The Lord's Prayer, Pt. 3

Forgive us our debts as…

This is, for me, the hardest one. We all have debts. We have indebted ourselves to God by way of our sin. As sinners, we need forgiveness. God, on the basis of the substitutionary death of Christ, forgives us our sin when we trust Him. We trust Him when we place our faith in Christ’s death and resurrection to cover our debts.

But there is a catch here in this prayer. He says we should pray that God would forgive us in the same way and to the same degree that we forgive others. I don’t know about you, but my forgiveness of others is often not as great as my need for forgiveness myself. In other words, I often want God to forgive me more than I’m willing to forgive someone else.

Again, I see this in counseling. One member of a couple will find it hard to forgive the partner for some sin, an infidelity or some such. One of the things we have to learn is that we have sinned against God much more than anyone has sinned against us!

Lead us not into temptation…

Here's another hard one. It would seem that to ask this request is to somehow make God responsible for whether or not we walk into temptation. But I think Jesus is assuming that the prayer (the person praying) is desperately aware of his need to be led. He knows that if left to his own "leading", he will land in destruction, death, and chaos. So, we are to ask God to guide, lead, direct, and protect our very steps. We are to trust God to deliver us from evil or the evil one. “God help me not go down the path to destruction. My very life is in your hands and I need your intervention to keep me from straying into sin.”

For thine is the kingdom…

Finally, all praise, glory, honor, power, reverence is yours! You are creator and sustainer and the beginning and the end. You are the motivation, the goal, and the reward of a life well lived by faith.

The Lord's Prayer, Pt. 2

Thy kingdom come...

This is one prayer, I realized the other day, that has never been answered for anyone during the past 2000 years. Such people as Peter, Paul, Origin, Augustine, Luther, Spurgeon, Whitfield, Tozer, Havner, have all prayed for God’s kingdom to come and it hasn’t yet; not in its fullness and not in its permanence.

But there is a sense in which God’s kingdom has come and, while we wait for it’s coming, is coming. In Matt. 12.28, Jesus said, “…the kingdom of God has come upon you.”.

What does it take to have a kingdom? It takes a realm, a people, and a king. To the degree that we submit to our King, listen to Him and follow His lead, His kingdom is here now. When we walk in the fullness of His Spirit, His kingdom is here!

Thy will be done…

How is God’s will done in heaven? Fully, joyfully, and instantly. Jesus is teaching us to pray that the same way God’s will is done in heaven, so His will be done here. Doing God’s will is often something we do, but we do it grudgingly. We need to develop an attitude that is like the inhabitants of heaven, while waiting on earth.

Give us this day…

Jesus is certainly talking about food here. But more than that, He is referring to what we need; nothing more and nothing less. We can trust God to supply for both today and tomorrow, but only when tomorrow comes.

As a counselor, I run into people all the time who want more than their daily bread. They want life to be clearly, perpetually, and adequately supplied for and they want to be able to see it. But Jesus is teaching us to live by faith. Trusting God to supply for each day and each day only.

Part 3 to follow...