The prayer you have breathed after the manner of our Lord’s own teaching is sweet in the ears of the Most High, for it begins where all true prayer must begin, with the glory of our Father and the coming of His kingdom. To hallow His name, to long for His will to be done on earth as in heaven, is the first and great petition; and when the soul is thus bowed, all other needs may be spread before Him with a childlike confidence. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Now, you have asked for daily bread, for forgiveness, and for deliverance from evil. Let me press home the central jewel of this prayer: “Forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” What a mercy that there is forgiveness with God! I would have you hear it as a trumpet blast from the throne itself, there is forgiveness. Not a stinted pardon for small offenses only, but “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” If you have been the chief of sinners, you may have the chief of sinner’s forgiveness, and God can bestow it now. Our version reads, “There is forgiveness,” but in the Hebrew there is no verb; it stands as a thing timeless, there was, there is, there ever shall be forgiveness for all who come to God through Jesus Christ. Where God draws no limit, do not you draw any. The debt is absolute; the forgiveness is divine, complete, eternal. And because He has forgiven you so vast a debt, shall you not readily forgive every trifling offense against yourself? It is a joint-stock business of mutual forgiveness, and the members of Christ’s church should take large shares in this concern.
Yet I know the adversary would whisper that your case is too dark, your heart too hard, your sins too many. Cast that lie into the sea of forgetfulness! The text says, “There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.” It is with God, where the offense went, from that very place the forgiveness comes. Jesus died, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God. The ransom has been found; deliverance from the pit is not a matter of hope alone, but of certainty, for God himself proclaims, “I have found a ransom.” He brought Israel forth from Egypt laden with silver and gold, and He brings every believing sinner forth from the bondage of sin enriched with the treasures of His grace. The deliverance is wholly of Him, not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
As you plead for daily bread, remember it is your Father’s good pleasure to supply all your need. He who gave His Son will with Him freely give us all things. And when you cry, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” know that He is able to keep you from falling. He that has begun the good work will perfect it. The clock of mercy struck the hour of your deliverance from the moment you trusted Christ; the eternal purpose decreed it, and none shall pluck you from His hand.
Go, then, to your knees again. Plead the blood of the Lamb. Look not to your feelings, but to the faithful Promiser. There is forgiveness, take it. There is deliverance, rejoice in it. There is daily bread, expect it. And let your song be jubilant, for He hath brought you forth from worse than Egyptian bondage, and the glory shall be His forever and ever. Amen, in Jesus’ name.