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The Lord's Prayer - - - Part Four |
| Matthew
6:5-15 |
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| A
Four-Part Teaching By Pastor Paul Sundell, IMF Coordinator of Missions Field Services |
We’ve considered that this prayer Jesus gave us is a pattern for us when we pray. He taught us how to pray and what prayer should include. We called this a “skeleton” which we can “flesh out” as we pray. So, the points of the prayer give us the essentials that we can enlarge on.
We considered the significance of those first two words: “Our Father,” and how they indicate the awesome family relationship we have with our Father God. “Father” brings us into a relationship that indicates intimacy and closeness.
We looked at those three powerful petitions that launch the prayer and which focus wholly on God, those things that are most important to Him: His glory, His reign, and His will. These are priorities in praying.
Now we come to the three following petitions that relate to our circumstances: “give us…forgive us…lead us not…”
Once again we can point to the all-inclusiveness of these petitions. All our basic and most urgent needs are summed up in them. Our whole life is found there, and that is what makes those three petitions so utterly amazing. You have herein covered our physical needs, our mental needs, and our spiritual needs---body, soul and spirit. We are taught to bring our life in detail to God in prayer, but here we have only the great headings which we can take and develop. Once again, let me point to that all-inclusiveness of this prayer- petition is like a seed that we can plant and cultivate. All our needs are here.
First then, “give us this day our daily bread…” Note again the “our”---not exclusive, not just me and mine, but “our.” Inclusive “Bread” is referred to as “the staff of life,” a simply yet basic necessity. I’ve found that in virtually every country I’ve visited, bread is central to their daily diet. But what is the Lord’s point?
May I suggest “give us this day our daily bread” is in fact “give us this day what is necessary for us.” It’s a prayer for all our necessities, not just food. Dorothy and I began our ministry in a total dependence upon God for our “daily bread.” I haven’t time to tell you all the amazing ways in which God our Father provided, but I can say that it was for us a school of faith. Every now and then, at the end of the month when we had very little money left in our pockets, we’d spend our last 35 cents for a pint of hand-packed ice cream to share. What a treat that was! But, believe me, it was an adventure believing God for our “daily bread!” God never failed us! Your temporal needs, my temporal needs…we can ask the Father for them.
Then comes “forgive us our trespasses…” Now follows a spiritual need. Does a Christian need to pray for forgiveness? The answer is obviously, YES! Sorry, but sin is not yet eradicated! Nor the “flesh!” We live in a polluted, defiling world. Although our sins have been forgiven in a judicial sense when we first believed, sin is ever lurking and is always a possibility even to the strongest! Hence our need for forgiveness---not judicial forgiveness (justification), but paternal forgiveness. To help the disciples (and us!) see this necessity, Jesus taught a powerful lesson in the upper room in that last gathering…He washed their feet! That is, until He came to Peter, who said, “Thou shalt never wash my feet!” Listen carefully to Jesus’ response: “He that is washed (bathed) need not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.”
Do you see the distinction---bathing the whole body as opposed to washing the feet (daily walk)? The issue is not salvation, but unbroken fellowship. That was the note John started on when he wrote his first letter: “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His son, purifies us from every sin.” Note…“we” …believers…it’s a letter of believers. (Note a further word in vs. 14, 15) It’s important to note here the words…“even as we forgive.” It’s not merit based---it’s family based. Forgive, not “because,” but “even as.” And the point is that forgiving others their trespasses, brings US into sync with our Forgiving Father!
Third, “and lead us not into temptation…” Knowing our propensity to sin, this petition becomes all-important! God certainly does not tempt us to sin! James 1:13 confirms this. But God, who knows all and sees all, can see down the road ahead of us and can see exactly where we may be tempted by the enemy, and can so “lead us” that we may avoid those places of vulnerability. And it’s not all a matter for the Lord, but coupled with that petition is the fact He taught us to “watch and pray” that we enter not into temptation. Evil and the evil one are constant dangers in the world in which we live. But even beyond that, we need to recognize that within us there remains the “old man…the flesh”---that fallen nature from which we stand in need of constant deliverance.
And
here is the postscript: “For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power,
and the glory forever and ever.” How appropriate! What can one say
after such a prayer? There must be of necessity some sort of doxology
to bring this prayer full circle. We must end by praising Him! The measure
of our spirituality is the amount of praise and of thanksgiving in our
prayers. Our daily food is assured; we have as our Father one who can
keep us from hell, from Satan, yes---from ourselves, from all. THINE IS
THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY! AMEN!
†
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