The Message of the Lord's prayer
Many people I believe can recite the Lord’s Prayer, but do they really know, or understand what they are really praying for? In Old Testament times the people of Israel went to the High Priest to give offerings to make things right for them in case of sin and or other matters. But now, in the New Testament things have totally changed. That is why in Luke 11:1 the disciple’s watched Jesus pray and when he finished they said, “teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.” They had no idea what praying was all about. Now verse 2; And he (Jesus) said unto them, “When you pray, say, Our Father which is in Heaven, Hallowed be they name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that in indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.”
In Mathew 6:5-8 Jesus teaches about prayer on the do’s and don’ts, (Please read.) Now in verse 9 of Mathew 6:, Christ speaking, “After this manner therefore pray you: Our Father which is Heaven, Hallowed by your name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Now in some of the oldest manuscripts the rest of the prayer is not here but I will add it for the articles sake.) For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen
Both in Mathew and Luke they are pretty close the same, I will use Mathew’s account for this article.
What I will do is quote each sentence and discuss its meaning and continue on until the prayer is finished. It truly describes God’s plan of salvation as well as telling us, the followers and believers of Jesus Christ on how we should be conducting ourselves in this world. Let’s get started.
“Our Father which is in Heaven”, Jesus wanted to make sure that the person praying was praying to the true God, the Father of all of us, for as we see in Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Jesus wants to make sure we are praying to God Our Father, not some other power or principality. Also, he wanted us to know that by calling God our Father, it shows we have a relationship with him as never before.
“Hallowed be thy name.” This states that the God which is in Heaven our Father is Holy. Holy in the Greek language means, sacred sure, mercy, purity. Our Father in Heaven then is sacred, pure. What a God, a Father to be praying too.
“Thy Kingdom come.” Do you understand and believe that Jesus Christ is coming again to this world to set up the Kingdom of God here on earth? In Mathew 4:17 states, “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This world is under the sway of Satan the Devil, at Christ’s 2nd coming, Satan will be dethroned and Christ will take the reins of this world. And why? That’s the next part of the Lord’s Prayer.
“Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” When Jesus returns and sets up God’s Kingdom on this earth, then and only then will God’s will be done here. Right now and you have to admit, this world is running way out of control. And when mankind truly see’s he has made a mess of this earth under Satan’s sway, Our Father will send his Son Jesus Christ to show mankind the true way of life. Oh how beautiful that Kingdom will be. Also notice that after we acknowledge that we are praying to the Holy Father of Heaven the 1st thing of importance IS “THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE.” Ok, let’s continue on.
“Give us this day our daily bread.” Now our Father wants us to ask him for the staples in life. FOOD. Also notice how often he wants us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”, every day he wants us coming to Him and asking him for help. What a loving Father in heaven we have.
“And forgive us our debts, (our short comings, our sin) as we forgive our debtors. (Those that have wronged us one way or another.) Do you notice here that as we forgive those that have done us wrong, Our Father in heaven forgives us? If we only forgive someone just a little, Father forgives us just a little. If we forgive our debtors a lot, Father forgives us a lot. The more we forgive others the more God will forgive us. So brothers and sisters in Christ, Please forgive others to the full so God can forgive you to the full. Always stay in the mindset of forgiveness, and if you do, you will see how wonderful life can be. As it states in Philippians’ 4:4 “Paul states, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” If you live with the attitude of forgiveness I truly believe you will Rejoice more.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Most of the Old manuscripts have “deliver us from the evil one”.) We will discuss the 1st part “lead us not into temptation”, lead in the Greek means to take us out or to leave us completely, and temptation, a deep or open sea, sounds isolated, doesn’t it? So in the prayer it is asking God not to cast us away forever, alone, abandoned. The best scripture that describes this is Psalm 51:10-12, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. CAST ME NOT AWAY from your presence; and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation; and uphold me with your free spirit.” Isn’t that BEAUTIFUL! God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ LOVE us so much: now let’s get back to the Lord’s Prayer, And the last part of the passage, “deliver us from the evil one.” (Satan!) In Hebrews 2:14 it states “that through death he (Jesus) might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil.” So again in our prayer we ask not to be cast away forever and end up in the state of the 2nd death. As it states in Revelation 21:8 “but the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the 2nd death.” Again, the verse is simply asking God to help us in every way possible so that we are not forever apart or abandoned from God, Our Creator, and our Father due to Satan’s influence. What a prayer.
“For thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen” As I stated earlier, that this verse is not in some of the older manuscripts, but I will give my comment of them. So as we are wrapping up our prayer to our Father in heaven, this verse states, that 1st, the Kingdom coming is of the utmost importance to God, (thine is the kingdom) next it states that God has the power to do what he says he will do. (And the power) And finally (the glory) when the plan of salvation for all of mankind has come to fruition there will be glory and honor from us to God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Savior and our soon coming King, forever and ever. As it states in Romans 15:6 speaking of the salvation, “That you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in Revelation 21:1-7, speaking of the end of God’s plan of salvation, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the 1st heaven and the 1st earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said; unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my Son.”
The Lord’s Prayer is packed full of meaning to us the followers of Jesus Christ. I hope this has helped you to understand it a little better of what Jesus wanted us to ask for and of the wonderful things God and Christ is doing for us now and in the exciting future in His Kingdom forever and ever. God Bless You Pastor Mark
A short prayer, a wonderful message.
Please go to the other articles on this website to help you grasp the beautiful work that God is doing through his Son Mankind’s Savior, Jesus Christ!
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