The Lord’s Prayer – Conclusion

So after all this study, what can we say?

First, God calls us to pray to Him, regularly. He has even taught us how to pray! This is not to discourage any other form of prayer, or any prayer above and beyond this. But the words ‘pray then like this’ have a certain ring of finality about them – come before God daily and pray this.

Take some time to read back over each reflection. This prayer is not something for us to say mindlessly, or to repeat in a crowd without understanding (though I can honestly confess I spent many years in church reciting this from memory without any thought). The Lord’s Prayer is something you should spend time not only praying, but understanding! When you pray this prayer, remember some of the details each time.

Remember that it is a communal prayer, not just a private prayer. Remember that the focus of the prayer is God, not us. Remember we are not praying to meet our wants and desires, but to move into God’s will, for His glory.

To finish, let’s go over the scripture again, this time in full context. I pray this study has blessed you, and helped you grow deeper in your relationship with God!

Matthew 6:5-13 (ESV)

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

The Lord’s Prayer – Doxology

Matthew 6:9-13 (ESV)

Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

“For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen”

Why don’t we find this well known ending to the Lord’s Prayer in most translations?

Commonly known as the ‘doxology’, this part of the prayer is only found in a select group of original texts (the Bible is translated from the original languages using original documents, or texts, from multiple locations), and not in any of the oldest and most reliable texts. Our best guess is that a scribe at some point added it as a note, and further copies of the text included it as part of the text.

So the question begs then, why do we pray it, and is it a problem? Theologically, there is no issue with the wording in relation to it being prayed in a public or private setting. In fact it mirrors a text in 1 Chronicles 29:11-13 in some ways, and doesn’t at all conflict with solid theology. It is also very similar to Jude 24-25. So in prayer, I don’t think there is an issue at all, however, in our Bible translations it needs to be left out, as it seems clear it wasn’t part of the original text.

The Kingdom

First we declare that all kingdoms belong to our God. Not just the heavenly realms, but the Earth and our universe as well. It may not seem like it now, as God is still postponing the final judgment when sin will be finally removed from this world, but this Kingdom is God’s Kingdom, and he can and will do what He wants with it.

The Power

Secondly we declare that all power belongs to God. This firstly is a declaration that God is all powerful. But secondly, we are declaring that all power and authority on this earth is granted by God, and in His control to not only grant, but to revoke.

(Romans 13:1 ESV)
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

It is both a declaration and a reminder – God is in control.

The Glory

The final declaration is that all is for God’s glory. All that we do is for God’s glory. All that God has done is for God’s glory, because He deserves it. We are reminding ourselves as much as proclaiming – all is for the Glory of God.

Forever

What a statement! A lifetime is a long time – but its got nothing on eternity. We are declaring that all of these things will be God’s forever. The kingdom. The power. The glory. Forever. Forever means not just in the future, but also now, and also in the past. So for eternity past and eternity ahead, these things all belong to God.

Amen!

The Lord’s Prayer – Deliver us from evil

Matthew 6:9-13 (ESV)

Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

But deliver us from evil. The word evil can also be translated, the evil one.

Community

First, we notice again this is a communal prayer – we are praying not just for us personally, but also our Christian community. Because it is also community focused, it is a reminder to us of our church community, that we need to be praying for others, just as they need to be praying for us!

The evil one

We know who this evil one is – Satan. We also know a few other things. That in the end Satan is defeated. We know that he is not God. He is not omnipresent, all powerful, all knowing or loving. We know he is not looking out for our good, but wanting always to trip us up, and take us away from God.

Not because we are that important, but because God is that important. He knows God loves us – and so any attack on a Christian is by default an attack on God.

1 Peter 5:8-11 (ESV)
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

James 4:7 (ESV)
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Romans 16:20 (ESV)
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

We know the evil one is looking out to get us – but we also know that in Christ we have the power to resist him, and in the final judgment, he will be bound and cast into the lake of fire.

Jesus has always won the victory.

Evil in the world

Satan is not all powerful, or all present. But there is plenty of evil in this world when he is not around looking for us specifically! There are other angels who are under his influence, and plenty of people in the world who are evil in their own right.

Some things we will not be able to avoid! But we pray to be delivered in any case. Delivered from the trial if at all possible, but if it is better we face it, we pray that we will be delivered from that evil, and that God will triumph for His glory.

Deliver us from evil.

So as we pray this, remember that you are not praying just for yourselves, but for the community around you and the church as a whole. Pray that you will be spared from evil where possible, but it if will benefit yourselves or be for God’s glory, then pray you will be delivered through it, knowing that God will come through and provide a way.

Philippians 1:6 (ESV)
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

The Lords Prayer – Lead us not into temptation

Matthew 6:9-13 (ESV)

Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Lead us not into temptation!

What does this mean? First, let’s cover the obvious mistake. God does not ever tempt us Himself.

James 1:13 (ESV)
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

So what does it mean? It means situations that could tempt us to sin. It also means trials of many kinds.

Trials will come

James 1:2-4 (ESV)
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We will all undergo trials and temptations in our Christian lives, and they are often linked. We do not grow most in the easy, comfortable times of our lives, but in the trials and temptations of our lives. It is the times that we are being tested that we draw ever closer to God, more so than we had been in the past, and learn much about both God and ourselves. It is during these trials in our lives that we are able to learn how to rely on God, and also find out about areas of weakness in our lives.

And during trials, during those times we are under the most pressure, are we often most tempted to sin.

But do not pray for them to come!

Whilst we know that trials will come, we are not praying for them to come! We are praying that God will spare us as much as possible. We know that trials can be good for us, but there are some trials we are not yet ready for. We also know that times of trial can sometimes result in failure.

We are tempted to be angry – and chose to become very angry instead of letting go and relying on God.

We struggle financially, and are tempted to take back our giving to God, because we think we could use it better. Maybe this seems right in the immediate, human sense, but maybe also God is testing us to rely on Him, rather than our bank balance.

Maybe our integrity at work is tested, and instead of holding the hard path of integrity, we choose to let go ‘just this once’, and so damage or destroy our witness and testimony in front of many.

God will bring you the trials you are able to cope with, in His strength.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV)
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Leading ourselves to temptation

Lastly, it is a reminder to protect ourselves from temptation! We are praying God will not lead us into those places, and part of that is to show us where we are tempted ourselves. There are places in almost everyone’s life that they simply cannot be.

For the recovering alcoholic, that may well be the pub, the game or even the Sunday BBQ.

For the recovering pornography addict, that may be every news stand in the country. Or even the internet as a whole without protection.

For the recovering gossip, that may well be the local hairdresser!

So while we pray for God not to lead us to places of temptation or trial, we also need to remind ourselves (or have God remind us at this time) of places we cannot be ourselves.

Lead us not into temptation

So as you pray this, know that trials will come, but there always will be a way out in Gods power. Know also that there are trials you are not ready for so don’t go looking for them, but stay in Gods will, and He will lead you on the path of righteousness.

The Lord’s Prayer – As we have forgiven

Matthew 6:9-13 (ESV)

Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Today’s verse calls for direct action!

From the Lord’s Prayer, there is one thing we need to do ourselves – forgive.

As We

The first thing we notice is our prayer is conditional – forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. We are asking to be forgiven – in the same manner in which we have forgiven!

Whilst we are not entirely alone on this one, because God does help us, we are required to act. We are relating God’s amazing forgiveness of our sins (which were deserving of death and eternal separation from God), to our forgiveness of others.

What does this say to us? It says that our forgiveness needs to be complete. That our forgiveness of others also needs to be entirely free – there can be no condition to forgiveness! Jesus died on the cross for our sins – and in the case of everyone reading this, before we were born. His action was not dependent on our repentance, or on our request of forgiveness, Jesus acted in forgiveness before we even sinned (whether we accept that forgiveness or not is an entirely different discussion…)

And our forgiveness must also be open and unconditional. Even if the other person doesn’t recognize their wrong, or even if they gloat in their wrong, we need to forgive – because that is what God has done for us. This doesn’t mean we are to be witless and allow ourselves to be hurt over and over again, but that we need to forgive, and let the matter go before God.

Have forgiven our debtors

The second thing we notice is the tense of the phrase – that is, the past tense. We are coming before God daily, but coming before Him having already forgiven those who have sinned against us. We are not coming before God to whine and complain. No doubt, we may have had to come before God specifically over the hurt and pain we have suffered. We may have already asked for forgiveness ourselves for our part, and for strength and wisdom to let the hurt go.

But the key is that it is already done, before we come to God for our daily needs.

Matthew 5:23-24 (ESV)

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

As we have also forgiven our debtors

So as we pray this, remember that as Christ has forgiven us of our sins, so we should also forgive anyone who has sinned against us, that being much smaller than our offences before God! We also need to take time to remember any offence we hold, and deal with it. Don’t let it fester; don’t let it grow, but deal with it. We need to take direct action – now.