The Lord’s Prayer
Matthew 6:9b (NASB)
... ‘Our Father who is in heaven, ...
...Our Father...
Have we come to realize the magnitude of Jesus telling His disciples to call God "our Father"?
The Old Testament has the idea of God as Father, but never it was used on a personal level. Often it is used collectively, as the nation of Israel. For a Jew, it is a presumptuous thought to call God Father, especially in a personal individualistic manner. And yet we hear Jesus teaching them to call to God in this personal, and intimate sense. To call God, Papa or Dad, to give our petitions and ask for our needs and engage Him into an intimate communion. It is shown in the beginning of this pattern of prayer that the Almighty, Omnipotent, Infinite, Eternal God desires to reveal Himself in a Filial and Paternal way, to show us His loving and merciful character that can only be known through an intimate relationship with Him.
We are indeed sinners, and indeed, we don't deserve to be saved, but in the context of being a Christian, of being a believer, Jesus tells us that we ought to pray to God calling Him our Father. He has told so that He is the father of all goodness, yes, even those that are not His children He blesses, what more are those who love Him and seek Him? In
Matthew 6:9b (NASB)
... ‘Our Father who is in heaven, ...
...Our Father...
Have we come to realize the magnitude of Jesus telling His disciples to call God "our Father"?
The Old Testament has the idea of God as Father, but never it was used on a personal level. Often it is used collectively, as the nation of Israel. For a Jew, it is a presumptuous thought to call God Father, especially in a personal individualistic manner. And yet we hear Jesus teaching them to call to God in this personal, and intimate sense. To call God, Papa or Dad, to give our petitions and ask for our needs and engage Him into an intimate communion. It is shown in the beginning of this pattern of prayer that the Almighty, Omnipotent, Infinite, Eternal God desires to reveal Himself in a Filial and Paternal way, to show us His loving and merciful character that can only be known through an intimate relationship with Him.
We are indeed sinners, and indeed, we don't deserve to be saved, but in the context of being a Christian, of being a believer, Jesus tells us that we ought to pray to God calling Him our Father. He has told so that He is the father of all goodness, yes, even those that are not His children He blesses, what more are those who love Him and seek Him? In
Matthew 7:11 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!"
an earthly father, being a sinner, know how to give a good gift to his child, what more can the Father of all goodness give! We must ask, we must seek, and we must knock at His door. And we have a confident assurance of being answered, not just answered, answered with the absolute graciousness He can give.
Yet immediately we are drawn back with this line that follows
...who are in heaven...
an earthly father, being a sinner, know how to give a good gift to his child, what more can the Father of all goodness give! We must ask, we must seek, and we must knock at His door. And we have a confident assurance of being answered, not just answered, answered with the absolute graciousness He can give.
Yet immediately we are drawn back with this line that follows
...who are in heaven...
We must realize this too, He is above us, He is Lord, He is God. We have access to Him in prayer through Christ, but we must not get too sentimental, we must revere, we must adore, we must fear Him. We must remember our disposition, He is in heaven, we are on earth. True enough He desires to show Himself as a loving, caring, merciful Father, but He still must be glorified. His acts of compassion must not make us forget that He upholds justice, loves truth, and demands righteousness. He is HOLY. He is seated on the Throne. He is LORD and King. Can we utter with our mouths this prayer; "O Lord, Father, and Ruler of my life." having God as an intimate Father and as a Lord ruling our lives.
It is a frightening thing to have a good God in a world so full of evil, therefore as His chosen children called in Christ, we must pray earnestly beseeching Him to save those who are perishing. We come to Him as children and we come to Him as servants, we cannot divorce one from another.
... Hallowed be Your name.
Matthew 6:9b
This is the first petition of the Lord's prayer after its audacious opening remarks to call God our Father in heaven, a relational approach to God yet reverence and respect is not removed. The petition "hallowed be Your name" does not mean we are merely attributing to God the word Holy but rather, SINCE He is holy, we implore Him to reveal Himself that way, that His name would be regarded as holy. We ought to fear and tremble before Him as we come to Him. We, His people regard God as Holy, as He has commanded us also to be Holy, for He is Holy. We can be personal with God, we can confess our sin to Him and expect great mercies, nevertheless, we must remember that the Holy God, loving as He is love, is a Just God. We approach God confidently, boldly, but in reverence and utmost regard to Him as Holy. Personally, I believe regarding God as holy should penetrate us in prayer and in the way we
live our lives. It is so hypocritical of me to pray this and then live a life of profanity, immorality, covetousness, and pridefulness. God is holy and whether we live holy or not, He remains who He is, but as people who profess Him and claims to have known Him, we must live a life of holiness consistent to what we say and believe. Again, he that believes obeys. And he that was redeemed and is being saved is holy and being made holy. WORSHIP God today, tomorrow, forever
Matthew 6:10
‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth, as it is in heaven.
When we come to God in prayer, immediately we must understand and realize that the top priority is to glorify Him. Nothing more, nothing less. We come to God in these pleas, "Your kingdom come..." heaven manifesting on earth. What is in heaven? Sanctity, Holiness, Purity, Glory. The place where God alone is exalted, where angels and thrones and dominions and all
other heavenly host proclaim His holy name in great reverence and fear. Regarding Him alone, as the antiphonal sing of the seraphs, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY".
"...Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"
What is the will of God? The salvation of men. The evidence of true reverent and pleading
prayer is not that we pray for our leaders to have more political wisdom, or that our friends and loved one might have a good life, we pray for their salvation! We pray that they would repent and believe. This is the will of God done on earth as it is in heaven. That all may come to know Him because, first, the church is the people and place where heaven manifests itself, and men are drawn to God in contrition, repentance, and faith. It is hard to manifest the holiness of God in a place where entertaining the goats with clowns is prevailing than preaching the Gospel. When we understand this petition in prayer, we will immediately lose all selfish affection and ambition, why? Because our deepest longing and deepest desire are for Christ to be known
and God be glorified. The salvific kingdom of God is here. Christian, labour fervently, strenuously, that through prayer, God's power to save men might be shown.
Matthew 6:11
‘Give us this day [a]our daily bread.
We as human beings have the tendency, or better yet, consistency to worry about our future. Preparing for it is not evil, working for it is not evil, and accumulating wealth to enjoy it is not evil. But Jesus, in the pattern of prayer which He taught to His disciples, He told them to give the petition to ask for "a daily bread", but what does this mean? Again, we tend to worry about tomorrow, worried so that we become anxious and weary. And in the heart of it, it is ingratitude towards God who gave us His enduring mercy of waking us up and giving us another day to live, repent, have faith and believe. When we worry about our future, our prayers become more of a false assurance of hope for a future, even though secured in the Hands of God. We worry about what to eat, drink, and wear. The way we eat today is stressed because of what it's going to be tomorrow. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:31 "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God", how can we glorify God in a manner of filling ourselves while worrying about what we are going to feed ourselves? Jesus
said "But [a]seek first [b]His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be
[c]added to you." added what? food, clothing, drink. He told us to give our petitions to our
Father in this manner, “give to us, Lord, what we need for today, the necessary means that we need to sustain our strength, mind, and body.” Once we understand that we ought to pray to God for our daily needs DAILY, then we will not forget to pray. Isn't it amazing? Jesus could have said, “give to us all things we need in this life completely today, and it couldn't be wrong, but since the disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray, He taught them a pattern of prayer in the manner that they will surely remember every day.
Pray for your future, pray for your plans and goals, but let us be reminded that they are secure in the hands of God already and we pray earnestly, fervently, unceasingly for them to come and pass. Nevertheless, pray for today, pray for the meal with gratitude and thanksgiving. And pray that today that, God, as He had done to us, also give to others the grace which we received in the Bread of Life which is Jesus Christ.
Matthew 6:12 (NASB)
‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Do we struggle with unforgiveness? If we do, we are in big trouble, why? Because God will require to us the unforgiveness that we refuse to give.
In the context of being a believer, as someone who understood the Gospel, received it, and rejoices in it, it is an absolute impossibility to not exercise forgiveness.
Let us look deeply why.
"And forgive us our debts..."
A Debt is something we owe to someone. May it be money, belongings or even intangible
things like time. It varies through. Some things can be easily absolved like when we returned the money that we owe or the thing we borrowed; it is settled for sure. But a Debt is also an unfulfilled duty. It is a neglecting what we are commanded to do, and this kind of debt can
only be settled upon the mercy of the person who issued the command.
Now, the debt here is this, sin. Sin against God. And this sin is an act of rebellion towards
God, neglecting our duty, failure to obey His commands. And each time we fail to do what He commands, we debtors to Him. Have we not read that "all have sinned"? This means all men are debtors to God. And God, being a Just and Holy God will not leave the guilty unpunished. We can utterly expect God sparing no one from His Justice.
But here we are again with the prayer that Jesus teaches us, "forgive us our debts". To forgive is to have the total rights to get equal but decides not to. To cancel the due. To have our sins blotted out. Pray to God for it. We sin to Him each day, and so each day does it. It is still part of our daily necessities to pray to God confessing our sins pleading for Him mercy for it. And God is willing to forgive a contrite heart and a broken spirit (Psalm 51:17)
...as we also have forgiven our debtors."
Listen, before we begin to pray, there is a duty we must fulfil. That duty is to forgive others.
Remember, our debt before God is immeasurable, we sin to Him both directly and indirectly because all sin is an act of rebellion towards God. Settle within our hearts the manner of forgiving our neighbour. They do not sin against us every day, not everyone sins against us but consequently, we also sin against them. C.S Lewis said, "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” We have the duty and the privilege to forgive. Duty because God Forgave us, and privilege because we have tasted forgiveness and now, we can share that to others.
Easier said than done. "YES!" But the Christian who saw his debt and utter bankruptcy of his account to pay God yet heard God say "I forgive thee" will be so thrilled and so desirably able to forgive those who will offend him.
As we pray to God to forgive our sins, let us also settle in our hearts the sin of others and
forgive them. Forgiveness is always unfair because it is an act of refusing to be fair. Yet it produces joy no man could ever rob because it was gifted to us by God.
Are we not excited to tell about the food we've tasted and where to find them?
Let us also be such, make others taste forgiveness and tell them where to find it.
Matthew 6:13 NASB
And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil. [ For Yours is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever. Amen.’
God does not tempt anyone, as it is written in James. Let's just be clear on that. But what does it mean to be not led into temptation? The people of God are always led by Him in the Old Testament, to be guided by God is to be free from the snares of their enemies. Yet God so permit trials to either strengthen our faith or discipline us like a Loving Father to a stiff-necked child. So, God allowing them is to keep us in obedience and in trust to Him The devil is the tempter, the world is the means of which he tempts us, and the fallen flesh causes us to fall. These three works together against us. So, to pray, do not lead us to temptation means that we are pleading God to not permit temptations or trials in our lives. But complementary to that is that if God would allow so, we would pray for the strength to overcome.
...But deliver us from evil...
Some translation says, "evil one" and rightly so because it is the Devil being talked about. To
be far from his temptations and accusations. To be protected from his fiery arrows and devouring mouth. To be as far as possible from his reach. We pray this because we believe God is in control even on how Satan moves, Satan can do what God permitted him to do, yet God has no relations or affiliation with Satan except that He will crush this serpent entirely in the Judgement. We live a life of trials and temptations; we fall to them at times and the
accusation of Satan recoils to our soul as we doubt our own salvation. But Jesus, the One who commanded the sea and wind "peace be still" is the same Jesus that silences the roars of the enemy as He paid the penalty we owe so much to God. Pray in this manner, Jesus said. Along with our petitions of Glory for God, wellness and forgiveness.
It is a frightening thing to have a good God in a world so full of evil, therefore as His chosen children called in Christ, we must pray earnestly beseeching Him to save those who are perishing. We come to Him as children and we come to Him as servants, we cannot divorce one from another.
... Hallowed be Your name.
Matthew 6:9b
This is the first petition of the Lord's prayer after its audacious opening remarks to call God our Father in heaven, a relational approach to God yet reverence and respect is not removed. The petition "hallowed be Your name" does not mean we are merely attributing to God the word Holy but rather, SINCE He is holy, we implore Him to reveal Himself that way, that His name would be regarded as holy. We ought to fear and tremble before Him as we come to Him. We, His people regard God as Holy, as He has commanded us also to be Holy, for He is Holy. We can be personal with God, we can confess our sin to Him and expect great mercies, nevertheless, we must remember that the Holy God, loving as He is love, is a Just God. We approach God confidently, boldly, but in reverence and utmost regard to Him as Holy. Personally, I believe regarding God as holy should penetrate us in prayer and in the way we
live our lives. It is so hypocritical of me to pray this and then live a life of profanity, immorality, covetousness, and pridefulness. God is holy and whether we live holy or not, He remains who He is, but as people who profess Him and claims to have known Him, we must live a life of holiness consistent to what we say and believe. Again, he that believes obeys. And he that was redeemed and is being saved is holy and being made holy. WORSHIP God today, tomorrow, forever
Matthew 6:10
‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth, as it is in heaven.
When we come to God in prayer, immediately we must understand and realize that the top priority is to glorify Him. Nothing more, nothing less. We come to God in these pleas, "Your kingdom come..." heaven manifesting on earth. What is in heaven? Sanctity, Holiness, Purity, Glory. The place where God alone is exalted, where angels and thrones and dominions and all
other heavenly host proclaim His holy name in great reverence and fear. Regarding Him alone, as the antiphonal sing of the seraphs, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY".
"...Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"
What is the will of God? The salvation of men. The evidence of true reverent and pleading
prayer is not that we pray for our leaders to have more political wisdom, or that our friends and loved one might have a good life, we pray for their salvation! We pray that they would repent and believe. This is the will of God done on earth as it is in heaven. That all may come to know Him because, first, the church is the people and place where heaven manifests itself, and men are drawn to God in contrition, repentance, and faith. It is hard to manifest the holiness of God in a place where entertaining the goats with clowns is prevailing than preaching the Gospel. When we understand this petition in prayer, we will immediately lose all selfish affection and ambition, why? Because our deepest longing and deepest desire are for Christ to be known
and God be glorified. The salvific kingdom of God is here. Christian, labour fervently, strenuously, that through prayer, God's power to save men might be shown.
Matthew 6:11
‘Give us this day [a]our daily bread.
We as human beings have the tendency, or better yet, consistency to worry about our future. Preparing for it is not evil, working for it is not evil, and accumulating wealth to enjoy it is not evil. But Jesus, in the pattern of prayer which He taught to His disciples, He told them to give the petition to ask for "a daily bread", but what does this mean? Again, we tend to worry about tomorrow, worried so that we become anxious and weary. And in the heart of it, it is ingratitude towards God who gave us His enduring mercy of waking us up and giving us another day to live, repent, have faith and believe. When we worry about our future, our prayers become more of a false assurance of hope for a future, even though secured in the Hands of God. We worry about what to eat, drink, and wear. The way we eat today is stressed because of what it's going to be tomorrow. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:31 "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God", how can we glorify God in a manner of filling ourselves while worrying about what we are going to feed ourselves? Jesus
said "But [a]seek first [b]His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be
[c]added to you." added what? food, clothing, drink. He told us to give our petitions to our
Father in this manner, “give to us, Lord, what we need for today, the necessary means that we need to sustain our strength, mind, and body.” Once we understand that we ought to pray to God for our daily needs DAILY, then we will not forget to pray. Isn't it amazing? Jesus could have said, “give to us all things we need in this life completely today, and it couldn't be wrong, but since the disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray, He taught them a pattern of prayer in the manner that they will surely remember every day.
Pray for your future, pray for your plans and goals, but let us be reminded that they are secure in the hands of God already and we pray earnestly, fervently, unceasingly for them to come and pass. Nevertheless, pray for today, pray for the meal with gratitude and thanksgiving. And pray that today that, God, as He had done to us, also give to others the grace which we received in the Bread of Life which is Jesus Christ.
Matthew 6:12 (NASB)
‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Do we struggle with unforgiveness? If we do, we are in big trouble, why? Because God will require to us the unforgiveness that we refuse to give.
In the context of being a believer, as someone who understood the Gospel, received it, and rejoices in it, it is an absolute impossibility to not exercise forgiveness.
Let us look deeply why.
"And forgive us our debts..."
A Debt is something we owe to someone. May it be money, belongings or even intangible
things like time. It varies through. Some things can be easily absolved like when we returned the money that we owe or the thing we borrowed; it is settled for sure. But a Debt is also an unfulfilled duty. It is a neglecting what we are commanded to do, and this kind of debt can
only be settled upon the mercy of the person who issued the command.
Now, the debt here is this, sin. Sin against God. And this sin is an act of rebellion towards
God, neglecting our duty, failure to obey His commands. And each time we fail to do what He commands, we debtors to Him. Have we not read that "all have sinned"? This means all men are debtors to God. And God, being a Just and Holy God will not leave the guilty unpunished. We can utterly expect God sparing no one from His Justice.
But here we are again with the prayer that Jesus teaches us, "forgive us our debts". To forgive is to have the total rights to get equal but decides not to. To cancel the due. To have our sins blotted out. Pray to God for it. We sin to Him each day, and so each day does it. It is still part of our daily necessities to pray to God confessing our sins pleading for Him mercy for it. And God is willing to forgive a contrite heart and a broken spirit (Psalm 51:17)
...as we also have forgiven our debtors."
Listen, before we begin to pray, there is a duty we must fulfil. That duty is to forgive others.
Remember, our debt before God is immeasurable, we sin to Him both directly and indirectly because all sin is an act of rebellion towards God. Settle within our hearts the manner of forgiving our neighbour. They do not sin against us every day, not everyone sins against us but consequently, we also sin against them. C.S Lewis said, "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” We have the duty and the privilege to forgive. Duty because God Forgave us, and privilege because we have tasted forgiveness and now, we can share that to others.
Easier said than done. "YES!" But the Christian who saw his debt and utter bankruptcy of his account to pay God yet heard God say "I forgive thee" will be so thrilled and so desirably able to forgive those who will offend him.
As we pray to God to forgive our sins, let us also settle in our hearts the sin of others and
forgive them. Forgiveness is always unfair because it is an act of refusing to be fair. Yet it produces joy no man could ever rob because it was gifted to us by God.
Are we not excited to tell about the food we've tasted and where to find them?
Let us also be such, make others taste forgiveness and tell them where to find it.
Matthew 6:13 NASB
And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil. [ For Yours is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever. Amen.’
God does not tempt anyone, as it is written in James. Let's just be clear on that. But what does it mean to be not led into temptation? The people of God are always led by Him in the Old Testament, to be guided by God is to be free from the snares of their enemies. Yet God so permit trials to either strengthen our faith or discipline us like a Loving Father to a stiff-necked child. So, God allowing them is to keep us in obedience and in trust to Him The devil is the tempter, the world is the means of which he tempts us, and the fallen flesh causes us to fall. These three works together against us. So, to pray, do not lead us to temptation means that we are pleading God to not permit temptations or trials in our lives. But complementary to that is that if God would allow so, we would pray for the strength to overcome.
...But deliver us from evil...
Some translation says, "evil one" and rightly so because it is the Devil being talked about. To
be far from his temptations and accusations. To be protected from his fiery arrows and devouring mouth. To be as far as possible from his reach. We pray this because we believe God is in control even on how Satan moves, Satan can do what God permitted him to do, yet God has no relations or affiliation with Satan except that He will crush this serpent entirely in the Judgement. We live a life of trials and temptations; we fall to them at times and the
accusation of Satan recoils to our soul as we doubt our own salvation. But Jesus, the One who commanded the sea and wind "peace be still" is the same Jesus that silences the roars of the enemy as He paid the penalty we owe so much to God. Pray in this manner, Jesus said. Along with our petitions of Glory for God, wellness and forgiveness.
