I sometimes use the Lord's Prayer as a basis for my own, thinking prayerfully and carefully about each clause, and amplifying the clauses as appropriate. While in its original context the entire prayer is about God's Kingdom (and we can't go too far from that if we're to keep Jesus's intent for the prayer), specific clauses are useful for us to build on.
Let me show you what I mean. You'll note that in the Mattheian formulation, the Lord's prayer consists of seven petitions. Seven is the number of completeness.
| Our Father, who is in heaven, | — to distinguish from our earthly fathers |
|---|---|
| Hallowed be your name. | — God's dealing wih his people is almost always for improving his reputation. He continually saves Israel for the sake of his name. And when we pray, ‘may Your Name be kept holy&rsqo; we're praying intra alia that our actions will redound to His glory, which happens above all on the last day. |
| Your Kingdom come. | — The key to the prayer, IMHO. |
|
May your will be done, On earth as in Heaven |
— This prays for two things: for our own obedience to God here and now, and for Jesus to return and establish his Kingdom — it is only when the Kingdom of God is totally established in a new heavens and new earth that God's will will be done completely. |
| Give us today tomorrow's bread | — I prefer this translation, because the sense then is the same as the first three clauses: Jesus, Come! that we may join your feast. |
| Forgive us our sins, as we forgive them that sin against us |
— Being forgiven is how we enter the Kingdom in the
first place. Our forgiveness for others, although we have to do it now, will be perfected on the Last day when we will be changed to be like Christ. |
| Do not lead us into temptation, | — Paul says that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our strength to resist. God himself tempts noone. And temptation ends in the New Heavens and the New Earth |
| but deliver us from the Evil One. | — The Evil one is currently a ‘chained lion’, but of course his final come-uppance happens when he's thrown into the eternal fire on the last day. |
So for me, to pray the Lord's prayer, is to pray, ‘Lord Jesus, Come!’ and to remind me of my part in speeding his coming.
So please pray with me that our actions today will spread the glory of His name, and speed the day of his coming!
What a privilege it is to call the very God, who created the Heavens and the earth, ‘Dad’! As the author to the Hebrews says, (12:9-10) We have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share pin his holiness.
So praise God that he is our Father. That he shows us what Fatherhood means. And pray that in our fatherhood (those of us who are fathers) we may truly reflect His glory, aiming for the holiness of our Children.
And if life is hard for you at present (as it is for all of us at times) reflect that current hardship is part of His plan, that he does nothing without good reason, and that all will end in Heaven where there is no more crying because God our Father himself will wipe away every tear.
Ps 42: As the deer longs for water, so I long for you Lord ... I long to see your face.
But our Father is in Heaven, not visible to us now. In a sense we also are in heaven — we are in Christ, sitting now at His right hand. But also, we are physically separate. How will this be resolved? How will our yearning for God be satisfied?
Come Lord Jesus! Bring us into the presence of God, changed to be like yourself, perfect and holy. Come Lord Jesus! Reign on Earth! Bring your Kingdom here now! Come, Lord Jesus!
God is much concerned with his good name. He rescues Israel over and over again, not because they deserve it, but to preserve his good name. The Law is given, in part, to enhance his good name.
When we pray, ‘Hallowed by your name’ in part we mean, ‘keep your reputation pure’.
We are His people, called by His name. What we do reflects on God's honour.
(As an aside, Jesus often does this: asks people to pray for God to do something, then gets those same people to act to bring about the thing prayed for)
Pray that we display Godly characteristics to the people around us.
Pray that our actions will never bring dishonour to the name we bear.
Pray that Jesus will return, and that at the Name of Jesus, every knee
shall bow.
Pray for prominent people who claim to be Christian —for our Prime Minister, for MPs who claim to be Christian, for His Majesty King Charles, for our Archbishop, etc., etc — that their speech and actions will honour God's name, and enhance his reputation.
And pray for forgiveness when we act in a manner unworthy of the gospel — for grumpiness with the kids, for selfishness and laziness and lack of self-discipline, etc., etc.
Isn't God's will done no matter what? I think the difference is that the denizens of Heaven obey God willingly; on Earth, even we Christians struggle to do what we know is right; or sometimes we don't even know what's right.
That's not going to change until sin is completely vanquished, on the last day.
So pray:
‘Lord, I have sinned. I have been lazy when I should have been working for you; I have put forward less than my best effort to be a perfect reflection of you. I have worked against you. Please change me to be like Jesus, who even though he pleaded not to go to the cross, nevertheless chose to do Your will not his own. Please give me the strength to keep going, the will to do right, and the grace to acknowledge my own shortcomings.’
In the context of the Sermon on the Mount this phrase could just be telling us to ask God for our daily necessities — food, shelter, clothing. ‘Your Father in heaven knows you need these things’ (6:32) It's certainly a right and proper thing to ask for.
But all the rest of the prayer so far has been concentrated on God's Kingdom and its imminent arrival. So I prefer the alternate translation,
‘Give us this day our bread for tomorrow’.
You'll remember in Exodus when God fed the people manna, they could gather as much as they wanted, but it would go off before the following day. But on the eve of the Sabbath they could gather twice as much, and it would last through so the people would not have to work on the Sabbath.
In praying ‘Give us this day our bread for tomorrow’ we're praying for God's eternal Sabbath to start. We're praying for the commencement of the feast in Heaven. We're praying, again, ‘God's Kingdom, Come!’
So pray:This is the first petition with a condition — and it's a big one. Jesus emphasises its importance after the prayer — he says, ‘If you do not forgive others, then the Father will not forgive you’.
The change of subject here is interesting. If my interpretation is correct, the petitions before this one are all about asking God for the Kingdom to come, and for us to be in it as subjects.
We know from other parts of the Scriptures, that it is by asking God for forgiveness that we enter God's kingdom. I believe the rest of the prayer is about this: entering and remaining in the Kingdom.
So pray for forgiveness. ‘If a man says he has no sin, he lies’, says John. There's always something to ask forgiveness for. If you can't remember anything, pray with David that God will reveal yourself to you as He sees you (Ps 139:23ff)
God himself, we're told by James, tempts noone. We're tempted when we allow our thoughts to stray; first thoughts, then deeds.
Sin is always crouching at the door; its desire is against us (Gn 4:7, ESV margin). The best way to avoid it is to fill our minds and hearts with all that is true, pure, honest, lovely, and of good report (Philippians 4:8).
That's really hard in a world where almost all the entertainment is filled with near-pornography, or violence, or denial of God. But we can avoid those things. (Unfortunately, such is the fickleness of Man, there's a temptation to put oneself in the way of temptation: to scan those books at the airport bookstore; to seek out the videos that are ‘M rated; low level sex scenes’ etc., etc).
The biggest temptation, and the most serious, is to deny God. Take a look at Job; he is remarkable in that despite all the temptation to ‘curse God, and die’ he resists.
For me the temptation is always to be lazy and timid; not to speak out when I see or hear something wrong; to deny God in little ways — in conversation in the coffee room or in the street; by the way I talk (and the subjects I avoid).
The second half of the phrase is meant to be a parallel. In avoiding temptation we are delivered from evil.
Jesus is our example in all this. Despite temptation by Satan, and temptation to allow the cup of suffering to pass from him, he persevered until the end. And in so doing, God's kingdom came.
So pray:Rejoice! The Evil One has been defeated by Jesus.