For Yours Is The Kingdom, And The Power And Glory, For Ever And Ever

The Lord's Prayer

For Yours Is The Kingdom, And The Power And Glory, For Ever And Ever

 

A prayer for God’s kingdom, power and glory seems a worthy way to end the model prayer that Jesus taught his followers.

Yet, these words were not part of Jesus’ original prayer (Mat 6:9-13; Lke 11:2-4). The ‘extra’ words are found only in Matthew and only in some poorly supported late texts. They seem to be added for liturgical purposes and follow the format of some Jewish prayers. There is no harm in our use of this traditional ending, so long as we understand that it is not from Jesus.

Nonetheless the extra words seem a good wrap-up. They return to the lofty themes of the opening petitions. God’s glory is upheld as we pray for the hallowing of his name. God’s kingdom is sought as we pray for its coming. God’s power is relied on as we seek his provision of our daily needs, along with his forgiveness and protection from tests and from the power of evil.

Let’s look back over the whole of the Lord’s Prayer …

·         It is a God-centred prayer rather than one centred on the one praying.

·         It rises to big horizons (God’s name, kingdom and will) rather than just the day to day.

·         It seeks help for our most important needs, rather than our self-indulgences.

·         It is a prayer for corporate use and thus well suited to our church gatherings.

The Lord’s Prayer can be prayed ‘as is’ and used as a pattern for our own prayers.  (The same applies to many of the other prayers recorded in the Bible, including those of Jesus.)

Note again that the Lord’s Prayer is not a magical saying for just anyone. It is a prayer for those who can call God their Father. This is the people who have become God’s adopted children through faith in his Son Jesus Christ. Let us pray that God uses his power to extend his kingdom by adding new believers and thus glorifies his name.

Lead us not into temptation

The Lord’s Prayer

 … lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one

Why pray that the Lord will not lead us into temptation? God is neither tempted nor the source of temptation (Jas 1:13). Rather, we are responsible for our own temptation as we allow evil desires to take root, entice us and then lead us to sinful actions (Jas 1:13-15). In short, responsibility for our sin belongs with the person in the mirror and not God or even the Devil.

The word tempted is a common word for testing or affliction Some Bible translations carry this through into the Lord’s Prayer. Testing certainly includes enticement to sin, but also much more. Unemployment, illness, disappointment, persecution, challenging tasks, weariness and such like can test our faithfulness to the Lord. 

Tests can become temptations. For example, consider the person who is weary of being good and weary so much Christian service on top of all else. They may look at a non-Christian and envy what we think is a life of ease. This is a test. It can become a temptation if we dwell on the enticement.

Whether it is a test or a temptation, the good news is that we are not alone. God promises to supply the means to escape any test that comes to us (1 Cor 10:13 – this verse uses the same word as in the Lord’s Prayer). Do we use the helps that he provides – such as Scripture, prayer, Christian friends?

The battle is bigger than us and we need God’s help.  For example, all temptations pitch us in a battle against which we are defenceless by ourselves and in which we need God’s armour (Eph 6:10-18).

We can now better understand this part of the Lord’s Prayer.  Our weakness means that all tests can become temptations that drag us from God. Because we are so frail we need God to keep tests from us and especially to deliver us from the awesome power of the evil one and his temptations.

There’s another way to look at all this. School tests are an opportunity to pass and grow. The tests and temptations of the Christian life can be seen as an opportunity to lean on God, pass the test and grow in faithfulness.  Fail or pass … its up to us as we choose to lean on ourselves or lean on the Lord.

 

Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven

The Lord’s Prayer

- Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors

Forgiveness of our sin-debt is the greatest need of humanity. It is no surprise that it is singled out for extended attention in the Lord’s Prayer.

Mathew writes of our ‘debts’ being forgiven to us but Luke uses the words for both ‘debts’ and ‘sins’ (Lke 11:4). The word ‘debts’ reminds us that every sin puts us into deficit with God. Every sin increases our liability to judgement.

Note carefully who our sin is against and who our debt is to. Our sins may or may not hurt others, but the sin and the debt is to God even when someone else is hurt (eg Ps 51:4 / 1 Sam 11). It is God’s law that is broken, God’s glory that is robbed and God’s creation that is hurt and thus it is God alone who can forgive. We must first face our debt to God and then also face any others whom we have hurt (eg, Lke 19:1-8).

This prayer for forgiveness comes with a rider and an explanation. (Mat 6:12,14-15).  Our search for God’s forgiveness must be matched by our forgiveness of any who have harmed us. This is a question of integrity. We must do for others what we want God to do for us. Jesus tells us to extend this forgiveness by going to the person concerned to settle matters directly and in private, if possible (Mat 18:15-17).

It is not always possible to forgive personally those who sin against us - for example if they have gone away or passed away. However, it may be good to find another way to express forgiveness if we realise that we have a legacy of bitterness and hurt.  We may need to do that to move on with God, ourselves and life.

Forgiveness can be sought with confidence. Any denial of sin is a lie to ourselves and makes God to be a liar - since he says that we all sin (1 Jn 1:8  – 2:6. However, if we confess our sin we gain the benefit of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice where he fully paid our debt to God. Notice however the rider – we must walk with Jesus in the light, such that sin is our aberration of character and not our habit.

Let us therefore forgive others their sin against us, confess our sins and then pray together that God will forgive us our debts. 

Give us this day

The Lord’s Prayer - Give us this day our daily bread

Bread was like rice in the world of the Bible. It was the staple carbohydrate   which could be accompanied by many other ingredients to make a fulsome meal.

If you have baked bread the old-fashioned way you know the satisfaction that comes from hand-kneading the dough, adding your own ingredients, watching it rise and delivering it to the table with an enticing oven-fresh aroma. Bread is best baked and eaten daily rather than stewing in plastic on a supermarket shelf or being resuscitated from the freezer.

Bread was not only a staple in Bible times, but it was a day by day food. You cooked and you ate. Bread was the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

All that lies behind the prayer that God will give us bread for this day.

This prayer worships God by depending on him to meet our needs. It’s a prayer that expresses contentment with a simple staple rather than a fussy gourmet meal. It’s a prayer that lets the needs of each day be sufficient for that day. In short, it’s the prayer of a simple piety that recognises our need of food, depends on God to meet it as the need arises and which keeps food in balanced perspective. We need ‘bread’ but we do not live by bread alone (Dt 8:3).

Do note that ‘bread’ is used elsewhere in the Bible in a spiritual sense – see Is 55:2; John 6:26-51 and also consider the place of bread in the Lord’s Supper. However, the reference in the Lord’s Prayer is probably just to bread as food.

This prayer is a contrast to Israel’s complaint during the exodus from Egypt (Ex 16). They had daily bread from heaven but were discontent. They wanted the meat, fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic of Egypt and forgot the slavery that went with it (Ex 16:3, Nos 11:5).  Some were not content with their daily bread but tried to hoard beyond their needs (Ex 16:15-20).  This faithless grumbling against God was part of the story that led to their forty years of judgement.

Let’s trust God to meet our needs. Let’s trust him day by day. Let’s be content and mean it when we pray: Give us this day our daily bread.