Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
9Therefore, you (pl.), pray thus: Our Father who [is] in the heavens, may Your name be hallowed. 10Your kingdom come; Your desire be done on earth as also in heaven. 11Give to us today our daily bread, 12and forgive to us our debts as we also forgive our debtors, 13and do not bring us into testing, but rescue us from the evil [one], because Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory into the ages. Amen. 14For, if you forgive the men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you yours, 15but, if you do not forgive men their sins, neither will your Father forgive your sins.
This has been, for me, another life-changing study. As I always seem to do, when I embarked on the study, in my heart of hearts, I was afraid I wouldn’t learn anything. I’ve known the Lord’s Prayer basically my entire life. A cursory glance at it sees nothing out of the ordinary and all very familiar. However, as always with the Bible, when I just stop and seriously consider any given passage, I find it true it is “alive and powerful!” It is alive and life-giving. As Jesus said, “When you know the truth, the truth shall make you free!”
If I could sum up what I’ve learned in just a few words, I would say I’m struck (floored, blown away) by seeing that the Lord’s Prayer sails on a sea of love. If we include the thoughts from vv. 14,15, Jesus both begins and ends with “Our Father…” As I noted earlier, it would seem our naturally legalistic hearts read it and pray it as if it started with “Your Honor…,” as if every line lays on us some obligation to fulfill, concluding with threats that He might withhold forgiveness from us.
It certainly can be read that way, and, if people would pray it that way, it is better than nothing if it moves them at all toward holiness. However, it does not begin and end with “Your Honor.” It begins and ends with “Our Father.” The very name, Father, calls us not to a court, but up into His big, loving lap. This entire prayer should be read and repeated sitting in that lap. It is a prayer of dearly loved children snuggling with their Father and pouring out their hearts to Him. It is ALL about love. It is ALL about a relationship of love. It sails on a sea of love.
I should inject here that I have my pastor to thank for my realization of all of this. As he has been preaching through this prayer, from the very beginning, what he said lit up my heart and opened my eyes to see it was no accident Jesus instructs us to address our prayers to “Our Father.”
Sail with me for a minute: We pray to “Our Father” and add “which art in Heaven.” Once again, I grew up with the enviable privilege of having wonderful, loving parents. Many don’t. However, He is not an earthly parent. He is our heavenly Father. He is the perfect parent, the perfect Father. He is perfect in wisdom to know what is best for us every second and perfect in love to always, always, always be doing for us what is for our absolute best. He is perfect in power to protect us and to answer our prayers in accordance with that perfect wisdom and love. And this very title – heavenly Father – reminds us that we children belong there – in His house – not here is this fallen, broken, sin-cursed world.
“Hallowed be Thy name.” Here on earth, my father was always my hero. I remember being a small tike, watching him build things and fix things and sincerely believing in my little heart he could do anything! If anyone had asked, I’d have been happy to tell them that my Dad was the best dad in the whole world! Now I look up to my heavenly Father and pray, “Hallowed by Thy name.” As a believer, I honestly wish the whole world could see how great my heavenly Father is! He can do anything! He is a hero truly worthy of our worship and I can’t help but long for everyone to know Him and praise Him!
“Thy kingdom come.” This obviously concerns His rule. He is the King. “The Most High rules in the nations of men.” Though we are born “children of disobedience,” our believing hearts actually love to hear that He rules. To us, that is not a threat. It is a comfort. That is part of why we pray (often), “Jesus, come!” We want Him to rule this world! We love Him. We know He loves us, and truly one of our greatest griefs is that we too often find ourselves struggling to accept His rule in the topsy-turvy, minute-by-minute struggles of our days. We not only love Him, we pray He’d help us love Him more, resist Him less.
“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This is, of course, an extension of “Thy kingdom come.” In a world that spits in His face and fights Him in every possible way, we His beloved children realize His way is best and long for a world where we all, like the good angels, just naturally live 100% in happy accordance with that will. I see it clearly enough in my own heart and life – when I get selfish and distrustful of Him, it brings only regret and heartache. When I let Him rule and sincerely try to do His will, the fruit really is love and joy and peace. Oh, that the whole world could know His kindness and the sweetness of living in His will! Our Father really does know best!
“Give us this day our daily bread. This, again, floors me, to realize Jesus goes here before even dealing with our need of forgiveness. “Amazing love – how can it be?” “As a father has compassion on his children, even so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him, for He knows our frame, that we are but dust” (Ps. 103:13,14). He is not a harsh, stern father. He knows we are frail, that we get hungry and tired. I remember reading once of a swimming coach who would constantly be stopping his fellows to check their heart rates. He wanted to push them, to make them the best they could be, but he didn’t want to push them “too hard.” He could tell from their heart rates when any one of them had had enough and needed to call it a day. Our Coach, our Father, knows our “heart rates,” and deals with us, His children, in compassion. The love in all of that just floors me.
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” As we observed earlier, this prayer needs to be read sitting in our Father’s lap. We’re not talking to “Your Honor.” We’re talking to our Father. It grieves me to know that I can sit in His lap and still sin in His face! Even as I pray, I can fondle sinful thoughts that He says are to Him an abomination! “An abomination!” That would be like looking down at your two year old in your lap and realizing he’s holding what must be some month-old road-killed rotting skunk carcass! That’s what our sins are like to our Father. Realizing how much it hurts Him, I want to ask His forgiveness. I want to tell Him I’m sorry, that I don’t want to grieve Him and disappoint Him. I love Him – and I know He loves me. In fact, when it comes to faults and sins and “debts,” I live in such a glow of grace, I want to forgive people who sin against me. What they do to me is nothing in comparison to what I do to my Father. Yet, He forgives me. As I think on that, I want to forgive them.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Once again, that word “temptation” is not necessarily a negative word. It can mean simply the idea of “testing.” Our Father does not tempt us, but He does test us. Jesus instructed His disciples, “Pray that you enter not into temptation, for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” As He faced the worst trial any human being will ever experience – the Cross – He Himself prayed, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” Jabez was “more honorable than his brothers,” and he prayed, “Keep me trouble, that it might not pain me,” and the Bible says, “The Lord granted his request.”
The plain, simple fact is it’s true. My spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak. My sinful heart can take any “testing” from the Lord and turn it into temptation – and when that happens, I’m afraid my track record is not good. There is, in every difficult situation, a really good chance I will fail. It is an expression of our loving Father’s compassion that He allows us to ask, “Let this cup pass from me.”
In Jesus’s case, it was the suffering itself He wished He could somehow avoid. For us, we too certainly don’t like pain, but we are also keenly aware we simply don’t do well in trouble. I don’t want to suffer and I don’t want to fail. I don’t like pain, but when it hits me (no matter what it is), I don’t want to be biting other people’s heads off or lying to somehow escape it. I don’t want to get fearful and doubt my Father. I am quite skillful at devising sinful “escape routes.” Just like Jesus, the Father is okay with me seeing it all and asking “Deliver us from evil!”
“For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever!” Having poured out our hearts to a Father who loves us and has compassion on our frail existence, I’m back to that old feeling of proper pride in my father. “He can do anything!” My Father is the BEST father in the whole world!” Once again, it is all about love – His love for me and mine for Him. Even this final doxology is sailing on a sea of love!
“For if you forgive men when they sin against you…” Jesus adds this thought, no doubt to emphasize one of our most likely failures – our refusal to forgive others, how prone we are to carry grudges, to let resentment fester in our hearts. When our Father has poured out so much love and compassion into our lives, we need to be reminded to share that with others. He is a God of grace to us and we should be becoming gracious people to others. As Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
This Lord’s Prayer allows you and me to sail in this sea of God’s love. May we receive the blessing from His big heart and love Him in return. Then may His grace flowing through us invite others to come sail with us!
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