The Lord's Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer

Matthew 6:9-15

[9] Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. [10] Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. [11] Give us this day our daily bread, [12] and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. [13] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [14] For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, [15] but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. [ESV]

Matthew 6 begins with Jesus instructing the disciples to not behave as the hypocrites do in their prayer life, for the hypocrites will get their reward but as followers of Christ they (and you) are to seek the Father in secret. It is in the quiet moment with God that you will find what you seek as the all Powerful Creator of this vast universe wrap’s His loving arms around you, a sinner saved by His loving grace.

Who and what is our Father like?

The Father, only one aspect of the Trinity that makes followers of Mohammed say all Christians are infidels, is the person of the Godhead you approach when coming to beg for grace and peace and be encouraged to know that when you come before God, He is not an angry avenging judge but a loving and gracious Father. It is important to understand that as you address God as “Our Father” it is because God is a common father to all through the creation. When you come to God repenting of your sins and seeking forgiveness you must see God as the prodigal did in Luke 15. It is in this that repentance comes about.

The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) asks in Question number 120:

Why has Christ commanded us to address God thus: "Our Father"?

Answer: That immediately, in the very beginning of our prayer, he might excite in us a childlike reverence for, and confidence in God, which are the foundation of our prayer: namely, that God is become our Father in Christ, and will much less deny us what we ask of him in true faith, than our parents will refuse us earthly things. (a) Matt.7: 9-11; Luke 

You will discover that by reading Psalm 113 a wonderfully clear picture of God, our Father, that emerges in verses 5 through 9.

[5] Who is like Yahweh our God- the One enthroned on high, [6] who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? [7] He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the garbage pile [8] in order to seat them with nobles- with the nobles of His people. [9] He gives the childless woman a household, [making her] the joyful mother of children. Hallelujah! [HCSB]

The Father in Perfect Holiness sits on high looking over you, watching and meeting your every need. This same Father who looks after your every need also demands you to be holy and as a loving Father will discipline you when you stray from Him, yet, you can know even then, you are safe in the arms of a Perfect God whose attributes of goodness, love, mercy (grace), peace (order), righteousness (justice), and jealous, loves you forever.

For Thought:

1.    When you seek God in the quiet of your heart do you come to Him as a child seeking your Father?

2.    When you pray to God, your Father, do you ask Him to teach you to be holy, so you too can live a life pleasing to Him?

3.    Have you thought of times when life seemed harsh and afterwards seen God’s movement in getting you through those times? Look to the Father, as your comforter in times of need for God is the one who will always pick you up in times of trouble.

Prayer

Please Father, you who are the great I AM and my Redeemer also Created me to Worship you, please teach me to live as you want me to so I may be pleasing in your sight in all I do. But when I fail, and I will, I am thankful you are there to forgive me as you life me up, dust me off, and point me in the direction I am to go as I truly seek to give you all glory in my every thought and action. 

In closing

1 Thess. 5

[23] Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. [24]He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. [ESV]