
- the mountain used so frequently in Scripture as a symbol of ruling
powers. This is a picture of the elect in authority, ruling as
kings and priests for God ensuring that
Thy will be done in the earth as it is in heaven.
In the Kingdom age all things that offend will be cast
out and only God's will will be done. It is my belief
that in the Kingdom, people, that is, the mortal population, will
still have temptations to sin just as we have today, but they will be
warned directly not to because that would cause others to suffer as a
result. Isaiah tells us of this time (Isaiah 30:21) when “thine
ears shall hear a voice behind thee saying. This is the way
walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the
left.” This is in contrast to the present age of which we
read in Ecclesiastes 8:11, “Because sentence against an evil
work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men
is fully set in them to do evil.”
We who look to God in this present age as our King
should endeavour to do His will, as Jesus did. But we don't try
very hard, do we? Jesus, tempted in all points a we are never
sinned. He had the tremendous responsibility of the work of
redemption on His shoulders, too. “Not my will but thine
be done” did not come easily to Jesus, for Hebrews 5:7 tells us
of Him “who in the days of his flesh offered up prayers and
supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to
save him from death.” (For surely, had He sinned He would
have died - perished). “And he was heard in that He
feared.” And He overcame. The way for us to
overcome in this age is to exercise strong self-discipline - in the
Kingdom age the voice behind them will thwart any opportunity for
lust to conceive and bring forth sin, as James expressed it. How
else can sin and evil and all things that offend be cast out and only
God's will be done?
Give us this day our daily bread.
Our daily bread referred to here I feel sure embraces
all our daily needs. They are really very simple. Food,
shelter and clothing, is all we need. Not all we want by any
means. In our affluent society our biggest problem is perhaps, that
we are thoroughly spoilt; we have lots more than we need and still we
want more and more. But our basic needs from day to day are very few.
Anyway, God knows our needs and He has provided for them, so
why ask “give us this day our daily bread”? Matthew
6:31, “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what
ye shall drink, or yet for your body, what ye shall put on. For your
heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things... but
seek ye first the Kingdom of God , and His righteousness; and all
these things will be added unto you.”
If they are so freely given, why pray for them?
Several reasons. Firstly, it reminds us whose we are and
whom we serve. When we ask God to give us this day our daily bread we
are acknowledging Him as the Provider- which, of course, He is. The
words “El Shaddai” are translated “Almighty God”
but a better translation is “All Providing God'“ or “All
Sufficient God.”
Let us think for a moment, of a mother suckling her
infant. She is providing love, warmth, comfort and nourishment,
in fact, all her infant needs. She is all providing, all
sufficient for her child. Now the word for breast in Greek is
“Shad” and has the same derivation as “Shaddai,”
– all providing - and I think this gives us a very touching
picture of our relationship with God. I am sure all of you have
seen how a child will look up into his mother's face while suckling,
with those wide trusting eyes. I don't know what those eyes do
for you mothers but I know that whenever I have seen them it has sent
a pleasant tingle right through me. I wonder, do we look up, as
it were, into the face of God with that same trust and do we give Him
the pleasure and joy He looks for? Remember that underneath
each of us are the everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:27).
Another aspect of this request to give us this day our
daily bread is that we are praying for others. It is not “Give
me this day my daily bread” but “Give us...” The
second commandment is to love our neighbours as ourselves, and so we
ask for others the things we would ask for ourselves. Indeed,
from time to time we are likely to see that our neighbours needs are
greater than our own, as, for instance in a time of illness or
bereavement. Then we have the responsibility of paying greater
attention to others in our prayers than to ourselves, while we must
not at any time overlook the practical and material help we can give
too. Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan and go and do
likewise, said Jesus (Luke 10:30-37). To pray for one another
is a duty as Paul so often reminds us, and in the Old Testament we
have the example of Samuel (1 Samuel 12:23) where Samuel is
encouraging the people to follow the Lord and adds “God forbid
that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.”
What of our desires apart from our needs? “Whatsoever
ye shall ask in my name I will do it,” promised Jesus (John
14:13). That sounds like having an open cheque drawn on the
Bank of Heaven. And it is, but let us not “ask amiss that
we may spend it upon our own lusts” warns James. Our
asking must not be selfish but in accordance with God's will. Jesus
gave a reason for doing whatsoever we ask in His name and that was
that the Father may be glorified in the Son, so perhaps the best
guide we can have as to what we should ask is to ask ourselves the
question “Is this what Jesus would ask if He were in my place?”
“Does this glorify God?” Keep this rule in
the forefront of our minds and it will avoid our asking amiss.
Then there is the spiritual aspect of this request for
daily bread. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” for this
is our spiritual bread. Every word which proceedeth out
of the mouth of God is the Word of God. The Scriptures inspired
by God contain His Word and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the key
to opening that Word, for without Jesus the Bible has no value; Jesus
makes it what it is. John, in his first chapter says that “the
Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth.” And in the 6th chapter and at verse 51 Jesus says
of Himself that “I am the living bread which came down from
heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever.
And the bread that I give is my flesh... Whoso eateth my
flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up
at the last day.” The only way we can feed upon Jesus is
to study the Word, the Scriptures - daily - give us this day our
daily bread. Knowledge, understanding and wisdom come into this, too.
The knowledge of the Scriptures is our bread.
Understanding the scriptures is to gain nourishment from that bread.
And wisdom is to apply our knowledge and understanding in the
things that glorify God.
Yes, this Bible we have before us is our daily bread
just as much as our daily meals.
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
We entered into a new agreement with our heavenly
Father at our baptism and at that time any passed misdeeds were
washed away and were gone. We are now in a new relationship; we
are His children by adoption and He is our Father (Galatians 4:5).
We are Brothers and Sisters of Jesus and in Jesus. He
died for our sins of His own free will. In Him we have complete
forgiveness.
Nevertheless we continue to sin and do not put into our
fight against temptation the determination that Jesus did, for will
it ever be said of any of us that in the days of our flesh we
“offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and
tears unto him that is able to save us from death” and that we
were “heard in that we feared”? (Hebrews 5:7). Is
that the extent of our fight to overcome self will and do God's will?
None of us are tempted above that which we are able to stand,
so how hard do we try? There are too many pleasures around us
and life can be very easy when we give up trying. And so we sin
again and again, and the Lord God, in His great mercy, forgives again
and again and again... until we grow tired of asking for forgiveness,
or are too ashamed to keep on asking and so comes the further
temptation to give up bothering altogether. And that is
very sad, because then there would be no future - and the future
should be glorious. So we must keep on lest we loose our
adoption as God’s children and again become strangers to
our Creator. It is better for us to ask for help in overcoming,
and such help will not be refused. Jesus asked help of His
Father and the angels came and strengthened him as we read in Luke
22:43.
And what about forgiving those who offend us? “Forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors” means forgive in like
manner, or in like measure. “With what measure ye mete
shall be measured to you again.” That is perfectly fair,
isn't it, so dare we ask for preferential treatment? “Lord,
I haven't fully forgiven my brother but I do want you to forgive me.”
If we forgive half-heartedly and with certain reservations we
cannot expect more than this from God. But we need His
forgiveness in order to enter into life eternal, so we must forgive
utterly and completely. No strings attached. It may
not be easy; in fact, we human beings are very lazy, but let us ask
for God's help in this, to overcome as Jesus overcame.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from
evil.
Here let us note first of all that we are asking God to
lead us, that is, to lead us where He wants us to go; to do His will
and not our own. But is this really what we want? We all too
often say, “No. We will go our own way,” and then
what happens? We stumble, we fall into temptation and we sin.
Temptation is all around us, but God says “Don't touch.”
He doesn't lead us into temptation, but He does allow us to be
tempted and that is necessary for our character building. We
may indeed find our temptations to be our problems, but our problems
are really our opportunities - opportunities to please God and not
ourselves. If it were not for such temptations we could not
grow strong in faith and love, so we ask God to lead us, and if we
can follow that lead without falling it shows our strength of faith.
Let us look at the relationship between sin and evil in
its simplest form, for it is this: the evil I suffer is caused by the
sin of others, and the sin I do is going to cause others to suffer
evil. It follows then, that if we love our neighbour as
ourselves we would not want to be the cause of them suffering evil
and so we should not wish to commit sin. Nevertheless, the
world is so full of evil that it is part of the natural course of our
lives and when we ask God to deliver us from evil we are asking Him
to change the course of events for us. I have heard it said
that God does not do such things - but He does. Else why did
Jesus teach us to pray “deliver us from evil”? So
are we delivered from evil? Ultimately we are, of course, when
we are made immortal, but what of this present time? If we stop
to count our blessings I'm sure none of us would be in any doubt as
to the answer. But why does God answer prayers the way He does?
He doesn't always deliver from evil for both John the Baptist
and Peter were in prison, at different times; John was beheaded,
Peter released. Both Stephan and Paul were stoned. Stephan died
but Paul lived. Why? The answer may be in Hebrews 11 that
great chapter on faith tells us of many who suffered evil and verse
35 tells of those “who were tortured not accepting deliverance,
that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had
trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and
imprisonments. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were
tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in
sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tortured (of
whom the world was not worthy). They wandered in deserts and in
mountains and in dens and caves of the earth…”
Isn’t life easy for most of us? We just don't know
how much we have been spared. 70 years ago it was difficult for
some - during the war years in Europe . Some suffered great
hardships, some were sent to prison, some were killed. Again,
today, there is very little peace in the world. So what of the
future? If we are called upon to suffer for our faith and love
of God are we prepared?
For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the
Glory, for ever.
The Lord's Prayer ends as it began - with praise to
God.
When God formed the earth. He formed it to be
inhabited, and knowing the end from the beginning He purposed to
populate it with people who would give Him pleasure and to whom He
could show His Glory, in the age to come all the earth will be filled
with the Glory of God as the waters cover the sea. And by the
grace and the mercy and the love of God we can be there. The
choice is ours.
As we have gone through the Lord's Prayer we have seen
how it started with praise to God, then requests; firstly, for Thy
Kingdom to come, then for daily needs, thirdly, for forgiveness, next
for guidance and finally the prayer closes with praise again. As
an example of prayer for us to follow it is unsurpassable. However,
Jesus deliberately left something out and it is very important that
we include it in our prayers. So what is it that Jesus left out
of His prayer? It is that Jesus never asks us to say “thank
you” - He leaves the thanksgiving to flow naturally from
grateful hearts in response to all that He has done for us in
reconciling us to His Father. We cannot help but be thankful
and while some feel it right to pray only to God, through Jesus, it
is surely good to say “thank you” to both God and
Jesus. Prayer to Jesus is good for we must honour the Son
even as we honour the Father (John 5:23).
In conclusion I would like to express a few random
thoughts of a more general nature regarding prayer. God speaks
to us through the Bible and He doesn't like to be ignored any more
than we do, so we speak to Him through prayer. “Enter thy
closet and pray in secret.” It is something like a
telephone really, but far, far better for if we wanted to speak
directly with the Managing Director of a large organisation, or to
the Prime Minister, or perhaps the Queen, what are our chances of a
direct line? Nil, I would think; but God is always available
and waiting, never too busy but always ready for our call so that He
can answer us. So how often we call? Once a day? Once a
month? Or only that 999 call when something has gone desperately
wrong?
Again, do we say grace before every meal, or only
sometimes? Do we say grace before having a meal in a restaurant,
witnessing for Christ? Or is that rather like the Pharisees
standing on the street comers to be seen of men? We cannot lay
down hard and fast rules for each other for it is our heart that must
be right before God in order that our prayer be accepted. And
that is very necessary, for our prayers must be earnest, sincere and
fervent. Paul uses the word “strive” which means
“agonise” - agonise in your prayers. And pray
without ceasing means pray “stretching out.” The
same word is used when Peter was walking on the water to go to Jesus
and he began to sink, Jesus stretched out His arm to save Peter. We
should stretch out in our prayers, reaching out and up to God.
Let's go back to our illustration of the child.
Not an infant now, but grown a little older and able to walk and run
about. When he wants to be picked up what does he do? He
reaches up – he stretches out his arms and pleads to be picked
up because he wants comforting or is tired of walking on his own, and
if he isn't picked up he runs in front and gets in the way quite
determined that he will be picked up sooner or later. Remember
the parable of the importunate man who wanted three loaves so that he
could have a midnight feast with his friends? It was his
audacity that got him what he wanted!
Whatever it is we want never let us presume to tell God
how. Leave that to Him. Paul very much wanted to go to
Rome but he didn't expect to be taken as a prisoner chained to a
Roman soldier. Hezekiah prayed that he might live and not die,
so God told him he had another 15 years of life. Just think how
it was for him as the years went by knowing that in year 15 he would
die. How did he feel in year or 11, or 12, or 14? And what of
Manasseh? He was twelve years old at the end of those fifteen
years... History might have been very different without the
wickedness of Manasseh...!
The first miracle that Jesus performed was to change
water into wine. All Mary said was “They have no wine.”
She left the rest to Jesus and He didn't say, “Look here, don't
you think they've had enough. If they have any more they'll all
be drunk, and we don't want that.” No, He provided
gallons and gallons, hundreds of bottles, of the very best
‘champagne’!
But of course, we don't always get what we want. Why
should we expect to? If, when you are cooking the Sunday dinner
and your child comes in asking for sweets, you would of course say
“No, not before dinner.” And so it is with us, we
may not get what we want now, but there is something better for us
soon.
God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). And
I am sure He isn't very different in that respect whenever He gives.
“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).
Russell Gregory.
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