Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your meditation on the prayer the Lord taught us is good and right, and your desire to pray it with understanding and not as empty repetition is pleasing to God. Jesus did give this prayer as a pattern and outline for His disciples, not as words to be said without thought, but as headings under which the whole life of a believer is gathered.
You have divided it well. First we look to the Father, His name, His kingdom, His will. Then we bring our own needs, our daily bread, our need for forgiveness and our call to forgive, and our need to be kept from sin and from the evil one. As you noted, we are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then the other things are added.
To call God Father is itself a great gift. This is not a name for those outside Christ, but for those who have received Him and believed on His name and have been given the Spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba, Father. When we say Our Father who is in heaven, we should pause as you have done and remember with whom we speak, the Holy One who loved us while we were still sinners and strangers and gave His only Son so that we might have eternal life through His blood, burial and resurrection. To say Hallowed be Your name is to ask that His gracious and compassionate name would be honored in our thoughts, words and deeds, and not dishonored by our lives, and that the world would come to revere Him.
To pray Your Kingdom come and Your will be done is to ask for His reign to be seen in us now through the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, and through holiness and love for God and neighbor, and also to look forward to the full coming of that Kingdom when Christ returns. It is a prayer that we would know His will, submit to it, abide in Christ, bear fruit, and make disciples as He commanded, while He rules over His Church and over the nations until the end.
For our daily needs, we ask Him to give us each day our daily bread. This means every good provision for body and soul, not for excess or for indulgence, but for health and strength to serve Him. We are to make provision for the flesh only for what is necessary, not to fulfill its lusts, and to spend our chief care on spiritual things. He has promised to supply what we need so that we may love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves.
When we pray Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, we acknowledge that even after we have come to Christ we still need forgiveness and we still must repent and confess our sins. This prayer belongs to believers, and it shows that repentance remains open to us after baptism. But it also sets a condition before us. The servant who was forgiven a great debt was expected to show the same mercy to his fellow servant. God in His surpassing benevolence forgave us far more than we asked, moved with compassion, yet He teaches us that we must forgive others if we would be forgiven. If we remember our own sins it makes us humble, and if we forgive those who have sinned against us and pray for them, we are set free from revenge and we show that we have learned from the mercy we received.
When we pray Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, we are not asking as if God tempts us to sin, but asking Him to keep us, to give us protection and a way of escape. No temptation has taken you except what is common to man, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. He gives patience and brings release, often quickly, so that the trial becomes bearable. He also uses trials to draw us to Himself, as a loving father allows a fear to arise so that his children will run to his arms and remain there. Therefore prayer is a great weapon. If at morning we make God favorable to us by prayer, we go out to the battles and storms of the day with security. We need this weapon early and at night, for each day has its rocks and temptations.
Continue then to pray in this way, with careful attention to each petition, and persevere even when you do not at once receive what you ask. God at times delays His answer not because He does not wish to give, but to train us to persevere and to keep us near Him. Though we receive not, let us persevere that we may receive, and when we do receive, let us give thanks because we have received. He hears prayer and in Christ all His promises are yes and amen.
May the Lord make you steadfast in this pattern, to hallow His name, to seek His Kingdom, to trust Him for daily provision, to walk in forgiveness toward others, and to be kept by His power from temptation and from the evil one, until His Kingdom comes in fullness. We join you in praying this in Jesus name, Amen.
You have divided it well. First we look to the Father, His name, His kingdom, His will. Then we bring our own needs, our daily bread, our need for forgiveness and our call to forgive, and our need to be kept from sin and from the evil one. As you noted, we are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then the other things are added.
To call God Father is itself a great gift. This is not a name for those outside Christ, but for those who have received Him and believed on His name and have been given the Spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba, Father. When we say Our Father who is in heaven, we should pause as you have done and remember with whom we speak, the Holy One who loved us while we were still sinners and strangers and gave His only Son so that we might have eternal life through His blood, burial and resurrection. To say Hallowed be Your name is to ask that His gracious and compassionate name would be honored in our thoughts, words and deeds, and not dishonored by our lives, and that the world would come to revere Him.
To pray Your Kingdom come and Your will be done is to ask for His reign to be seen in us now through the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, and through holiness and love for God and neighbor, and also to look forward to the full coming of that Kingdom when Christ returns. It is a prayer that we would know His will, submit to it, abide in Christ, bear fruit, and make disciples as He commanded, while He rules over His Church and over the nations until the end.
For our daily needs, we ask Him to give us each day our daily bread. This means every good provision for body and soul, not for excess or for indulgence, but for health and strength to serve Him. We are to make provision for the flesh only for what is necessary, not to fulfill its lusts, and to spend our chief care on spiritual things. He has promised to supply what we need so that we may love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves.
When we pray Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, we acknowledge that even after we have come to Christ we still need forgiveness and we still must repent and confess our sins. This prayer belongs to believers, and it shows that repentance remains open to us after baptism. But it also sets a condition before us. The servant who was forgiven a great debt was expected to show the same mercy to his fellow servant. God in His surpassing benevolence forgave us far more than we asked, moved with compassion, yet He teaches us that we must forgive others if we would be forgiven. If we remember our own sins it makes us humble, and if we forgive those who have sinned against us and pray for them, we are set free from revenge and we show that we have learned from the mercy we received.
When we pray Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, we are not asking as if God tempts us to sin, but asking Him to keep us, to give us protection and a way of escape. No temptation has taken you except what is common to man, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. He gives patience and brings release, often quickly, so that the trial becomes bearable. He also uses trials to draw us to Himself, as a loving father allows a fear to arise so that his children will run to his arms and remain there. Therefore prayer is a great weapon. If at morning we make God favorable to us by prayer, we go out to the battles and storms of the day with security. We need this weapon early and at night, for each day has its rocks and temptations.
Continue then to pray in this way, with careful attention to each petition, and persevere even when you do not at once receive what you ask. God at times delays His answer not because He does not wish to give, but to train us to persevere and to keep us near Him. Though we receive not, let us persevere that we may receive, and when we do receive, let us give thanks because we have received. He hears prayer and in Christ all His promises are yes and amen.
May the Lord make you steadfast in this pattern, to hallow His name, to seek His Kingdom, to trust Him for daily provision, to walk in forgiveness toward others, and to be kept by His power from temptation and from the evil one, until His Kingdom comes in fullness. We join you in praying this in Jesus name, Amen.
