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. 

The nature of worship

The Nature of Worship

NOTE: this piece is posted as a conversation opener. Responses are warmly invited.

A working definition of worship

Worship is submission to the Lord and all that flows from it.

The first act of worship submission is to quit our rebellion and enter the covenant relationship with God on the terms he sets and through his appointed saviour/ king who is Jesus.

The second act of worship submission is to live faithfully in that covenant relationship on the terms that God sets and under the rule of his appointed saviour / king who is Jesus. This primarily means living a life of faith, hope and love. It also includes specific acts of intentional devotion, whether in private (quiet time), with our earthly family (family worship) or with the family of God (church services). 

 

Notes

This definition derives from study of the key Hebrew and Greek words for worship and from the way that worship is discussed within the flow of the Bible.

For example, God saved his people from Egypt (Ex 12ff), initiated a covenant relationship with them (Ex 19:1-6) and within that gave instructions for the life of covenant obedience. This instruction primarily covers a whole-of-life obedience to God within which, and only within which, the specific instructions on corporate acts of devotion take place.

That is, intentional acts of devotion are a derivative of the primary meaning of worship as entering and living within God's covenant. This does not reduce their importance but puts them into perspective within covenant and kingship theology. This needs present emphasis because of the trend to invert the Biblical order and push devotional acts into prominence as the primary meaning of 'worship'.

Note also the emphasis on all this happening on God's terms. As the saving king who initiates the covenant relationship and makes all this worship possible, God sets the terms. We worship in the way that pleases him not us. The Scripture must thus be carefully studied to know what pleases God in both the principles and the actions of worship.

David Peterson’s Engaging With God is the primary inspiration for this definition. It steers between views that equate worship purely or mainly with church services (or parts of them) and between views that reject use of the word ‘worship’ for church services.

 

Implications

The primary worship task is to help bring people into right relationship with God as they enter his kingdom by faith and then go on to live under the rule of Jesus.

Congregational acts of intentional devotion are very important for fostering this right relationship and for giving opportunities to worship God by declaring his praise, depending on him to meet needs (both temporal and eternal), listening to his word, supporting his work and both preparing and  encouraging one another for the worship of life. Because these acts are so important, care is needed in their planning and presentation – including care that we don’t unwitting foster a reductionist theology of worship as just being these corporate acts of devotion.

Words matter and the way we use them matters. Care is needed to use the word ‘worship’ in a way that reflects the wide sense discussed above. For example, it is right to speak of church services (or any part of them) as worship but the word should not be used such as to imply that church services (let alone any one part of them) are the sole, main or primary meaning of ‘worship’.

Your will be done

The Lord’s Prayer: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

 

The prayer that God’s will be done on earth extends the previous petition: Your kingdom come.  God’s kingdom comes as his rule is extended. The final form of that is linked to the return of Jesus and the banishment of all evil.

 

In the meantime, God’s people desire to see God’s will done on earth as part of our prayer that God’s name be hallowed.

 

The key to God’s will being done is that people enter his kingdom. There is little point in expecting non-Christians to behave like Christians in moral behaviour and such like.  Such attempts will fail, for behaviour reflects character and the non-Christian will act out of non-Christian character.  Even worse, attempts to force non-Christians to behave like Christians are apt to be counterproductive. Such attempts can set back the cause of Christ in that the non-Christian grows resentfully and stubbornly resistant to the gospel.

 

So, the first part of God’s will being done is that people quit their rebellion against God’s rule and submit to him by naming Jesus as their saviour and Lord. Evangelism comes first in the outworking of this part of the prayer.

 

What then? Christian people need to be taught what God’s will is so they know what pleases him. We then need to encourage one-another to have such a love of God in our heart that we will naturally desire to do God’s will rather than doing it as matter of duty. We need to pray for the Spirit’s help both to know the application of Scripture in this or that situation, to have the desire to do it and to have the grace to do it.

 

The Lord Jesus models God’s will to us.  He wanted to avoid the Cross, but submitted to it with the prayer: Not my will, but yours be done (Lke 22:42). May this be the prayer that is in our hearts and on our lips every time we mouth our desires to God. By all means let us tell God what we want, but let us always treat him as our Lord and King by asking that his will be done.

 

This is very personal in its applications.  We need to look first to God’s will being done in our own life before it is done in the lives of others. We all have some areas where it is easy to do God’s will and others where it is hard. These hard areas are the test of our commitment.  One sign of loving God as our Lord is that we are discontent if any part of our life is outside of the rule of his will.

 

So, next time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, let’s all ask God to show us those areas of our life where we need most to pray Your will be done.

Our Father in Heaven

Our Father in Heaven...

The terms in which we address our, emails and conversations are all-important for setting the tone for the message that follows. Too informal a tone may mean that we are not taken seriously. Too formal a tone may produce a frosty reception and stilted response.

The opening words of the Lord 's Prayer set the pace for our messages to the Lord. Let's consider each word carefully. ..

Our Father in heaven: 
The Lord's Prayer, like all prayer, arises from a relationship with God. Unbelievers have no right to pray to the Lord at all, let alone to address him as Father. But those who believe in God's Son Jesus have the right to become God's children (Jn l: l2). We can address him as our Father, because he is.

Our Father in heaven : 
It is remarkable to call God our Father when we have all been such prodigal children, spurning his grace and presuming on his goodness. The language of God's fatherhood echoes the belief that we owe both our physical and spiritual life to him (Gen l: 26; Jn 3:3-6). Like any father he is attentive to his children's needs and desires, only he gives with perfect wisdom, ability and timing (Mat 7:7-ll). This is a great encouragement to prayer for it speaks of his willingness to give.

Our Father in heaven: 
The Lord to whom we pray is not some localised and earth-bound deity, but the one who created the heavens and the earth and who is Lord over them (Job 38-4l). He sees, knows and rules all. This also is an encouragement to prayer as it speaks of God's ability to give.

Put together this phrase is a great enticement to prayer. We approach our heavenly Father who is both wiling and able to hear and answer prayer.

However, even as we rightly call God 'father' let us never forget to whom we speak. Many years ago I was an office junior with open access to my CEO's office and an invitation to call him by his first name. But, however often I did so; I was never to forget who he was and who l was. Likewise, let us remember that the Lord is God and we are not. So, let us pray to Our father who is in heaven ...

When You Pray

When You Pray

Prayer is one of the most important aspects of the Christian life. It is a great act of private, family and public worship to admire God, apologise to him, beg his pardon, thank him and to depend on him to meet our needs and the needs of others and of his work.

Prayer is also one of the most delightful aspects of the Christian life.When we have had a good time with the Lord in prayer we are refreshed, refocused, reassured and ready to face the world again.

Yet, prayer is also one of the most difficult parts of the Christian life. It challenges our concentration to focus on God and resist the devil's distractions. It challenges our pride to be thus dependent on God rather than on ourselves. It challenges our activism to be still before god rather than busy for him. It challenges our faith to entrust needs to God rather than try to meet them ourselves.

Notice how Jesus assumes that his people pray. He says ... when you pray ... not 'if' (Mt 6:5). (Note that he also assumes that we fast and give relief to the poor - Mt 6:2 & 16) Prayer ought to be as natural and common place in our lives as talking to our family and closed friends.

Is this so? Do we pray?

Jesus also makes it clear that it is not enough just to pray. We can sin in our prayers. One way is to make prayer a public display calculated to impress people with our piety (Mt 6:1, 5). Or we can sin by making prayer as assertion of our self-righteousness (Luke 18:10- 14).

At heart, prayer is the action of a child to draw aside with day and say what is on his or her mind (Mt. 6: 6- 8). We don't need many or long words or even to worry about asking of the right things. God knows the needs, loves to hear us ask and will always give well. (Mt 6: 8; 7:7-11)

All this is a great encouragement to pray. There is an art to praying well, but the key is a heart to pray. So let us bright hears that trust, hope and love God and express them in our prayers. And let's listen to Jesus as he say '...when you pray' and then teach us how to pray.