Matthew 6:9-15
“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father, who is 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 do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive your offenses.'”
Jesus gave this as a model to pray. I love it. I’ve got two models by which I pray, this one and Psalm 23. I treat them the same way, reading, meditating and praying through a verse at a time. It takes about 45 minutes.
It starts out with who we are addressing, our Father. This is amazing. I could stay here the entire 45 minutes. There are two meanings to Father, He is generally the father of all. But what Jesus is referring to is that when we accept Christ, He adopts us (Ephesians 1:5). He then makes us born again. We get a new heart, a new nature (Ezekiel 36:26). We begin to want to do the things He wants to do. It’s not positive thinking, we are different. Our personality is the same, just a different core. We could say, like Father, like son.
The next part of the prayer is “Who art in heaven”. Then I reflect about heaven. Then “hallowed by Thy name”. He is holy. We are not. On our own we are sinful. In Christ we are holy. That was the big sacrifice. In God’s eyes we are holy. We go through sanctification, this is the process of our behavior becoming better.
Next is “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven”. I’ve heard it said that His kingdom is coming, but in another sense it’s here now. At the second coming He will establish His reign. However, as we walk with Him He is working His will through us. We are building His Kingdom in our families and our workplaces. It’s like the early settlers going west and carving out a home in what was the wilderness. God uses us to minister to others. Some come to Christ. They repeat the process in their own lives.
Next is “Give us this day our daily bread.” He provides for us. Yes, we have to work and buy things, but He blesses us with jobs and gifts us in them. We have other needs outside of money. We have spiritual needs, social needs, goal needs, family needs and so on. He does teach us how to care for them, but His power is part of it all and His blessings.
Next is “Forgive us our trespasses”. We sin and ask for forgiveness. We can’t be a christian unless we do this. We do it once when we come to Christ. He forgives us for all time. However, we are to confess each time we sin. Jesus put it this way in John 13:10, ‘Jesus told him, “Whoever has already bathed needs only to wash his feet, and he will be completely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.”’
Next is “as we forgive those who trespass against us”. If we’ve been forgiven we have to forgive. It’s not easy. I’ve taken an answer given in the Bible and rephrased it, “Lord, I forgive, help me with my unforgiveness”. It can be tough. We wrestle with it and have forgiven. Yet, thoughts come back and we find ourselves angry and have to go through the process again. He helps.
Next is “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”. He helps us here. I’ve been walking with Christ for over forty years. While I’ve sinned, I’m still in the faith. He has kept me. Thank You!!
That’s it. A great prayer encompassing our entire life in Christ.