[HarleyD]

First, you must understand that prayer is meant for our edification-it is not meant as a laundry list of things that we would like God to do. That being said God wants us to pray to Him so that we can see how He is working His will through our prayer. If we pray for a job that we would like to have, regardless of whether we receive it or not, God has answered our prayer for our best interest.

- we ask God that his will be done, as if alternatives to his will could be done instead;

thy will be done

No, there IS no alternative. It is my belief this is a submissive acknowledgment to God sovereign will. We are requesting God's will be done in our lives. It is not a hope that God's will, will be done.

- we link our works of forgiveness to the forgiveness of our sin;

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

I don't have a problem with this. We are to forgive others just as our father has forgiven us. This is spoken to many times in scripture. Our salvation does not rest on our failure to keep this-only our rewards.

- we ask God to not tempt (or test) us;

And do not lead us into temptation,

God does not tempt us. However it is presumptuous of us when we go off on our own and not follow the leading of the Lord. (Yes, we can run off-think of Jonah.) We should remind ourselves that God is perfectly capable of withholding His grace and mercies from us.

- we ask God to liberate us from the Devil.

but deliver us from evil.

"Evil" here is meant in the general sense of being relieved of trouble, disease, bad neighbors, and, yes, Satan. God wants us to pray for help-that is one of the purpose of prayer. If we are NOT liberated from a disease does that mean that God failed? You and I both know that's not the case. You would say that God answered "No" to your prayer. I would say that God has told me that my affliction is the best thing for me in refining me for His kingdom.

I have no problem interpreting any of this as a Reformer.

Additionally, if you look at the actual Matthew 6:11, it differs from the traditional wording of the prayer as the bread is described as "supersubstantial", -- "epiousion",...

Well, according to my Greek dictionary, it means "the bread that suffices for each day". While the Doury-Rheims translates it "supersubstantial" there is nothing in the Greek that would indicate this is anything other than daily sustenance. I think Jerome got a bit excited.

[annalex]

In short, you have no clue why Christ asked you to pray Our Father:

- "Thy will be done", you acknowledge, is a meaningless petition.

- "Forgive us our sins", you say, is so that we get rewards. What rewards? What if our sins are not forgiven, -- do we still end up in heaven? Hello?

- "Do not lead us into temptation", you again say that it does not happen, so it is a meaningless petition.

- "Deliver us from evil" -- according to you we should not pray it because the "evil" here is annoyances of life that are really good for us. But that would have been covered under "temptations" would it not?

While the Doury-Rheims translates it "supersubstantial" there is nothing in the Greek that would indicate this is anything other than daily sustenance. I think Jerome got a bit excited.

"epiousion" is exactly "supersubstantial". "Sufficient" is a possible meaning (emeran, daily, is a separate word in both gospels), but "supersubstantial" is the precise meaning. If the evangelists wanted to stick to the simple "daily", they would not have added this rather extravagant epithet.

[kosta50]

"Evil" here is meant in the general sense of being relieved of trouble, disease, bad neighbors, and, yes, Satan

No, it doesn't. The Greek word used is a nominative form ponerou and means the evil one, the satan; it certanly does not stand for "trouble and disease."

The same is evident from Slavonic version: "но избави нас от лукаваго"(but rescue us from the evil one)

[Titanites]

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

I don't have a problem with this. We are to forgive others just as our father has forgiven us

Not quite. It asks for forgiveness from the Father as we have forgiven others. Through the Lord's prayer, we place a condition on God’s forgiveness - that His forgiveness be as we forgive others. Unless we are merciful to others, God will not be merciful to us.