Silas
Beloved of All
Your reflection on the prayer Jesus taught in Matthew 6 shows a sincere desire to pray with understanding and not by empty repetition, and that is exactly how He intended it to be used. It is a pattern given to shape our praying, to teach us what to seek and in what order. You noted the order rightly, first the Father, His name, His kingdom and His will, and then our needs, our daily provision, our forgiveness and our deliverance. That order itself is a lesson, for He said to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then these other things are added.
To be able to say Our Father is itself grace. Apart from Christ we were strangers and even hostile in our minds, yet God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and Jesus shed His blood, was buried, rose again and was exalted so that all who receive Him and believe on His name are given the right to become children of God. By the Holy Spirit we now cry Abba, Father, with the same intimacy Jesus knew. It is a holy privilege that we, who were once far off, can now draw near to the Holy One and be heard.
When you pray Hallowed be Your name, you are asking that His gracious and compassionate name revealed in Scripture would be honored in your own thoughts, words and actions, and that your life would cause others to reverence Him rather than dishonor Him. That His kingdom would come is a prayer that His righteousness, peace and joy would be formed in you and through you, bearing the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, and walking humbly and justly before Him. It is also a longing for His return, when what we now know only in part and as a foretaste will be made full when Christ comes again. And to pray Your will be done is to ask to know His will, to be led by His Spirit, to abide in Christ and to walk in obedience to all He has commanded, bearing fruit that proves we are His disciples.
Your petitions for daily bread rightly look beyond physical bread. We do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from God, and He has promised to supply our spiritual, emotional and physical needs so that we can love Him with all we are and love our neighbor as ourselves.
The petition about forgiveness is the one Jesus Himself emphasized after the prayer. He taught that if we do not forgive others from the heart, we show we have not truly received forgiveness ourselves. Human forgiveness is often incomplete. We say we forgive but we keep the hurt ready to use again. God's forgiveness is not like that. When God forgives, it is total and complete. In Christ we are not only forgiven but justified, declared not guilty. He calls us to follow His example. Forgiveness is not a matter of counting how many times, it is a matter of the heart and spirit. None of us can produce that spirit on our own. We must be willing and ask Him for it, praying honestly, Lord, take away this bitterness and give me a forgiving heart, and He will give the capacity to those who are willing.
The final petition, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, is a necessary prayer every day. Temptation itself is not sin. Even Jesus was tempted, yet without sin. Sin comes when desire is conceived and we yield to it. Every temptation presents a choice whether to walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. Often temptation comes as a suggestion to find fulfillment in an immediate, easier way apart from God's path. God never solicits us to evil, that suggestion comes from the enemy. But God is faithful. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to all people, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear. With every temptation He makes a way of escape so that you may be able to endure it. We must take that way when He shows it, turning from the flesh and reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. Because Jesus Himself suffered being tempted, He is a faithful high priest who understands our weakness and is able to help those who are tempted. He knows what it is to be hungry, weary and pressed, and He can give strength to respond in love, forgiveness, kindness and mercy rather than in the flesh. When we respond after the Spirit we find peace, when we respond after the flesh we find misery.
It is good to close as Jesus taught, for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. All power in heaven and earth belongs to Him, His kingdom cannot be destroyed, and all glory belongs to His name. Thank you for bringing this pattern before the Lord with such care. May He continue to teach you to pray with understanding, to receive His complete forgiveness and to extend it freely to others, and to watch for His way of escape in every trial, trusting the One who was tempted as we are and now lives to help us stand.
To be able to say Our Father is itself grace. Apart from Christ we were strangers and even hostile in our minds, yet God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and Jesus shed His blood, was buried, rose again and was exalted so that all who receive Him and believe on His name are given the right to become children of God. By the Holy Spirit we now cry Abba, Father, with the same intimacy Jesus knew. It is a holy privilege that we, who were once far off, can now draw near to the Holy One and be heard.
When you pray Hallowed be Your name, you are asking that His gracious and compassionate name revealed in Scripture would be honored in your own thoughts, words and actions, and that your life would cause others to reverence Him rather than dishonor Him. That His kingdom would come is a prayer that His righteousness, peace and joy would be formed in you and through you, bearing the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, and walking humbly and justly before Him. It is also a longing for His return, when what we now know only in part and as a foretaste will be made full when Christ comes again. And to pray Your will be done is to ask to know His will, to be led by His Spirit, to abide in Christ and to walk in obedience to all He has commanded, bearing fruit that proves we are His disciples.
Your petitions for daily bread rightly look beyond physical bread. We do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from God, and He has promised to supply our spiritual, emotional and physical needs so that we can love Him with all we are and love our neighbor as ourselves.
The petition about forgiveness is the one Jesus Himself emphasized after the prayer. He taught that if we do not forgive others from the heart, we show we have not truly received forgiveness ourselves. Human forgiveness is often incomplete. We say we forgive but we keep the hurt ready to use again. God's forgiveness is not like that. When God forgives, it is total and complete. In Christ we are not only forgiven but justified, declared not guilty. He calls us to follow His example. Forgiveness is not a matter of counting how many times, it is a matter of the heart and spirit. None of us can produce that spirit on our own. We must be willing and ask Him for it, praying honestly, Lord, take away this bitterness and give me a forgiving heart, and He will give the capacity to those who are willing.
The final petition, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, is a necessary prayer every day. Temptation itself is not sin. Even Jesus was tempted, yet without sin. Sin comes when desire is conceived and we yield to it. Every temptation presents a choice whether to walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. Often temptation comes as a suggestion to find fulfillment in an immediate, easier way apart from God's path. God never solicits us to evil, that suggestion comes from the enemy. But God is faithful. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to all people, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear. With every temptation He makes a way of escape so that you may be able to endure it. We must take that way when He shows it, turning from the flesh and reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. Because Jesus Himself suffered being tempted, He is a faithful high priest who understands our weakness and is able to help those who are tempted. He knows what it is to be hungry, weary and pressed, and He can give strength to respond in love, forgiveness, kindness and mercy rather than in the flesh. When we respond after the Spirit we find peace, when we respond after the flesh we find misery.
It is good to close as Jesus taught, for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. All power in heaven and earth belongs to Him, His kingdom cannot be destroyed, and all glory belongs to His name. Thank you for bringing this pattern before the Lord with such care. May He continue to teach you to pray with understanding, to receive His complete forgiveness and to extend it freely to others, and to watch for His way of escape in every trial, trusting the One who was tempted as we are and now lives to help us stand.
