The Lord's Prayer – 19th July 2016

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…”(Matthew 6:9-10).

Lord's Prayer is a devotion based on Christ's model for prayer as stated in Matthew 6. It is commonly employed among professing Christians as the custom to ‘repeat’ it as their morning prayer. Unfortunately, they think that when they have repeated these sacred words they have done enough. Therefore it would be prudent to discuss this important prayer given by our Lord himself.

The Lord's Prayer begins with "Our Father in heaven…" We need to always acknowledge first and foremost who we are talking to. He (God) is our heavenly Father. We address Him with respect just as we should address our earthly father with respect. He is God who created all things in this universe, including us. He loves us and we need to show our respect and love for Him in return. When we begin to pray, our prayers are directed to Him because we pray to Him through faith for His blessings and provision. We can learn from Revelation “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”(Revelation 4:11).

"Hallowed be your name…" We must see Him as being holy, sanctified, consecrated; worthy of praise, honor and glory! "Your kingdom come…" Here we acknowledge His coming kingdom. We pray that Christ will soon return and establish His earthly kingdom where we will be with Him for eternity. "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…" As Christians we need to be praying for His will to be done in our lives, so that we might bring glory to Him here on earth as He is glorified in heaven. We need to do things His way, instead of selfishly doing our own things to satisfy our own sinful desires.

"Give us today our daily bread…" As Christians we refer to God as ‘father’ because he is our provider. We should ask our Father each day to provide for our needs, just as He promised in His Holy Word. His Word says that we don't have, because we don't ask! We wish to ask the reader if he or she asks God for the provision for our food as a natural habit. Truthfully most won’t do so and take it for granted! The bible teaches us in Matthew 7:7,“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”. Of course, we must first know God through His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We must know clearly that if we don't know Christ, God won't acknowledge this request for daily provision.

"Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors…” This speaks about forgiveness in our day to day lives among our associates, neighbors, friends, family and loved ones. Simply any and all persons in our lives that we come in contact with in social or business situations are included as well. When we state above in our prayers, it should touch our hearts whether we have forgiven those who hurt us… If we can't forgive others, how can we expect our heavenly Father to forgive us? Although the answer to this question is not found in the Lord’s Prayer, we can learn when the bible tells us in Matthew 6:14-15, “ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. As Christians we must know that we are pleading for God’s Grace and forgiveness for our sin and sinful deeds. But we cannot forget that this prayer embodies a promise from us when we seek His forgiveness: We ask His Forgiveness for ‘our ill deeds’ as we have forgiven those who have done ‘ill deeds’ or hurt us.

"Lead us not into temptation…” Here we are asking our heavenly Father to help us recognize every evil thing, every temptation before us. We are constantly pummeled with various kinds of temptations from the world today. Therefore we badly need His assistance to stay focused in our walk with God. As Christians we know that the evil one is constantly trying to distance us further away from God. We can learn when the apostle Peter tells us: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”(1 Peter 5:8).We are praying to our Father who will see the evil that we might fall into, for what it is really is but a trap set by Satan to bring us down to his level.

"But deliver us from the evil one… We are pleading for Him to help us, to enable us to steer clear of that liar and deceiver and let us see clearly the path that you want each of us to walk. By the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, may we never stray from your will and way... Webster defines deliver as "to set free or liberate; to release or save." Thus, "deliver us from evil" means we are asking to be freed or saved from evil. It is evil and resulting sin that draws us away from God that destroys us. Evil is anything that tempts us to do something which is against God's will. It is anything that would displease God if we were to follow our own desires driven by the evil one instead of being steadfast in following God’s will. In this life, we will never be free from the presence of evil. Until we arrive in Heaven, we will be tainted by sin and evil. Until God creates the New Heavens and New Earth, this world will be filled with evil. Praying "deliver us from evil" is a plea for protection from evil and victory over sin.

The end of the Lord's Prayer which says: "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever". Some commentators believe that this was added by someone other than the original writer. Whether that's true or not, this last phrase simply emphasizes more praise and glory to God the Father - so it's absolutely biblical… a glorious ending to a model prayer to God!