The Lord’s Prayer

It has been a part of the Church’s liturgy possibly since the time of the apostles; it is amongst the most familiar parts of the bible, but how well do we know what we’re asking when we say the Lord’s prayer? Over the next few weeks we take a closer look at this pattern for prayer that Jesus gave his disciples, thinking about the content of each line and the shape of the model to inform our own priorities and practice. We begin of course with the familiar, but remarkable opening ‘our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’ As adopted children in Christ, ours is the privilege of approaching the throne of heaven, coming to our generous Father, and as children born of amazing grace, our first desire must surely be the honour of his name.

To be in the kingdom is to recognise and relate to God as he is, sovereign; it is to be under his good reign. On the one hand everything is under him, the earth is the Lord’s and all the fullness thereof (Ps. 24), on the other, his reign is resisted. Since the beginning humanity has made a bid for the throne. Jesus came announcing the good news of the kingdom, he came to reconcile, to restore the peace, plenty and protection of the crown to his people. When we pray ‘your kingdom come’ we are praying that more and more people come under his reign until it comes in fullness and glory at the last. It is to pray for the growth of the kingdom through the mission entrusted to the Church: to proclaim the good news of the redeeming King.

We continue in our series taking a closer look at Jesus’ pattern for prayer. Asking ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ naturally follows ‘Your kingdom come.’ To recognise our Father’s gracious rule functionally is to submit our will to his, trusting his word over our want and wisdom. Just as the yeast impacts the whole of the dough, we’re asking that God’s will govern every aspect of our lives. This is to follow in the footsteps of Jesus as he prayed ‘not my will but yours be done’. However, this request is not just personal, it has global reach, it is seeking the reordering of the world under God’s word, that earth down here be made more like heaven up there, where God is willingly trusted and obeyed.

The Psalm writer reminds his readers that it is God who supplies the needs of his world: ‘You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.’ Our Father is the generous giver of every good and perfect gift, he knows what we need and delights to give good things to his children, not least the ‘bread of life,’ the Lord Jesus himself. To pray ‘give us today our daily bread’ is to recognise his sustaining and sufficiency, it is to express our dependency and trust. As the people of Israel looked to him for daily manna, so in faith, we look to him daily to supply our needs, physical, emotional and spiritual, as we seek first his kingdom and rest in his promise of provision.

Readings: Psalm 145:13b-19 & Matthew 6:25-34
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We are a people who rest and delight in the good news of forgiveness. Though we have failed to meet our obligations towards God, Jesus, sent from the Father, has taken the debts of his people and paid in full, his cross work affirmed by his resurrection ‘it is finished’ indeed. As we trust Jesus to cancel our debt and credit us with his right standing, so we are brought into God’s family, the family of compassion and mercy. This is why the Lord’s Prayer links receiving forgiveness with showing forgiveness. What we have received shapes our heart and lives, as members of the family of compassion and mercy, by grace, we’re both called and motivated to be all of those things: like Father, like sons and daughters.

To pray ‘lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil’ is not to suggest that our Father is out to trip us up, he does not tempt anyone (James 1:13), it is to pray for his hand to preserve us and cause us to persevere in the Christian life. Temptations come in (lit. testing – a broad range of trials), we pray that we might neither fall nor give up, but be delivered safely out from the trial through his keeping. We recognise our need and come to him who can help, the Lord Jesus, who was tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin (Heb. 4:15-16), he understands even more than we do, he did not yield, indeed he has triumphed as our representative and head, he has passed the test for us, in him we stand.