The Lord's Prayer (Part 3).

The petitions: 
`Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done on Earth as it is in heaven.' are our prayers for the present and future. 
They stretch out to the end of time.

We should not be anxious about future

• Confident that God's kingdom will come, 
• Should not have worries about the long term.

So how should we regard the needs of this present hour?
We are tempted to worry.

Lewis Thomas - great American biologist - studied habits of many animals said:
We are, perhaps uniquely among the earth's creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still.
Many people think that worry is the result of the fast paced, high-pressure lives we lead today, but the truth is that worry is not a 20th century phenomenon. It has been a problem for centuries.

Being uniquely, among the animals, made in the image of God, we are able to reflect on our lives, thinking of such subjects as purpose. This though has its dark side for we are also able to worry about the future, wondering for example, whether this pain (say), will last long and whether perhaps it will lead to death. Animals, of course, feel pain and fear, but I doubt whether they anxiously consider the future or contemplate their own death.

The Psalms tell us worry only leads to harm (Psalm 37:8), 
Proverbs tells us that "worry makes a heart heavy" (Proverbs 12:25). 
The apocryphal book of Sirach says "Worry brings premature old age" and "Worry drives away sleep" (30:24, 42:9).
Many of us worry about the short term.

The remaining petitions - dearl with our day to day lives now.

Various phrases.
`This Day'.
Not praying for provisions for the distant future.
We do not know what the future will bring.
Matt 6:34
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
(NIV)
Of course we must make sensible provision for future - but should not live in anxiety. 

Our prayer for the future is `Thy Kingdom Come .. '
Not `Lord I am worried about what may become of me in ten year's time.'

Give me today the strength I need for today.

Give us this day our daily bread.
Not cake, ie not praying for luxury. By the grace of God we may have some luxuries - but that is not our prayer.

Daily also can mean - coming day.
So at night - a prayer for provision for the next day.

Give.
Not `give me' in the sense that `I don't want to bother to work'.
If we are able we still need to earn our own living we should.

Farmers have to plough and sow, and reap to provide basic cereals.

We too are commanded to feed the hungry.

Give is an expression of ultimate dependence on God 
who normally uses human means of provision and distribution.

Remember that behind the farmer lies the Creator.
All food was once alive and we can't make any living thing.
(See a summary of  my article on the `mystery of life')

Daily.
Day to day dependence.
Each day we live by the grace of God.
Each day is a gift form Him.

Just as bread or food is indispensable of life of body, 
so being forgiven and forgiving is indispensable for life of soul.
Soul laden with unforgiven guilt is a soul cut off from God.

I once had the opportunity for a brief conversation with the famous atheist broadcaster and novelist Marghanita Laski.

Not long before she died in 1988, in a moment of surprising candour on television, , one of our bestknown secular humanists said: "What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me."

Forgive us our debts.
To fail in our duty to God or our fellow humans is to be in debt.
We can get in debt to banks but that is different.
They only lend if they expect us to pay back with interest.
Bob Hope: said about Debt: A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it.

God forgives debts.
Forgive does not mean excuse.
`Forgive me' means I acknowledge that I have done wrong.
It was my fault.
Therefore I ask for forgiveness.
`Excuse me' the wrong I did means that although I did wrong it was not my fault - tired, mislead, other circumstances.
`Excuse me' means please don't hold it against me because it was not my fault.

`Forgive me' means although it definitely my fault, I am truly sorry. Please don't hold it against me.

Sometimes we brood over past - we try to imagine that we didn't really.
A mistake is to think that just because we did something wrong many years ago - God has forgotten about it and we should just forget it.
But God looks down upon our whole life as if it was today.
I don't say we should be morbidly seeking our guilt in the past as if seeking a guilt trip - No.

However if something comes to mind - of many years ago - put it before the Lord.

But how can we possible properly confess ... ?
We can't - for wone thing we we are not  always aware of wrong doing.
Think of the Baptism of Jesus - It was a baptism of confession of sins.
As our High Priest He, though without sin, identified himself with our frail sinful humanity and confessed the sins of the world on our behalf. 
This is the great theme of the Letter to the Hebrews.
Our confession is just a joining of ourselves to His confession. 
We confess in Jesus' name.

True repentance leads to a forgiving spirit.
If you are forgiven you will find it easier to forgive others.

Forgive us our debts as .... 
Inward flow of God's forgiveness is impossible if there is not an outward flow of forgiveness from us to others.

That does not mean we should never be angry.
Genuine forgiveness does not deny anger but faces it head on. 
Do you agree with Alice Miller, (18741942. American novelist)?
If I can feel outrage at the injustice I have suffered, only then will the way to forgiveness be open to me.

Jesus himself did feel anger at hypocrisy of leadership of Israel - yet on cross He prayed for their forgiveness.
Whether they accepted that forgiveness or not is another matter.

Some say `I will not forgive for he had no excuse'.
How do we know?

We don't know what private pressures and difficulties he may have - also we are not asked to excuse someone by to forgive.

F.B. Meyer said that when we see someone in sin, there are two things we do not know: 
• First, we do not know how hard he or she tried not to sin. 
• And second, we do not know the power of the forces that assailed him or her

We ask God to forgive the past and put His hand on us for future `Thy Will be done.'

But we ask Him not to lead us to temptation.

But in Greek the word can mean `Test' or `trial'.
So:
Do not lead us to hard testing.
In Bible word used of 
1. God testing His people and seeing whether they are really loyal.
Deut 13:3 The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Reassurance:
1 Cor 10:13 God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
1 Pet 1:6,7
6 For a  little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith may be proved genuine.

God is fashioning us - for God has a high eternal destiny for us.

So how are we to understand the petition `Lead us not into temptation'?
Clue:  `into' - `right inside' so there is no where to look but trouble and testing.
Don't allow me to be completely engulfed by troubles.
Yes trials will come. 
They may in long term strengthen me. 
But do not let me be overwhelmed by them.
Don't let me be in the situation that wherever I look there is testing.

Even though trials may come, let them not weaken our faith.
Let not the devil get hold of our lives.
Let us not fall into sin.
Instead when dangers come, deliver us from evil.
Ultimate evil to be delivered from is hell.

CSL comments that those who have deliberately set their hearts on evil could not bear the goodness of heaven.

W.H. Auden, (190773), AngloAmerican poet, playwright, and literary critic, regarded by many as the most influential poet in English since T. S. Eliot. 
"Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good."

Of course the whole prayer assumes we allow the hand of God upon our lives.
`Thy will be done in us as it is done in heaven'

Remember that the hand is the hand of him who is 
King of Kings, to whom belongs 
all power and glory 
forever. Amen.

Let us pray: Our Father in heaven, may your holy name be honoured, may your kingdom come so that what you will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Give us each day our daily needs, forgiving us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Let us not be overwhelmed by testing and temptation, but deliver us from all evil. For the kingdom, the power and the glory belong to you forever.
 
 

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