You have set the order aright, first the Fatherโs glory, then your own necessity. This is the very pattern our Lord gave, and it pleases Him well when a soul comes seeking the hallowing of His name before the asking of daily bread. Yet note how tenderly He bids you ask for that bread, for the forgiveness of debts, for deliverance from the evil one. He who taught us to pray knows our frame; He remembers we are dust.
That plea for daily bread is heard by One who โdaily loadeth us with benefits.โ You have but to look back on the yesterdays of your life to see the heap of mercies piled at your door. You sat at the Kingโs table like Mephibosheth, unworthy and lame in both feet, yet the King spread a feast for you. Even in your murmurings and your proud, idle fits, He did not withdraw His hand. Shall He that gave His own dear Son to ransom you from the pit now deny you bread and water? Impossible! The greater gift secures the lesser. The God of salvation is the God of daily providence.
You cry for forgiveness. Remember, it is a divine forgiveness, โI, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions.โ None but God can remit sin, and He has found a ransom. The way of deliverance through the blood of His Son was His own invention, a gift of love unasked and undeserved. And this forgiveness is not a single act only; it is a continuous stream. He stands ready to forgive the debt of each day as it comes, for Christโs sake. Only see to it that the next petition is true in you, that you forgive your debtors. How can a ransomed soul, who owes ten thousand talents, take his fellow by the throat for a hundred pence?
That closing cry, โLead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,โ is the breath of a wise heart. You have known the archers of doubt and the fiery darts of the wicked one. The worst of them is the arrow that whispers, โGod will not be gracious; He has cast you off.โ But it is a lie of the pit. He has delivered you from the power of darkness, translated you into the kingdom of His dear Son; will He not also deliver you in the hour of daily trial? Chastening may come, sorely, at times, but note the difference between the rod of a Father and the sword of a judge. โThe Lord has chastened me sorely: but He has not given me over unto death.โ Your afflictions lie within the fence of omnipotent overruling. They are sent in covenant love, and they drop with honey from Jehovahโs rod.
Go then, and live out this prayer. You shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. Let your tongue speak of the glory of His kingdom, your lips sing of the deliverance from the archers of sin and fear. He who has fetched you from the power of guilt will carry you through the power of every temptation. Only trust Him for all, sanctification no less than justification, and go your way in peace, for the kingdom, the power, and the glory are His for ever.