Free Republic

"Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen" (Matt. 6:13). The Disciples’ Prayer is a pattern to follow for life. The implications of the Disciples' Prayer are profound and far-reaching. An unknown author put it this way: I cannot say "our" if I live only for myself in a spiritual, watertight compartment. I cannot say "Father" if I do not endeavor each day to act like His child. I cannot say "who art in heaven" if I am laying up no treasure there. I cannot say "hallowed be Thy name" if I am not striving for...

"Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matt. 6:13). Don’t let your trials turn into temptations. When we hear the English word temptation, we usually think of a solicitation to evil. But "temptation" in Matthew 6:13 translates a Greek word that can refer either to a trial that God permits to refine your spiritual character (James 1:2-4), or a temptation that Satan or your flesh brings to incite you to sin (Matt. 4:1; James 1:13- 15). Both are valid translations. I believe "temptation" in Matthew 6:13 refers to trials. Even though we know God uses trials...

"Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matt. 6:13). Have a healthy sense of self-distrust. At the moment of your salvation, judicial forgiveness covered all of your sins—past, present, and future. Parental forgiveness restores the joy and sweet fellowship broken by any subsequent sins. But concurrent with the joy of being forgiven is the desire to be protected from any future sins. That's the desire expressed in Matthew 6:13: "Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil." That petition seems simple enough at first glance, but it raises some important questions. According to...

"Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. . . . For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions" (Matt. 6:12, 14-15). An unforgiving Christian is a contradiction in terms. It's possible to confess your sins and still not know the joy of forgiveness. How? Failure to forgive others! Christian educator J. Oswald Sanders observed that Jesus measures us by the yardstick we use on others. He didn't say, "Forgive us because we forgive others,"...

"Forgive us our debts" (Matt. 6:12). Forgiveness removes the guilt and penalty of sin and restores intimacy with God. Man's greatest problem is sin. It renders him spiritually dead, alienates him from God and his fellow man, plagues him with guilt and fear, and can eventually damn him to eternal hell. The only solution is forgiveness—and the only source of forgiveness is Jesus Christ. All sin is punishable by death (Rom. 6:23) but Christ bore the sins of the world, thereby making it possible to be forgiven and have eternal life through faith in Him (John 3:16). What a glorious...

"Forgive us our debts" (Matt. 6:12). Believers confess their sins; unbelievers deny theirs. Christians struggle with sin. That surely comes as no surprise to you. As you mature in Christ, the frequency of your sinning decreases, but your sensitivity to it increases. That doesn't mean you are more easily tempted, but that you are more aware of the subtleties of sin and how it dishonors God. Some people think you should never confess your sins or seek forgiveness, but the Lord instructed us to do so when He said for us to pray, "Forgive us our debts" (Matt. 6:12). That's...

"Give us this day our daily bread" (Matt. 6:11). God is the source of every good gift. God has given us everything good to enjoy, including rain to make things grow, minerals to make the soil fertile, animals for food and clothing, and energy for industry and transportation. Everything we have is from Him, and we are to be thankful for it all. Jesus said, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!" (Matt. 7:11)....

"Give us this day our daily bread" (Matt. 6:11). God is glorified when He meets your needs. In America, praying for our daily bread hardly seems necessary. Most people need to pray for self-control to avoid overeating! But Matthew 6:11 isn't talking about food only. It is a statement of dependency on God and an acknowledgment that He alone provides all of life's basic necessities. Sad to say, however, many people today have reduced prayer to a means of self-fulfillment. Recently a woman sent me a booklet and wrote, "I don't think you understand the true resource we have in...

"Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10). Praying for God’s will to be done on earth is an aggressive prayer. Many people assume that somehow everything that happens is God's will. But that's not true. Lives destroyed by murderous aggressors and families broken by adultery aren't God's will. Children and adults ravaged by abuse or crippled by disease aren't God's will. He uses sin and illness to accomplish His own purposes (Rom. 8:28), but they aren't His desire. Eventually God will destroy all evil and fulfill His will perfectly (Rev. 20:10-14), but that hasn't...

"Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10). Your prayers make a difference! Matthew 6:10 literally says, "Whatever you wish to have happen, let it happen immediately. As your will is done in heaven, so let it be done on earth." That's a prayer of active commitment to God's will. Many people don't pray like that because they don't understand God's character. They think their prayers don't matter and that God will impose His will on them no matter what they do. They tend to pray with passive resignation, indifference, or resentment. I remember praying...

"Thy kingdom come" (Matt. 6:10). The only acceptable response to Christ’s offer of the Kingdom is to receive it, value it, and pursue it! Many people who think they're kingdom citizens will someday be shocked to discover they aren't. In Matthew 7:21 Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven." Some people think highly of the kingdom but never receive the King. They call Jesus "Lord" but don't do His will. Lip service won't do. You must receive the...

"Thy kingdom come" (Matt. 6:10). Conversion to Christ involves three elements: invitation, repentance, and commitment. Someday Christ will return to earth to reign in His kingdom. In the meantime He rules in the hearts of those who love Him. Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus gave us a mandate to evangelize the lost and teach them His Word (Matt. 28:19- 20). When we do, sinners are converted and transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ (Col. 1:13). That's how His kingdom grows. Conversion is a work of the Spirit in the heart of unbelievers. He uses...

"Thy kingdom come" (Matt. 6:10). Relinquish your will to Christ’s sovereign rule. Attempting to explain all that is involved in the phrase "Thy kingdom come" is like a child standing on a beach attempting to scoop the entire ocean into a little pail. Only in eternity will we grasp all that it encompasses, but the poem "His Coming to Glory" by the nineteenth-century hymnwriter Frances Havergal captures its essence: Oh the joy to see Thee reigning, Thee, my own beloved Lord! Every tongue Thy name confessing, Worship, honor, glory, blessing Brought to Thee with glad accord; Thee, my Master and...

"Thy kingdom come" (Matt. 6:10). When you pray, “Thy kingdom come,” you are praying for Christ to reign on earth as He already does in Heaven. When we hear the word kingdom we tend to think of medieval castles, kings, knights, and the like. But "kingdom" in Matthew 6:10 translates a Greek word that means "rule" or "reign." We could translate the phrase, "Thy reign come." That gives a clearer sense of what Christ meant. He prayed that God's rule would be as apparent on earth as it is in heaven. God's kingdom was the central issue in Christ's ministry....

"Hallowed be Thy name" (Matt. 6:9). Sound theology that results in holy living hallows God’s name. We have learned that hallowing God's name requires setting it apart from everything common, and giving Him first place in our lives. That starts with believing He exists. Hebrews 11:6 says, "He who comes to God must believe that He is." Beyond mere belief, you must also know the kind of God He is. Many people who claim to believe in God aren't hallowing His name because they have erroneous concepts of who He is. The Israelites thought they were worshiping the true God...

"Hallowed be Thy name" (Matt. 6:9). God is holy and deserves your highest respect and your humble obedience. To most people the word hallowed elicits thoughts of Halloween, ivy-covered walls, or starchy religious traditions. But those are all far from its biblical meaning. "Hallowed" in Matthew 6:9 translates a Greek word that means "holy." When Christ said, "Hallowed be Thy name," He was saying in effect, "May Your name be regarded as holy." When you hallow God's name, you set it apart from everything common and give Him the place He deserves in your life. Throughout Scripture, holiness is attributed...

"Hallowed be Thy name" (Matt. 6:9). Prayer should always exalt God. The Disciples' Prayer illustrates the priority that God should hold in our prayers. Jesus began by exalting the Father: "Hallowed be Thy name" (v. 9), then requested that the Father's kingdom come and His will be done (v. 10). He concluded with an anthem of praise: "For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen" (v. 13). His prayer literally begins and ends with God. "Hallowed be Thy name" exalts the name of the Lord and sets a tone of worship and submission that is...

"Our Father who art in heaven" (Matt. 6:9). With God as your Father, your life has eternal significance. Author H.G. Wells wrote of a man who had been overcome by the pressure and stress of modern life. His doctor told him that his only hope was to find fellowship with God. The man responded, "What? That—up there—having fellowship with me? I would as soon think of cooling my throat with the Milky Way or shaking hands with the stars." Poet Thomas Hardy said that prayer is useless because there's no one to pray to except "that dreaming, dark, dumb thing...

"Our Father who art in heaven" (Matt. 6:9). Prayer begins with the recognition that God is your Father and has the resources to meet your needs. The term Father is one of the most commonly used terms in our prayers, and rightly so because that's how Jesus taught us to pray. But as common as that term is to us, it was very uncommon to the people of Christ's day. Then, most of the people who worshiped false gods thought of them as distant, capricious, and immoral beings that were to be feared. Even the Jewish people, who should have...

"Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen'" (Matt. 6:9-15). Jesus gave six elements that constitute true prayer. Many people have memorized the Disciples' Prayer so they can recite it often, but as beautiful as...