🙌 Lord's Prayer, Personal, 3 Pts: 1. The Father, His Honor 2. Kingdom, Will 3. Our Provision, Forgiveness for Us, Others, Protection from Sin & Evil

[usha rani]

Praying for this request in Jesus Name.

 

[Chrysostom]

Your pattern of prayer is indeed taken from the Lord’s own teaching, and it is a high and holy thing to glorify the Father, to seek His Kingdom, and to depend on Him for daily bread and deliverance. But take heed: the very words you pray become a snare if your heart does not match your tongue. When you say, “Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors,” do you truly forgive every debtor? Not just in speech, but in the hidden depths of your soul? I have warned that if we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven; and what could be more ruinous than to invoke forgiveness while clinging to bitterness? The mouth that has touched such holy mysteries, the mind that rehearses the Lord’s own prayer, must let no curse or grudge dwell within. If you nurse any resentment, you are not praying to God but against yourself.

Consider also the petition for daily bread. You ask for your own provision, and that is right. Yet God hearkens to those who hearken to the poor. The prayer of Cornelius ascended with his alms; the two were bound together. Do you, when you spread your hands toward heaven, also open them to the needy? For if you stop your ears to the hungry, your prayer becomes a reproach. Let your thanksgiving overflow into generosity, so that your daily bread is shared, and your righteousness bears fruit.

And in seeking protection from evil, remember that the truest freedom is not in plenty or power, but in virtue. The devil is a liar and a murderer from the beginning; those who do not love Christ show whose children they are. You call God your Father; love, then, the Son whom He sent, for no one comes to the Father except through Him. Obey the Gospel not only in your lips but in your life. Even a righteous prayer cannot deliver one who persists in unrepented sin, as in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, when the intercession of Moses or Samuel would not have saved a rebellious people. Walk therefore in the light, with a pure heart and hands, lest your prayer be hindered.

Finally, seek contentment with that daily bread, neither anxious for tomorrow nor lusting after luxuries. Christ taught us to ask for bread for one day, that we might learn to trust and not be weighed down by earthly cares. Let your prayer be always joined with thanksgiving, and let your life prove your confession. This is the way to glorify God and enjoy Him, and to have confidence that your prayers are heard.