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In Luke 11:1-13 we have a literary device which gives us the Lords prayer and then immediatly after continues to address issues on what God is like and how to approach him in asking for things. Again we must remind ourselves that the Lords prayer is a Kingdom prayer for it is taught as the Kingdom of God is about to come. Indeed it exhorts us to ask God for the Kingdom to come. We are taught to pray to God as our father. So we are to come to God as His children. It implies a relationship between the father and the children. It also implies that we have faith in God the Father and that he rewards those who seek Him for what is needed in this present life. Also it teaches us to worship God the father for who He is. We aren't to only worship God for what He does but we are to worship God for who He is. When Jesus teaches us to pray hallowed be your name. Jesus is teaching us that God is all that His name implies. When God is known as YHWH it implies that He is known as the covenant God and that we can depend on Him completely to keep what He has said. So to worship God as our covenant God is to recognise we are in covenant with Him. Also that God can be trusted to do what He has promised. So we are to hallow or make great all that is implied in Gods many names. God isn't known generically as God but is known by name for that is how he reveals Himself to us. God isn't Gods name,the closest in hebrew to God is "Elohim", that would be referring to God generally. A good thing to do would be to do studies on the names of God in scripture so we can learn to worship Him for who He reveals himself to be. Also we are taught that the Father is in heaven as to His locality. Right now the Father and Jesus are in heaven but the Holy Spirit is here on earth with us to comfort us, convict us of sin, and open our eyes to Jesus. When we don't know how to pray we have Jesus as our advocate and High Priest as well as the Holy Spirit praying for us to the Father(Romans 8,Hebrews 4)
After we have worshipped and adored the Father, Jesus teaches us to pray that Gods kingdom would come upon the earth. It is a prayer that comes from the longing for the restoration and healing of all things to come upon us and the world we live in. It is two fold in that it is the longing for the physical appearance of Gods Kingdom and the end of this evil age and the beginning of Gods government and rule and the paradise promised. It is very much the beginning of Gods rule for we are taught next to pray your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is very much political in that Gods law will be over all the earth. For if the King begins to rule all in His land and Kingdom, we must bow the knee in obedience. the second meaning is His rule in our lives as His covenant people in this evil age. It is our obedience to Him and His son Jesus by obeying His law and gospel in the now. This involves faith and obedience. Rather we are taught it is the "obedience of faith." Otherwise known as the obedience which comes from having faith in God and His son Jesus. Next we are to ask God and depend on Him to sustain us. We are to ask God to supply us our daily bread. It doesn't teach us to ask for daily cake. We are to be like the Israelites in the desert depending on God for our sustenance while we wait for Him to give us the promise of the land flowing with milk and honey. If He allows us to hunger it is to teach us to not just live on bread but the bread of His promises and word. It is important to recognise that all we have, comes from His hand. If we have worked hard and are tempted to say I have got what I have by myself and forget God. We must remember it is by Gods grace we are healthy enough to work and strong enough to work.We must recognise we have sight by His grace as well as hearing. If He chose He could take it away and bring us to naught. It is by Gods goodness that we stand and He can easily remove His grace and cause us to fall. It is with this understanding we are to ask God for His goodness in granting us our daily food and sustenance and to be thankful in that. Next we are to ask God to forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. But there is a condition attached and must be taken into consideration. God will forgive us our sins when we ask as long as we forgive others who have sinned against us. This would seem to include Jesus teaching on Kingdom living for the sons of God. We are to forgive those who do us harm and wrong for we recognise that we have done wrong to God and His cause many times. Jesus teaches us to bless and do good to those who are our enemies and hurt us. It is indeed a hard teaching, but when we see how we have offended God and still ask Him for forgiveness. Then we can understand that as sons of the Most High we are to have mercy in our hearts to those who don't deserve it. For God has shown us mercy when we were His enemies and shown us His great forgiveness and favour even though we don't deserve it. Jesus teaches he who has been forgiven much finds it much easier to forgive those who offend him. So when we ask God His great forgiveness we should search our hearts to see who we have failed to forgive for their wrong doing against us. If we don't we are found to sin against God as hypocrytes and our prayers will go unanswered for our inability to forgive others as we have been forgiven. This is the way of the sons of the Kingdom,it is Gods way and yes so different from the ways of men. It is the way to answered prayer and great freedom from sin that brings us ruin such as bitterness and hate. Next we are to pray for deliverance from temptation. The greek word for temptation is peirasmos which means trial as well as temptation. However in the context it is deliverance from temptation in the sense of the devils temptation. Just as Christ was tempted to do evil so will we be tempted and tried by the evil one. We will be tested to see if we will live by Gods word or if we would rather have the riches and pleasures of this world before the blessedness of the coming Kingdom. We will be tested as to our loyalty and obedience to our God and King. God has all power over the evil one. We must never believe the lie that the devil is equal to God. The devil is a created being. Just as Job was put to the test to see if he would desert His God. Even so the devil had parameters as to what he could do. He could not go beyong what God had said. Even so Job understood that God was testing Him and cried to God for deliverance. It is only us who have the benefit of seeing after the fact that God used the devil to test Jobs loyalty under severe trial. We are taught to beware of Satan for he is a roaring lion roaming through the earth just as in Jobs story. However we are told if we submit to God that Satan will have no power over us. We must know that though we face evil it is not out of Gods control and is in Gods purposes to strengthen and refine us by fire, but that in it all we are kept by faith in the father. Even so we must rely on the Father to deliver us in all the things which seek to deceive and draw us away from Him and His word. The Lords prayer helps us to see that God is sovereign and as King rules over everything in this world. There is nothing that is not under Gods control and rule. Yes even evil, God uses to the good of His people. Luke cuts the Lords prayer off at this point unlike Matthew who continues to say for thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever, amen. Everything is in Gods hands, yes everything!!lastly we must remember this prayer is a model for prayer and not a rigid ritual prayer. If we pray it with understanding and faith it will not be emptied of its power. |
