Chapter 9.16
The Lord’s Prayer
Revisited
The
Two versions – The Confession – Seven Petitions – Doxology
Petitioning
the Un-Moved Mover – Petitioning the needs of man
God’s
Will – Man’s Will - Although Jesus did not pray this prayer,
the
prayer is only possible on the basis of His Merits.
First
Word
The Lord’s Prayer stands
on it’s on and needs no further interpretation, however just out
of my own interest, I wanted to unpack
it. Jesus speaks succinctly to the Disciples, avoiding the many words and gets
right to the point with conciseness
and brevity of speech.
A Little Background
Jesus was teaching the disciples to petition a PERSONAL loving Heavenly
Father; the Greek word for father in Aramaic is “ABBA”
meaning “daddy”, a name a child would
use as she climbs up into her daddy’s lap. This request to “teach
us to pray” was probably in response to John
the Baptist as he also taught his followers to pray.[1]
There is no indication that Jesus ever
felt the need to ask for forgiveness for Himself.
There is no evidence that
Jesus Himself prayed this prayer, but was actually summarizing and teaching
what to pray; an “attitude” toward God; a
form or model of a prayer to a personal God; for them to formulate their own
personal prayers as if talking to their earthly daddy. Jesus wants us to call upon God and approach
Him in the confidence, closeness and warmth as you would your own Father. This prayer is also known as “The Disciples Prayer”.
The only people who might
rightly use the name “Father” is the
children of God; Christians. This prayer in no way embodies all of the teaching of Jesus
on prayer, nor it is not meant to be recited meaninglessly, but should be
recited as an act of public worship. It is not
an attempt to change the will of God, but is more to conform our will to HIS.
You will notice
it is void of “empty phrases” and the
“many words” and gets right to the
point;[2]
the reason is because the Father already knows what we need before we ask Him.
Two forms of the Lord’s Prayer are recorded in the New Testament which needs to be addressed. The
Lord’s Prayer[3] was
repeated by Jesus on any number of occasions with slightly different verbiage;
so the argument against the authenticity of the different passages is totally
without merit.
1) The
shorter version is found in Luke, when a
Disciple asked Jesus to “teach us to pray”.
2) The
longer version is found in Matthew where Jesus
is speaking on the Mount of Olives. This is the version that is most commonly
used.
A Confession or invocation opens the prayer acknowledging who
God is. You will notice throughout the prayer the absence of the word “I”
and the inclusion of We, Us and Our.
There are SEVEN Petitions; the first three addresses God; the other four address human concerns
and needs; and to that is usually added a Doxology.
I think it is noteworthy to mention that
in the scriptures the number SEVEN is symbolic of completeness. I
must also note that the division of the Seven
Petitions is not given to us; so
there are variations on how they are divided up, however that does not change
the spirit of the petitions in anyway.
A Doxology ends the prayer; it’s typically an “Expression of
Praise” sung to the Holy Trinity. I must go on to say
that there are derivations of this Doxology, but they are still all a short
declaration of Faith and Praise to God. You have heard Doxologies sung in Church
forever; “Praise
God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below; Praise
him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.” [4]
Setting the stage
We
are NOT to PRAY to the disciples, the saints, angels or any person living or dead, but to God only. As Christians we are reminded to NOT CALL any man on earth ”Father”, but only God our Father
in Heaven.[5] As our daddy, we can approach God with
boldness.
In preparation for prayer we are
instructed to speak succinctly, avoiding the many words and vain
repetitions and get right to the point with conciseness and brevity of speech. We should pray privately and for
ourselves, also pray openly with others; for their needs.
I met a man who had written a book titled “Are you running
with me Jesus”; I thought the title was a little sacrilegious, and
told him so. He told me that throughout
the day, no matter what he was doing, he was in a running conversation with
Jesus Christ. He was Praying without
ceasing according to the scriptures.
In the book of Daniel we find Daniel’s
prayer was heard before he spoke[6]
and immediately the answer was dispatched,[7]
but Satan
fought an Angel of God and the Archangel Michael, for 21 days[8]
in order to stop his answer from getting to Daniel … When we pray without
ceasing, we become a part of the fight to receive the answer we have sought; what if
Daniel had stopped praying?
GOD HEARS us
before we begin to pray, and SENDS THE ANSWER before we finish.[9]
Petitioning the Un-Moved Mover
The
Confession - Invocation
Our Father who art in Heaven
I am addressing the Un-moved Mover who
does not change. He is Omnipresent,[10]
everywhere all at once; Heaven cannot contain Him. I am acknowledging that He is not of this
Creation, but is the Sovereign Creator ruling over every area of life in the
entire cosmos with no limit with regard to time and space. I am clearing my mind of every worldly thing
around me; approaching Him with the correct attitude of Holy reverence, and boldly confessing Him
as my Father with confidence and
purity of conscious; knowing He hears me.
First
Petition
Hallowed be thy name
Did
you see it? Jesus just
gave us the Perfect Name of God; HALLOWED. We petition that His name not only be made
Holy to us, but petition as well that His name will become Holy to others who
are not yet called by His name.
His name is not to be
trivialized as if it is a magical good luck omen
or a tool to put others in their place. The ultimate end to our petition should end with God being glorified. The very life we live in our community lets
the name of God be made Holy or it
brings it to non-existence. There
is a song from my childhood; “Let other see
Jesus in you”.
When we speak God’s name, it is serious,
His name is the most frightening, yet most wonderful name that can be imagined. All
through the OT, the name of God was
so reverenced by the Hebrews that they would use words like “heaven”
to refer to God, but never ever utter His name.
In Hebrew; YHWH is God’s
unpronounceable name, and for us to be even able to say it, we must
add vowels to get the name YAHWEH. This name comes from the verb that means; “to be”, “become”,
or “come to
pass”.
Moses asked God whose name shall I say sent me, and God said; “I am that I am”
or I will become whatever I want to become. [11]
To defile or dishonor His name is to reject His
Sovereignty.
God will not hold the person guiltless who takes His name in vain.[12] GOD SAID THIS, NOT ME
Second
Petition
Thy Kingdom come
This petition begins with placing God’s
interest first; seeking the Kingdom of God, [13]
then our physical needs then moving
to our spiritual needs of
deliverance from evil. Some Jewish liturgies alter the verse to
read; “May
your Holy Spirit DESCEND upon us and cleanse us” which certainly
brings on a different personal flavor.
The Greek word “Basukeua”
is which we get the English word “Kingdom”, however it has a double meaning;
“Kingdom”;
“Reign of
Messiah” and “Dominion”; “Governing”, “A Royal Power”
1)
The
Kingdom is
a heavenly territory with the concept of a hierarchical dominion, with God at
the top; next a court of saints; (that
would be us), followed by archangels, then angels; then with the Messianic
Kingdom extended to this present age here and now.
2)
The
Kingship is
a monarchy ruled by a king; so the kingdom to come is preceded by the return of
the Messiah, the FINAL RULER who brings
cleansing, renewal and restoration.
We are praying and petitioning
for the glorious appearing of the “Son of Man”,
the Messiah; coming during our lifetime
with power to establish His Kingdom of perfection on the earth and to come alive in us.
We acknowledge that we play a
role with our own actions in this Kingdom that is not yet and that we
are surrendering our will to His total interest and plan. “Even so Lord; Come Quickly.”[14] If we are not willing to do something about
the kingdom that is NOW, then we are just pretending; we are MAKE-BELIEVERS, just reciting a
prayer by rote. You must be a member in the kingdom that is NOW in order to be a
member of the Kingdom that is NOT YET.
Third Petition
Thy WILL be done on earth as it is in
Heaven
This phrase is missing from Luke’s reporting,[15]
but it must be remembered that Jesus taught this model prayer on many occasions
to many different audiences.
Our prayer is to have the baser earthly things to become more like the
noble things of Heaven; that the pattern of
God’s Will in Heaven be carried out perfectly on earth. We ask that God’s Will be done not just in the world, but in our own
life. This cannot happen unless we surrender our Will to His Will.
Jesus gave us the example when He
prayed; Not
my will, but Thine be done.[16]
The petition for the Will of God includes
our obedience.
This petition is that our Will be merged with His Will
and our prayer becomes “Lord what will you have me to do?” I want what YOU want God; I want to join YOU
in making things on earth the way they are in Heaven.
Isaiah 6:8 - “Whom shall I
send, and who will go for us?” I
said, “Here I
am! Send me”. We are praying
for the time when the power of darkness will be utterly destroyed; and every
knee bow to the King of Kings;[17]
that God’s
WILL may ultimately be fully accomplished.
GOD’S WILL
Thy WILL be done
on earth as it is in Heaven; Third
Petition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Did you see it? Jesus is petitioning that the Will of God
happen on earth; that means that God’s will is NOT happening on earth or in
Man. This takes us to; if God is All
Powerful, then why does His WILL not happen on earth and in Man.
Bill Maher (TV Host) said “RELIGION is just THE ULTIMATE HUSTLE.
Why can’t God just defeat the Devil? It’s the same reason a comic book character
can’t defeat his nemesis. Then there’s no story. If God gets rid of the Devil, and he could
because he’s all powerful, WELL (if he did) there’s (would be) no
fear; (and) no reason to come to
church.”
Bill Maher uses the word
“Religion”, because he has NOT embraced the Bible. He does not have a clue to the integrity, qualities
and attributes of God. God does not
change; he gave us Free Will and we
still have it. God is Omnipotent; He is ALL
powerful; He can do whatever He wants to do EXCEPT break His
promise. If “Free Will” exist, it
happens with the permission of God.
Scripture says that God created
everything; so did God also create Evil? In the beginning God created everything and IT WAS GOOD.
The first time we see Evil appear
is in the person of an Angel named Lucifer
also called Satan; the Devil.[18] In the
first earth age, scripture says that Evil was FOUND
in him and that is when Satan became the Father
of Sin. Satan
was created perfect and was beautiful to behold and was full of
wisdom. He was created GOOD,
but using his “FREE
WILL” he desired to be as God and sit on His Throne. This
“iniquity” or sin that was FOUND in him was the direct result of God
creating him with FREE WILL. So in effect, God allowed Sin to come into
existence because of the gift of Free Will which He
gave to angels and men.
God wanted His creations to fellowship with Him because that chose to do
so of their own Free
Will, otherwise He could have made robots that would just praise Him
all day. God as a truly omnipotent and good being; He created
Angels and Man with true freedom over Himself. Furthermore, He did so voluntarily because
"The
Greatest Good” which can be done for man, is to allow him to be truly free;
for God loves His creations. Free Will gives man the ability to do the GREATEST
GOOD as
well as the ability to do the GREATEST EVIL.
Free Will is the main
factor for man's accountability for his actions throughout his life. His actions will be counted on THE DAY OF JUDGMENT;[19]
each man stands as his own person and is responsible for his own decisions and
choices in life.[20]
If man does not
have Free Will then he cannot be held accountable for his actions.
MAN’S WILL
When God created the world,
there was only “One
Will” in the whole universe. When
Satan rebelled there became “Two Wills”; Satan’s and God’s.[21] Satan sought to detach man from God; in order
to attach man to himself and receive his will.
Satan was successful in detaching man from God, but man had his “own will”
and would not attach himself to Satan.
Now there are “Billions of Wills” in the world; that’s why God
sent His Son to re-attach us. The war
began against God;
then against His greatest creation; “MAN”, who was created in God’s own image. There is an
Invisible War going on - and it’s over us. Choose Life.
PETITIONING THE NEEDS OF MAN
Fourth
Petition
Give us this day our daily bread
This petition reflects on the needs of man rather than the glory of God.
Workers in the time of Jesus were hired
day to day. This prayer is seeking our
daily needful ration of food for our existence, NOT just bread to
eat, but those things which are necessary this very day to sustain life. This is not a selfish prayer, asking for
dainties and superfluities, but an acknowledgement of our utter dependence upon Him for our basic needs.
Giving of food in no way diminishes our responsibility
to Work for it. Don’t work; don’t eat.[22] The word “US” reflects compassion
and charity for others who are in common with us. It also reflects forward to the future, to trust that God will provide what is necessary for our
existence in the coming days. It’s for
our needs,
not our greed’s.
God gave the Israelites Manna bread each day to sustain them.[23] We need that same bread today, both physical
bread and spiritual bread. Man shall not live by bread alone; but
he lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the GOD.[24] Taking it a step further; it is our longing
and desire to participate in the Devine feast in
the NOT YET Kingdom of God in Heaven.[25]
Fifth Petition
And forgive us
our debts as we forgive our Debtors
Note: Jesus was
addressing His Disciples. This is NOT a
prayer for the non-believer
or the Make-believer,
but for Believers
who need to confess their sins. Some commentaries include “Forgive us our
WRONGS as we forgive others who WRONG us.”
The grounds for condemnation are not so
much wrongdoing
in the ordinary sense, but failure to do right,
missing opportunities for showing
love to others. The smallest thing we do
for others is doing it unto the Lord.[26] There is a debt of duty to our Creator that
we cannot pay. Our debt increases every
day and His forgiveness abounds everyday as we acknowledge our total dependence
on Him. Consequently having received
such a great pardon from Him; should we not also forgive others whose debts to
us are so trivial compared to our debt to God.
Withholding
forgiveness from someone is not
only incongruous, but hypocritical when you consider how much God has already
forgiven us. An unforgiving spirit is SIN.
Forbear Forgive and Forget the affronts is the moral
qualifications for Pardon and Peace. We ourselves can never earn our forgiveness;
we can only receive it through grace alone. We must ask with a pure heart, free from all
thoughts of hatred and revenge toward others. We are to be kind to one another,
tenderhearted; forgiving as God has forgiven us.
There is a Parable of a Wicked Servant[27] who owed the
KING (God) much money, but
was forgiven all his debt because he begged for mercy. Forgiven;
the servant went out and threw another man in jail because he owed him a little
money. The King (God) delivered this wicked servant who was
forgiven much, to the tormentors until he paid the large debt that he owed.
God’s mercy is to be reciprocated through our own compassion. God will forgive us as we forgive others.[28] SELAH
ponder that
Trespasses,
Debts, Sins
In Greek the word Hamartias is
translated Sins which means “Missing the Mark”. When shooting an arrow and it misses the mark,
it is called “SIN”.[29]
We all have missed the mark and fall
short of the glory of God.
In
Aramaic the word Opheilemata is translated Debt.
In English the word Trespasses was
first found in the 1526 Tyndale translation of the Bible and then in 1549 it appeared
in English in the first “Book of Common Prayer”.
NOTE: I was brought up in the Baptist Church to recite “forgive us our TRESPASSES as we forgive those who TRESPASS against us.[30]
Now we see in the book of Luke the word
“SIN”[31]
is used instead of trespass and then
in Matthew we see the words; “DEBTS
and DEBTOR”.[32] To make it even worse; as a congregation we
recited “Trespasses”, but in the
choir we sang Debts and Debtors.
I always thought that Satan was messing with the Lord’s Prayer just to cause confusion in the body of Christ. Even today when we come to this part of the
Lord’s Prayer, the congregation is a little softer in the reciting; unsure of
which word to use, subconsciously thinking they forgot; thus breaking their
concentration on the prayer.
Churches have both DEBTS and TRESPASSES which refers to the same thing; SIN.
Sixth Petition
And
lead us NOT into temptation,
At first reading you would think that you are begging God to NOT lead you into
temptation; like that is what He does… God is not the Tempter; Satan is the
Tempter.[33]
If we are tempted, it is because of our
own desires.[34] A better translation of it is “LEAVE us not in
temptations”
Some
renderings of this text reads; “Do not bring us
to the Test”. Jesus was FIRST
tested in the wilderness by Satan; we are praying; “Father, keep us from being tested by Satan.”
[35]
We are petitioning that we not FALL into temptation
through trials or testing.[36]
We are confessing that God is in control of the circumstances of our lives.
If God puts us to the test, our prayer should NOT be that we not be
tested, but that we not fail the test.
Testing can also bring about
refinement, ascertaining the strength of character with the results of greater
purity, self-confidence and growth in faith; but testing is uncomfortable.
Jesus had the FINAL
test at a place called
Gethsemane, when He prayed for what was about to come to pass; He said Not my will,
but yours be done.[37] If
we keep God’s Word, He will keep us from “The hour of Temptation” that is going to come on
the world.[38]
Seventh Petition
But deliver us
from evil.
We are praying
for the day when our Lord will put an end to Evil and establish His Eternal
Kingdom of righteous.
From
the Greek;
this seems to reflect on the greater Evil; Deliver us from THE EVIL ONE;[39]
Satan, the Devil. Preserve us from being
assaulted by Satanic
EVIL of every kind. In this
life our nature is prone to be tempted and drawn to do evil. [40] We need the filling of the Holy Spirit in order to re-direct our spirit in the paths of
righteous.
We are asking God for protection[41] as well as a COURSE CORRECTOR[42] in our life.
The Doxology
For thine is the
Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever. Amen.
This is praise for the unmerited privilege
of knowing God as our Father and that with confidence we know that He hears our
petitions.
This line was probably not in the original, but is a common doxology often sung or spoken with praises to God. It was
presented both in unison and antiphonally. (The
back and forth of alternating responses)
The Doxology of Praise: “For thine is the kingdom, and the
Power, and the glory,
forever, Amen.” was added to the King James Bible as they had copied it from
old English translations believing it to be the “oldest”, but it seems to NOT be found in the older original manuscripts. I say this because you may see it omitted
from your Bible. Whether present or
omitted, it does not change the seven petitions of Jesus Christ.
When
Jesus said Amen, it meant SO IT WILL BE; when we say Amen, it means SO LET IT BE. This is the trust and assurance that God can
and will bring it to pass according to His plan.
As a
young man I sang the Doxology in the Baptist Choir in four part harmony;
Praise God from whom all blessings
flow. Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost.
Then we followed
it with the FOURFOLD AMEN also in four
part harmony.
AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, AMEN. (So let it be)
It’s not too late
A wonderful thing about the Gospel
is that the man who accepts Christ late in life; perhaps even on his death bed,
gets in on the
same reward of salvation as that of
the man who served God from his youth; that’s the mercy and grace of God, it’s His good pleasure. But you should find the “narrow road” early. For those that are “faithful”, there are BLESSINGS
NOW as
well as abundant BLESSINGS
IN THE FUTURE.
The Thief on the
cross got
in on salvation just before he died,[43]
but missed
out on all the blessing he could
have had all his life. He missed out on helping others and making a difference in
their lives; he missed
out on sharing the Gospel with
others, possibly saving their life. He missed out on being a part of God’s plan on earth.
Side Note: When we give money to ministries or help
others, we are getting to “GET IN” and be a part of what God is doing. SELAH
The Holy Hound of
Heaven[44] will stay after
His sheep (the Believer) that have
wandered away and WILL bring them back;[45] (if they were not Make-believers).
IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO PRAY
Start with The Lord’s model
Prayer and in time add your own needs to it.[46] As children we are taught; “Now I lay me down
to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep”… Later we add; God bless mama and
God bless daddy, etc.
We don’t need to pray a lot of words;[47]
just get to the point, God already knows our needs.[48] I will never forget it; as I was presiding
over a very large dinner banquet, I asked a well know evangelist and musician
to “ask God to bless our meal” and he prayed,
“God bless our meal, Amen”.[49]
[1] Luke 5:33 – John the Baptist’s disciples prayed regularly
[2] Matthew 6:7-8 DO NOT KEEP ON BABBLING ; YOUR FATHER
KNOWS WHAT YOU NEED BEFORE YOU ASK HIM
[3] Matthew 6:5-6 – Jesus
teaches us how to Pray; THE LORD’S PRAYER
[5] Matthew 23:9 - Call no man on earth your
father
[6] 1 Thessalonians 5:16 - Pray without ceasing; giving thanks
[7] Daniel 10:12 – Daniels prayer was heard and the answer dispatched
immediately
[8] Daniel 10:13 - Satan fought 21 days to hinder the answer)
[9] Isaiah 65:24 - BEFORE THEY CALL, I WILL ANSWER;
[10] Jeremiah 23:24 – He Is
Ever Present, He is Omnipresent -- Psalm
139:8 – In Heaven or Hell; a part of God’s attributes is there; His
wrath or His blessings
[11] Exodus 3:13-14 – I am that I am, I
will be whatever I chose to be
[12] Exodus 20:7 – Don’t use God’s name carelessly THE LORD WILL NOT HOLD HIM GUILTLESS
[13] Matthew 6:33 – Seek first the kingdom of God; Our needs next
[14] Revelation 22:20 – Even so Lord Jesus; come quickly
[15] Luke 11:2-3 – “Thy WILL be done”; Missing scripture in Luke
[17] Romans 14:11 - Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall
confess to God
[18] Ezekiel 28:15 – Evil was detected; found in Satan -- John 8:44 – Satan is the Father of lies
[19] 2 Corinthians 5:10 – All
Believers appear Judgment Seat of Christ and
receive their level of awards -- Revelation 20:11-13 – Un-believers
and Make-believers will appear before the Great White Throne judgment of God and receive
their level of condemnation
[20] Romans 14:10-12 - Each
will give an account of himself to God
[21] Ezekiel 28:12-15 – Satan
created perfect and given Free Will
[22] 2 Thessalonians 3:10 - IF YOU DON'T WORK, YOU DON'T EAT
[23] Exodus 16:4 – God gave
His people Daily Bread; Manna
[24] Deuteronomy 8:3 – Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of the LORD
[25] Luke 14:15 – Blessed is he who eats bread in the kingdom of God.
[26] Matthew 25:40 – When you find an opportunity to do good, you are doing it
to the Lord
[27] Matthew 18:23-35 – Parable of the Wicked Servant’s Debt
[28] Matthew 5:14-15 – Forgive so your father will forgive you -- Ephesians
4:32 – Forgive one another, as God has forgiven you
[29] Romans 3:23 – We have all Missed the Mark AND FALL SHORT
OF THE GLORY OF GOD
[30] Matthew 6:9-13 Forgive TRESPASSES; 1928 Anglican Bible BCP Old English Translation
[31] Luke 11:2-4 – Forgive our SINS – (No Doxology)
[32] Matthew 6:9-13 - Forgive our DEBTS,
as we forgive our DEBTORS (Doxology)
FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND
THE GLORY, FOREVER. AMEN.
[33] Matthew 4:2-3 – Satan is the Tempter; not God
[34] James 1:13-16 – No one is tempted by God; but EACH ONE IS TEMPTED when he is drawn away BY HIS OWN
DESIRES
[35] Luke 22:39-40 - Pray that you do not enter
into temptation
[36] Hebrew 3:8 – Keep my heart from being tested by Satan
[37] Matthew 26:42 – Not my will, but your will be done
[38] Revelation 3:10 – God will keep us from the hour of temptation
[39] John 17:15 – Keep them from THE EVIL ONE in this World
[40] Mark 14:38 - Pray that you may not enter
into temptation
[41] 2 Thessalonians 3:3 – God is faithful to keep us from evil
[42] Jeremiah 10:24 – Give me a course correction with love and not anger
[43] Luke 23:42-43 – Criminal
on the cross repented; it was not too late
[44] Matthew
[45] Matthew 20:1-15 – Parable
of the workers; it’s never too late to accept Christ.
[46] Matthew 6:10 - Ask for God’s will to be done in your life
[47] Matthew 6:7 – Do not use empty phrases and repetitions
[48] Matthew 6:8 – God knows what you need before you ask Him
[49] Ecclesiastes 5:2 – Let your words be few.
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