For the next 21 days, we are going to put some work into our prayer life together by dedicating time each day to learn about prayer, and spend time in prayer.
For the next 21 days, we are going to put some work into our prayer life together by dedicating time each day to learn about prayer, and spend time in prayer.
DAY ONE | JAN 6
“…Lord, teach us to pray….” Luke 11:1
How’s your prayer life?
I suspect that most of us would answer: “it could use some work”.
Mine too.
We all know we should pray; but for most of us, this area of our spiritual discipline needs some work! So, for the next 21 days, let’s put some work into our prayer life by dedicating time each day to learn about prayer, and spend time in prayer.
Let’s start by being encouraged that the Disciples were just like us, they needed some work when it comes to prayer. In Luke 11:1 they saw Jesus praying and after He finished, they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. This is the only time it’s recorded that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them something. Of all the things that they saw Jesus do in the 3+ years they spent with Him, the one thing they asked Him to teach them to do, was to pray. That’s a good ask!
A good prayer for us to begin with is their ask: “Lord, teach us to pray”.
Over the next 21 days we’ll spend time going through some of Jesus’ teaching on prayer, specifically, the model He used to teach His disciples how to pray.
Before we ask the question “teach me to pray”, I wonder, can we genuinely say we want to pray?
Do I genuinely desire to pray?
Think about that question and answer it for yourself.
I asked that question to our Wednesday night group and the consensus answer was “No”. Here’s some of the top reasons given:
It’s not the intent of this 21 Days to address the “why” as much as the “how” of prayer. But I think it’s important for each of us to pause and genuinely understand “why” we struggle with a desire to pray, and spend some time presenting that before the Lord.
As for me, I’m embarrassed by my lack of desire to pray. I know a lot about prayer, but there’s a big difference between knowing about prayer, and having a desire to pray! As I honestly answer that question, I find that I’m plenty motivated with a desire to pray when I need help; but I find myself lapsing in desire to pray when everything is “just fine” in my life. The truth for me, is that I’m complacent in my desire to pray because I primarily use prayer as a means of crying out to God when I need help.
Since I’ve gotten to jump ahead of you in our study, I’m excited about going through this journey with you because Jesus teaches us to pray for more than simply our needs. He opens a door through prayer that surpasses “me and my”, and exposes my heart to a glorious agenda in prayer that is breathing life into my soul’s desire to pray.
How about you? What’s your prayer life need work on? Why do you struggle to pray?
To guide us in defining our prayer today, I want to share with you one of my favorite verses:
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”--Philippians 2:13 (NLT)
This verse encourages me because it humbly reminds me that I need God to not only give me the power to be able to please Him, but I need God to give me the desire to please Him!
Let’s apply that to our prayer life today by asking God to give us both the desire and the power to pray:
How’s your prayer life?
I suspect that most of us would answer: “it could use some work”.
Mine too.
We all know we should pray; but for most of us, this area of our spiritual discipline needs some work! So, for the next 21 days, let’s put some work into our prayer life by dedicating time each day to learn about prayer, and spend time in prayer.
Let’s start by being encouraged that the Disciples were just like us, they needed some work when it comes to prayer. In Luke 11:1 they saw Jesus praying and after He finished, they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. This is the only time it’s recorded that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them something. Of all the things that they saw Jesus do in the 3+ years they spent with Him, the one thing they asked Him to teach them to do, was to pray. That’s a good ask!
A good prayer for us to begin with is their ask: “Lord, teach us to pray”.
Over the next 21 days we’ll spend time going through some of Jesus’ teaching on prayer, specifically, the model He used to teach His disciples how to pray.
Before we ask the question “teach me to pray”, I wonder, can we genuinely say we want to pray?
Do I genuinely desire to pray?
Think about that question and answer it for yourself.
I asked that question to our Wednesday night group and the consensus answer was “No”. Here’s some of the top reasons given:
- I don’t know if it does any good
- I’m too busy / distracted
- I feel like God’s upset with me
- I don’t know what I should pray for
- I pray about the big stuff, but God’s not interested in my little details
It’s not the intent of this 21 Days to address the “why” as much as the “how” of prayer. But I think it’s important for each of us to pause and genuinely understand “why” we struggle with a desire to pray, and spend some time presenting that before the Lord.
As for me, I’m embarrassed by my lack of desire to pray. I know a lot about prayer, but there’s a big difference between knowing about prayer, and having a desire to pray! As I honestly answer that question, I find that I’m plenty motivated with a desire to pray when I need help; but I find myself lapsing in desire to pray when everything is “just fine” in my life. The truth for me, is that I’m complacent in my desire to pray because I primarily use prayer as a means of crying out to God when I need help.
Since I’ve gotten to jump ahead of you in our study, I’m excited about going through this journey with you because Jesus teaches us to pray for more than simply our needs. He opens a door through prayer that surpasses “me and my”, and exposes my heart to a glorious agenda in prayer that is breathing life into my soul’s desire to pray.
How about you? What’s your prayer life need work on? Why do you struggle to pray?
To guide us in defining our prayer today, I want to share with you one of my favorite verses:
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”--Philippians 2:13 (NLT)
This verse encourages me because it humbly reminds me that I need God to not only give me the power to be able to please Him, but I need God to give me the desire to please Him!
Let’s apply that to our prayer life today by asking God to give us both the desire and the power to pray:
- Lord, give us the desire to pray.
- “Lord, teach us to pray.” Luke 11:1
DAY TWO | JAN 7
“…When you pray….” Matthew 6:5
Before Jesus introduces ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ in The Sermon on the Mount, He teaches us a few points on prayer that I’d like us to study in Matthew 6:5-8.
Matthew 6:5-8 NLT
When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!
Jesus begins with stating “When you pray”; not “If you pray”.
I looked at this word ‘when’ in Greek, and it is a word that is used to “express conditions that are expected to occur repeatedly”. I’m not sure we spend enough time really considering that Jesus expects us to pray! When we’re not regularly praying, we aren’t doing what Jesus expects of us!
As I consider my lack of prayerfulness, it strikes me that:
Our prayer life is a great metric of who we’re living life dependent on, and Jesus expects us to pray because He knows we can’t live the Christian life without depending upon Him. If we’re struggling to grow in our Christian walk, perhaps it’s because we’re not depending upon Him.
Ask yourself: “What does my prayer life say about who I am dependent on?”
If we want to grow in our dependency upon Jesus, we have to grow in prayer!
Jesus goes on to give us two wrong ways to pray; two “Don’ts”.
1. Don’t Pray to be Seen
Jesus first points to the ‘hypocrites’ who love to pray in public. The word ‘hypocrite’, is also used as ‘actor’: someone who pretends to be what they are not. Actors love an audience, they love to be seen.
The first “wrong way” to pray, is to pray for the purpose of being seen.
The way to protect your prayer, is to pray in private. Jesus says to go “away by yourself” (KJV translates this as “into your closet”, which is where the term ‘prayer closet’ comes from), and shut the door. Your audience in prayer is an audience of One, and you don’t want to be distracted when you are alone with Him. Jesus is teaching that we need to devote time to prayer that is uninterrupted and where privacy is protected; time spent where the only thing we’re engaged in is prayer, nothing else!
For this 21 Days of Prayer, choose a private location that prevents you from being interrupted, and shuts the door to opportunities for distraction. Leave the phone in another room, turn off the music and screens, shut the door, and set your heart’s gaze upon an audience of One.
2. Don’t Babble
Jesus also points to the Gentiles who, motivated by superstition or duty, babble recited prayers. Prayer is not a scripted recitation we mindlessly repeat to get what we want or fulfill a requirement.
How many of us are unintentionally guilty of doing exactly what Jesus tells us not to do by teaching our children to pray by mindlessly reciting: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…”?
Jesus tells us that we protect our prayer by being mindful, not mindless. Be mindful that God is mindful of you as He already knows what you need and He’s anticipating your prayer! We get alone with God so we can spend time with Him in a sincere, personal relationship through prayer. Do not pray with supposed theological correctness, emotionally flowery words, or the empty phrases that we so often heap up. Simply pray with a genuine, sincere heart that wants to be with your Father and grow in relationship with Him.
The type of prayer that Jesus expects in Matthew 6, is private, uninterrupted prayer offered with a sincere heart that intentionally wants to be with ‘Our Father’.
Prayer is not about a particular form, it’s about a particular relationship!
Let’s put what we’ve learned into practice.
Get alone with our Father and make sure you can’t be disturbed. Protect your privacy with Him by shutting the door to any possible interruption. Don’t be concerned with a particular form of prayer today, just cry out to Him from a sincere heart that keeps you engaged. Let Him know how much you want to walk in a deeper relationship with Him, express your heart’s thankfulness and worship, cry out to Him with the cares and anxieties you carry, and mindfully communicate your desire to learn how to pray and engage in a time of private sincere prayer as you grow in relationship with Him.
Before Jesus introduces ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ in The Sermon on the Mount, He teaches us a few points on prayer that I’d like us to study in Matthew 6:5-8.
Matthew 6:5-8 NLT
When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!
Jesus begins with stating “When you pray”; not “If you pray”.
I looked at this word ‘when’ in Greek, and it is a word that is used to “express conditions that are expected to occur repeatedly”. I’m not sure we spend enough time really considering that Jesus expects us to pray! When we’re not regularly praying, we aren’t doing what Jesus expects of us!
As I consider my lack of prayerfulness, it strikes me that:
- When I pray: I depend on God. Prayerfulness is a life dependent on God.
- When I don’t pray: I depend on me. Prayerlessness is a life dependent on self.
Our prayer life is a great metric of who we’re living life dependent on, and Jesus expects us to pray because He knows we can’t live the Christian life without depending upon Him. If we’re struggling to grow in our Christian walk, perhaps it’s because we’re not depending upon Him.
Ask yourself: “What does my prayer life say about who I am dependent on?”
If we want to grow in our dependency upon Jesus, we have to grow in prayer!
Jesus goes on to give us two wrong ways to pray; two “Don’ts”.
1. Don’t Pray to be Seen
Jesus first points to the ‘hypocrites’ who love to pray in public. The word ‘hypocrite’, is also used as ‘actor’: someone who pretends to be what they are not. Actors love an audience, they love to be seen.
The first “wrong way” to pray, is to pray for the purpose of being seen.
The way to protect your prayer, is to pray in private. Jesus says to go “away by yourself” (KJV translates this as “into your closet”, which is where the term ‘prayer closet’ comes from), and shut the door. Your audience in prayer is an audience of One, and you don’t want to be distracted when you are alone with Him. Jesus is teaching that we need to devote time to prayer that is uninterrupted and where privacy is protected; time spent where the only thing we’re engaged in is prayer, nothing else!
For this 21 Days of Prayer, choose a private location that prevents you from being interrupted, and shuts the door to opportunities for distraction. Leave the phone in another room, turn off the music and screens, shut the door, and set your heart’s gaze upon an audience of One.
2. Don’t Babble
Jesus also points to the Gentiles who, motivated by superstition or duty, babble recited prayers. Prayer is not a scripted recitation we mindlessly repeat to get what we want or fulfill a requirement.
How many of us are unintentionally guilty of doing exactly what Jesus tells us not to do by teaching our children to pray by mindlessly reciting: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…”?
Jesus tells us that we protect our prayer by being mindful, not mindless. Be mindful that God is mindful of you as He already knows what you need and He’s anticipating your prayer! We get alone with God so we can spend time with Him in a sincere, personal relationship through prayer. Do not pray with supposed theological correctness, emotionally flowery words, or the empty phrases that we so often heap up. Simply pray with a genuine, sincere heart that wants to be with your Father and grow in relationship with Him.
The type of prayer that Jesus expects in Matthew 6, is private, uninterrupted prayer offered with a sincere heart that intentionally wants to be with ‘Our Father’.
Prayer is not about a particular form, it’s about a particular relationship!
Let’s put what we’ve learned into practice.
Get alone with our Father and make sure you can’t be disturbed. Protect your privacy with Him by shutting the door to any possible interruption. Don’t be concerned with a particular form of prayer today, just cry out to Him from a sincere heart that keeps you engaged. Let Him know how much you want to walk in a deeper relationship with Him, express your heart’s thankfulness and worship, cry out to Him with the cares and anxieties you carry, and mindfully communicate your desire to learn how to pray and engage in a time of private sincere prayer as you grow in relationship with Him.
DAY THREE | JAN 8
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“Our….” Matthew 6:9
“Choo-choo!”, my 2 year old grandson suddenly exclaimed as we were playing outside. We had to stop what we were doing and listen to the powerful train rumble through town as he gleefully mimicked “choo-choo” every time we heard the whistle.
When we first moved to Richmond, hearing the “choo-choo” was a daily interruption, especially at 1 am (and 2 and 3 and…)! But now that I’ve lived here for 3 years and hear the train every day, I no longer notice the “choo-choo”. It’s become, ….”familiar” to me.
I wonder if the Lord’s Prayer has become oh so “familiar” to us, and we’ve lost our gleeful awe at how powerful this prayer is?
In just 66 words, Jesus provides us the most succinct and powerful model of prayer to teach us how to pray. Within this prayer, He covers everything pertaining to life. Every word, each phrase, is essential to our life. He covers our past, present, and future; He addresses our physical, emotional and spiritual needs. He lifts the gaze of our soul far beyond our temporal earthly boundary and directs it toward eternity. Everything we need to pray for is found in this prayer. With no frills and no fluffy theology, Jesus provides the stripped down, simple essentials of effective prayer. So simple, that a 4-year-old can recite it, and so rich, that Theologian’s write books about it.
And we have the privilege of praying it!
May our hearts be shaken out of familiarity, and may the eyes of our soul be opened in gleeful awe to the wondrous life of prayer that Jesus is inviting us into.
With just seven themes, Jesus covers every area of our life in prayer. We pray:
Yesterday we saw that Jesus doesn’t want us to mindlessly babble in prayer. Let’s be careful to move past the routine recitation that we often resort to in the Lord’s Prayer, and see it as the model of prayer that Jesus intends.
Let’s begin by carefully noticing the first word in this prayer. Take a look, what is it?
Jesus teaches us something about powerful about prayer with word one: “Our”.
If I were to teach this prayer, I would have started with the second word: “Father”. My heart begins prayer by bringing my needs, my interests, my concerns to my Father. I would teach this prayer by beginning with: “MyFather…”. After all, isn’t that what prayer is about: Me?
Look at the Lord’s Prayer and count how many times the words “me”, “my” and “I” are used?
How many did you find?
The obvious conclusion: Prayer isn’t about “me”, it’s about “we”.
“Our” immediately moves my perspective beyond self, and grounds me in the reality that I am part of a community of believers, part of a family, part of a kingdom. I’m not alone, I’m not independent; I am interdependent and responsible to the many mentions of “one another” in scripture. My problems are not “my” problems, they are part of “our” problems as we all have problems. My prayer focus should not be on “I” and “me”, but on “our” and “we”.
As we pray the Lord’s Prayer, let us remember that we do not pray alone. Let’s open our understanding to the magnitude and expansiveness of a prayer life that is vastly larger than self. We are praying for and with a community of believers around the world that heap up prayers into the golden censer of the altar before the Throne (Rev 8:3). “Our” prayer is the prayer of a community of believers, the citizens of a kingdom, the children of a family, who come before “Our Father” out of an eternal love and care for one another.
“So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
- Romans 12:5
I don’t think we’ll know the power of prayer, until we learn the power of “our”.
Two challenges for our prayer life today:
1. Pray for “our”As you pray today, ask the Holy Spirit to help you gaze with a new sense of wonder at the Lord’s Prayer. Slowly pray though it and focus your prayer with “our” in everything you read. Pray nothing for “me”, but only for “we”. If specific people come to mind as you pray, lift up their needs as you see those needs covered within the Lord’s Prayer.
2. Pray with “our”Not only are we to pray for one another, we are to pray with one another. Throughout this 21 Days of Prayer, make it a point to pray with someone. Begin with those in your house, but expand it into your church as Jesus told us in Matt 21:13 “My house will be a house of prayer”. If someone mentions a prayer need, choose to no longer say “I’ll pray for you”; instead, stop right there and pray with them.
Finally, consider joining us in corporate prayer and come together to pray with “our” tonight. We’ll meet from 6:30-7:30pm at the Richmond campus. We have a special time set aside for worship as well as prayer with 6 Pastors from our community to lead us through a simple model to P.R.A.Y. - Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“Our….” Matthew 6:9
“Choo-choo!”, my 2 year old grandson suddenly exclaimed as we were playing outside. We had to stop what we were doing and listen to the powerful train rumble through town as he gleefully mimicked “choo-choo” every time we heard the whistle.
When we first moved to Richmond, hearing the “choo-choo” was a daily interruption, especially at 1 am (and 2 and 3 and…)! But now that I’ve lived here for 3 years and hear the train every day, I no longer notice the “choo-choo”. It’s become, ….”familiar” to me.
I wonder if the Lord’s Prayer has become oh so “familiar” to us, and we’ve lost our gleeful awe at how powerful this prayer is?
In just 66 words, Jesus provides us the most succinct and powerful model of prayer to teach us how to pray. Within this prayer, He covers everything pertaining to life. Every word, each phrase, is essential to our life. He covers our past, present, and future; He addresses our physical, emotional and spiritual needs. He lifts the gaze of our soul far beyond our temporal earthly boundary and directs it toward eternity. Everything we need to pray for is found in this prayer. With no frills and no fluffy theology, Jesus provides the stripped down, simple essentials of effective prayer. So simple, that a 4-year-old can recite it, and so rich, that Theologian’s write books about it.
And we have the privilege of praying it!
May our hearts be shaken out of familiarity, and may the eyes of our soul be opened in gleeful awe to the wondrous life of prayer that Jesus is inviting us into.
With just seven themes, Jesus covers every area of our life in prayer. We pray:
- That God’s name be hallowed
- That God’s Kingdom would come
- That God’s will would be done
- For our daily bread
- For forgiveness as we forgive others
- That God would lead us away from temptation, and deliver us from evil
- For God’s kingdom, power, and glory to be revealed
Yesterday we saw that Jesus doesn’t want us to mindlessly babble in prayer. Let’s be careful to move past the routine recitation that we often resort to in the Lord’s Prayer, and see it as the model of prayer that Jesus intends.
Let’s begin by carefully noticing the first word in this prayer. Take a look, what is it?
Jesus teaches us something about powerful about prayer with word one: “Our”.
If I were to teach this prayer, I would have started with the second word: “Father”. My heart begins prayer by bringing my needs, my interests, my concerns to my Father. I would teach this prayer by beginning with: “MyFather…”. After all, isn’t that what prayer is about: Me?
Look at the Lord’s Prayer and count how many times the words “me”, “my” and “I” are used?
How many did you find?
The obvious conclusion: Prayer isn’t about “me”, it’s about “we”.
“Our” immediately moves my perspective beyond self, and grounds me in the reality that I am part of a community of believers, part of a family, part of a kingdom. I’m not alone, I’m not independent; I am interdependent and responsible to the many mentions of “one another” in scripture. My problems are not “my” problems, they are part of “our” problems as we all have problems. My prayer focus should not be on “I” and “me”, but on “our” and “we”.
As we pray the Lord’s Prayer, let us remember that we do not pray alone. Let’s open our understanding to the magnitude and expansiveness of a prayer life that is vastly larger than self. We are praying for and with a community of believers around the world that heap up prayers into the golden censer of the altar before the Throne (Rev 8:3). “Our” prayer is the prayer of a community of believers, the citizens of a kingdom, the children of a family, who come before “Our Father” out of an eternal love and care for one another.
“So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
- Romans 12:5
I don’t think we’ll know the power of prayer, until we learn the power of “our”.
Two challenges for our prayer life today:
1. Pray for “our”As you pray today, ask the Holy Spirit to help you gaze with a new sense of wonder at the Lord’s Prayer. Slowly pray though it and focus your prayer with “our” in everything you read. Pray nothing for “me”, but only for “we”. If specific people come to mind as you pray, lift up their needs as you see those needs covered within the Lord’s Prayer.
2. Pray with “our”Not only are we to pray for one another, we are to pray with one another. Throughout this 21 Days of Prayer, make it a point to pray with someone. Begin with those in your house, but expand it into your church as Jesus told us in Matt 21:13 “My house will be a house of prayer”. If someone mentions a prayer need, choose to no longer say “I’ll pray for you”; instead, stop right there and pray with them.
Finally, consider joining us in corporate prayer and come together to pray with “our” tonight. We’ll meet from 6:30-7:30pm at the Richmond campus. We have a special time set aside for worship as well as prayer with 6 Pastors from our community to lead us through a simple model to P.R.A.Y. - Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield
DAY FOUR | JAN 9
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“Father” Matthew 6:9
Some of my dearest memories are those that surround the use of a precious title I hold with four sons: “Dad”. How I miss the days when I would come home at the end of a long stressful day to little boys running to my car as I pulled into the driveway yelling “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy”. I would get out of the car and make them sing a lyric from ‘Hootie & the Blowfish’: “Hold me hold me ‘cause I want to get higher and higher”, before I would pick them up, give them a hug and hold them close to me.
There’s something incredibly precious and intimate about being held by your Dad.
Perhaps one of the most radical teachings of Jesus is that we get the privilege in prayer of addressing the Sovereign Almighty Eternal God, the Great ‘I Am’, as “Father”.
No one had taught this before. The name of God was so feared amongst His people that they did not even pronounce the name “Jehovah”, and wouldn’t dare to call Him “Father”. God was understood to be the Father of Israel, but not a personal, affectionate Father.
Dave Earley writes that “Jews traditionally opened each prayer with the words, ‘Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the Universe.’” (21 Keys to Answered Prayer)
Imagine how shocked the crowd must have been at the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus teaches the use of the title “Father” when we pray. Of all the titles we should consider for God (‘Sovereign Lord’, ‘Almighty Creator, ‘Eternal King’, or ‘Holy Majestic God’), the title that Jesus teaches us to use in our daily prayer, is “Father”.
Think about that. Read the titles in the parentheses above and ask yourself, “How would I approach God in prayer if I were to use each of these titles?”.
Now contrast that with how Jesus teaches us to approach God. How should we approach God when we consider Him as “Father”?
Jesus provides an even more intimate perspective of Father as He commonly began prayer with “Abba Father”. ‘Abba’ is an intimate, affectionate title which includes the concept of what we would call “Daddy”. We not only have the relationship with God as ‘Father’ and all that provides us as His children (protection, provision, guidance, discipline), we also have an intimate personal relationship with God as ‘Abba’ and all that provides us as His children (affection, closeness, favor, joy).
Perhaps one of the most important teachings of this prayer, is understanding that we are to view our relationship with God as ‘Abba Father’. Not only does Jesus teach us this, but the Holy Spirit encourages us to call out to God as our ‘Abba Father’. Look at Galatians 4:6 - And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”
On Day 1 of this journey I wrote that each of us need to understand the “why” behind our struggle to pray. I wonder how much of our struggle to have a yearning desire to pray is because we don’t see God in an affectionate, caring, personal relationship as “Our Abba Father”?
As we learn to walk in a vibrant prayer life, I believe that it develops as we focus not so much on the pattern of prayer, but on the person we pray to. Not upon the routine of prayer, but the relationship in prayer.
Some of the most intimate times I’ve had in prayer, is when I’ve chosen to pray the simple lyric that I had my sons sing to me years ago. There have been many times when I needed to feel my Abba Father’s comforting embrace, and I have prayed by simply singing to Him: “Hold me hold me, ‘cause I want to get higher and higher”. And as a good Father, He has always been faithful to me.
Our prayer life will become vibrantly wondrous, as we learn to come to Him as our Abba Father.
One of my favorite verses that I think describes the heart of our Abba Father is in Revelation 21:3 - I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.
When I think about this verse, I envision God shouting from His throne: “Finally, I can be with my children! I get to hold them, live with them, and be among them!” The culmination of human history is God’s shout from the throne, that Abba is home! And just like my sons who run to my car yelling “Daddy, daddy, daddy”, one day we will run to Him yelling “Abba, Abba, Abba”.
I like to think He will look at me, smile, and make me sing one more time: “Hold me, hold me ‘cause I want to get higher and higher”, before He wraps me in His arms.
I can’t wait for that day.
And I don’t have to. Through prayer, we get the incredible privilege of crying out to our ‘Abba Father’ now, and living life in His embrace.
There’s something incredibly precious and intimate about being held by your Abba Father.
For our prayer time today, submit to the Holy Spirit who is prompting us to cry out from our hearts: “Abba Father”. Meditate on the affectionate, personal caring relationship that God offers us as ‘Abba Father’. If you need some encouragement, read how Jesus beautifully illustrates this truth in the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32. Or listen to a worship song about the Father and pray the lyrics as you listen: Run to the Father, or Good, Good Father.
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“Father” Matthew 6:9
Some of my dearest memories are those that surround the use of a precious title I hold with four sons: “Dad”. How I miss the days when I would come home at the end of a long stressful day to little boys running to my car as I pulled into the driveway yelling “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy”. I would get out of the car and make them sing a lyric from ‘Hootie & the Blowfish’: “Hold me hold me ‘cause I want to get higher and higher”, before I would pick them up, give them a hug and hold them close to me.
There’s something incredibly precious and intimate about being held by your Dad.
Perhaps one of the most radical teachings of Jesus is that we get the privilege in prayer of addressing the Sovereign Almighty Eternal God, the Great ‘I Am’, as “Father”.
No one had taught this before. The name of God was so feared amongst His people that they did not even pronounce the name “Jehovah”, and wouldn’t dare to call Him “Father”. God was understood to be the Father of Israel, but not a personal, affectionate Father.
Dave Earley writes that “Jews traditionally opened each prayer with the words, ‘Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the Universe.’” (21 Keys to Answered Prayer)
Imagine how shocked the crowd must have been at the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus teaches the use of the title “Father” when we pray. Of all the titles we should consider for God (‘Sovereign Lord’, ‘Almighty Creator, ‘Eternal King’, or ‘Holy Majestic God’), the title that Jesus teaches us to use in our daily prayer, is “Father”.
Think about that. Read the titles in the parentheses above and ask yourself, “How would I approach God in prayer if I were to use each of these titles?”.
Now contrast that with how Jesus teaches us to approach God. How should we approach God when we consider Him as “Father”?
Jesus provides an even more intimate perspective of Father as He commonly began prayer with “Abba Father”. ‘Abba’ is an intimate, affectionate title which includes the concept of what we would call “Daddy”. We not only have the relationship with God as ‘Father’ and all that provides us as His children (protection, provision, guidance, discipline), we also have an intimate personal relationship with God as ‘Abba’ and all that provides us as His children (affection, closeness, favor, joy).
Perhaps one of the most important teachings of this prayer, is understanding that we are to view our relationship with God as ‘Abba Father’. Not only does Jesus teach us this, but the Holy Spirit encourages us to call out to God as our ‘Abba Father’. Look at Galatians 4:6 - And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”
On Day 1 of this journey I wrote that each of us need to understand the “why” behind our struggle to pray. I wonder how much of our struggle to have a yearning desire to pray is because we don’t see God in an affectionate, caring, personal relationship as “Our Abba Father”?
As we learn to walk in a vibrant prayer life, I believe that it develops as we focus not so much on the pattern of prayer, but on the person we pray to. Not upon the routine of prayer, but the relationship in prayer.
Some of the most intimate times I’ve had in prayer, is when I’ve chosen to pray the simple lyric that I had my sons sing to me years ago. There have been many times when I needed to feel my Abba Father’s comforting embrace, and I have prayed by simply singing to Him: “Hold me hold me, ‘cause I want to get higher and higher”. And as a good Father, He has always been faithful to me.
Our prayer life will become vibrantly wondrous, as we learn to come to Him as our Abba Father.
One of my favorite verses that I think describes the heart of our Abba Father is in Revelation 21:3 - I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.
When I think about this verse, I envision God shouting from His throne: “Finally, I can be with my children! I get to hold them, live with them, and be among them!” The culmination of human history is God’s shout from the throne, that Abba is home! And just like my sons who run to my car yelling “Daddy, daddy, daddy”, one day we will run to Him yelling “Abba, Abba, Abba”.
I like to think He will look at me, smile, and make me sing one more time: “Hold me, hold me ‘cause I want to get higher and higher”, before He wraps me in His arms.
I can’t wait for that day.
And I don’t have to. Through prayer, we get the incredible privilege of crying out to our ‘Abba Father’ now, and living life in His embrace.
There’s something incredibly precious and intimate about being held by your Abba Father.
For our prayer time today, submit to the Holy Spirit who is prompting us to cry out from our hearts: “Abba Father”. Meditate on the affectionate, personal caring relationship that God offers us as ‘Abba Father’. If you need some encouragement, read how Jesus beautifully illustrates this truth in the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32. Or listen to a worship song about the Father and pray the lyrics as you listen: Run to the Father, or Good, Good Father.
DAY FIVE | JAN 10
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“..in heaven..” Matthew 6:9
I have to remind myself that Jesus specifically chooses each word and phrase in this prayer with the intention to teach us something. The phrase “in heaven” is so familiar, that it’s easy to pass by it. So, let’s pause and ask ourselves: “Why did He include the phrase ‘in heaven’”?
Why not just start the prayer with: “Our Father, hallowed be your name”?
What’s the deal with “in heaven”; why do we need to know where God is located?
As I reflect on it, I think He’s continuing to adjust the perspective of our prayer.
With the word “Our”, He shifted our perspective from “me” to “we”.
With the word “Father”, He radically shifted our perspective to a personal relationship with Jehovah as a caring, intimate, ‘Abba Father’.
And with “in heaven”, I think He’s teaching us to shift our perspective once again.
“In heaven” does not mean that God is in a galaxy, far, far away. “Heaven” is not necessarily a geographical location, but rather the position of authority, dominion, and power over all of the universe. In scripture, Heaven is representative of the Headquarters of the Universe, Command Central, the Capital Building, the Throne Room of God. Look at what Psalm 33:13-15 (NLT) says: “The LORD looks down from heaven and sees the whole human race. From his throne he observes all who live on the earth. He made their hearts, so he understands everything they do.”
When we pray “Our Father in heaven”, we are setting our perspective on His absolute authority and power.
When we come to God in prayer, we typically come overwhelmed with the supposed greatness of our problems, worries, and issues. Jesus is instructing us to take a perspective that is far above our problems, far beyond our scope of understanding. To pray “in heaven”, is to take the perspective that humbly considers that no matter how great and difficult our problems may seem for us; this is easy for God!
“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” – Jeremiah 32:27
We are to pray from a position of humble weakness and dependency upon a caring Father who is seated on the Throne of all power, dominion, and rule over all of the universe. We proclaim that God not only hears us and cares about us as “Our Father”, but that He has all of the authority and power “in heaven” to help us.
“Our Father in heaven!”
You may “got friends in low places”, but you also have a Father in the highest of places!
“In heaven” means there’s no problem too difficult for Him! There’s no chaos that He can’t bring peace to! There’s no chain He can’t free you from! There’s no darkness He can’t fill with overwhelming light! There’s no pit He can’t rescue you from! There’s no pain He can’t heal! No sorrow He can’t turn to joy! There is no despair that He can’t turn to hope!
The One who holds all power, authority and dominion is “Our Father”; which means He cares so much for you that He faithfully “causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Romans 8:28 (NLT).
Now how He goes about bringing ‘everything to work together’ is likely not going to be the way we think He ought to. Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us that His thoughts and ways are not like our ways, they are much higher than ours. J. Vernon McGee has a quote I remind myself of when I start to get impatient about how God is running things:
“This is God’s universe, and God does things his way. You may have a better way, but you don’t have a universe.”
“In heaven” invites us to change our perspective from questioning and doubt, to a perspective of confident faith in “Our Father”. To choose to believe that beyond the veil, we know that we have a caring Abba Father who is lovingly summing up all things by His authority and power, and one day, we will see how perfectly good He causes all things to work together for us; the ones who lovingly cling to Him by faith, as He accomplishes His purpose.
Corrie Ten Boom, an incredible Christian woman whose testimony has impacted so many for the Kingdom writes this about the faithful power of perspective:
“Look at self and be distressed,
Look at others and be depressed,
Look at Jesus and you’ll be at rest!”
“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Colossians 3:2
Our Abba Father lovingly cares for us, He provides, He protects, and He holds all authority and dominion “in heaven”, over all of the universe. He sees far beyond our understanding. He holds the future in His hands. His ways are not like ours. We can confidently entrust every fear, worry, and care into His loving care, because He cares for us. He holds all authority and He will sovereignly deal with every problem we can possibly bring to Him – but not from our perspective, from His perspective “in heaven”. Because He is “in heaven”, He has a different perspective upon the problems of our world, as He sees how all of it will be perfectly summed up by His plan. He knows how everything will fit together, and He is causing everything to work together for good!
Today, pray “in heaven”.
Choose to set your perspective ‘in heaven’. He’s seated on the throne, He’s got you in His loving care. There’s nothing He can’t do. No matter how impossibly difficult your situation is for you, it’s easy for Him! His perspective on your problems is perfect; and He’s working it for your good. Ask Him to help you believe. Ask Him to give you a perspective ‘in heaven’. Ask “our Father in heaven”, to cause all things to work together for good as you cast your cares on the One who cares for you.
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“..in heaven..” Matthew 6:9
I have to remind myself that Jesus specifically chooses each word and phrase in this prayer with the intention to teach us something. The phrase “in heaven” is so familiar, that it’s easy to pass by it. So, let’s pause and ask ourselves: “Why did He include the phrase ‘in heaven’”?
Why not just start the prayer with: “Our Father, hallowed be your name”?
What’s the deal with “in heaven”; why do we need to know where God is located?
As I reflect on it, I think He’s continuing to adjust the perspective of our prayer.
With the word “Our”, He shifted our perspective from “me” to “we”.
With the word “Father”, He radically shifted our perspective to a personal relationship with Jehovah as a caring, intimate, ‘Abba Father’.
And with “in heaven”, I think He’s teaching us to shift our perspective once again.
“In heaven” does not mean that God is in a galaxy, far, far away. “Heaven” is not necessarily a geographical location, but rather the position of authority, dominion, and power over all of the universe. In scripture, Heaven is representative of the Headquarters of the Universe, Command Central, the Capital Building, the Throne Room of God. Look at what Psalm 33:13-15 (NLT) says: “The LORD looks down from heaven and sees the whole human race. From his throne he observes all who live on the earth. He made their hearts, so he understands everything they do.”
When we pray “Our Father in heaven”, we are setting our perspective on His absolute authority and power.
When we come to God in prayer, we typically come overwhelmed with the supposed greatness of our problems, worries, and issues. Jesus is instructing us to take a perspective that is far above our problems, far beyond our scope of understanding. To pray “in heaven”, is to take the perspective that humbly considers that no matter how great and difficult our problems may seem for us; this is easy for God!
“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” – Jeremiah 32:27
We are to pray from a position of humble weakness and dependency upon a caring Father who is seated on the Throne of all power, dominion, and rule over all of the universe. We proclaim that God not only hears us and cares about us as “Our Father”, but that He has all of the authority and power “in heaven” to help us.
“Our Father in heaven!”
You may “got friends in low places”, but you also have a Father in the highest of places!
“In heaven” means there’s no problem too difficult for Him! There’s no chaos that He can’t bring peace to! There’s no chain He can’t free you from! There’s no darkness He can’t fill with overwhelming light! There’s no pit He can’t rescue you from! There’s no pain He can’t heal! No sorrow He can’t turn to joy! There is no despair that He can’t turn to hope!
The One who holds all power, authority and dominion is “Our Father”; which means He cares so much for you that He faithfully “causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Romans 8:28 (NLT).
Now how He goes about bringing ‘everything to work together’ is likely not going to be the way we think He ought to. Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us that His thoughts and ways are not like our ways, they are much higher than ours. J. Vernon McGee has a quote I remind myself of when I start to get impatient about how God is running things:
“This is God’s universe, and God does things his way. You may have a better way, but you don’t have a universe.”
“In heaven” invites us to change our perspective from questioning and doubt, to a perspective of confident faith in “Our Father”. To choose to believe that beyond the veil, we know that we have a caring Abba Father who is lovingly summing up all things by His authority and power, and one day, we will see how perfectly good He causes all things to work together for us; the ones who lovingly cling to Him by faith, as He accomplishes His purpose.
Corrie Ten Boom, an incredible Christian woman whose testimony has impacted so many for the Kingdom writes this about the faithful power of perspective:
“Look at self and be distressed,
Look at others and be depressed,
Look at Jesus and you’ll be at rest!”
“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Colossians 3:2
Our Abba Father lovingly cares for us, He provides, He protects, and He holds all authority and dominion “in heaven”, over all of the universe. He sees far beyond our understanding. He holds the future in His hands. His ways are not like ours. We can confidently entrust every fear, worry, and care into His loving care, because He cares for us. He holds all authority and He will sovereignly deal with every problem we can possibly bring to Him – but not from our perspective, from His perspective “in heaven”. Because He is “in heaven”, He has a different perspective upon the problems of our world, as He sees how all of it will be perfectly summed up by His plan. He knows how everything will fit together, and He is causing everything to work together for good!
Today, pray “in heaven”.
Choose to set your perspective ‘in heaven’. He’s seated on the throne, He’s got you in His loving care. There’s nothing He can’t do. No matter how impossibly difficult your situation is for you, it’s easy for Him! His perspective on your problems is perfect; and He’s working it for your good. Ask Him to help you believe. Ask Him to give you a perspective ‘in heaven’. Ask “our Father in heaven”, to cause all things to work together for good as you cast your cares on the One who cares for you.
DAY SIX | JAN 11
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“Our Father in heaven,” Matthew 6:9
What’s the most important structure of your house?
The foundation.
The foundation determines the size, and stability of your house.
The bigger your foundation, the bigger your house, the more stable your house.
Similarly, the foundation of our prayers, will determine the size and stability of our prayer life.
I believe the foundation of The Lord’s Prayer, is “Our Father in heaven”.
After this phrase we will pray several powerful petitions which all rest upon the foundation of “Our Father in heaven”. The size and stability of these petitions in our prayer life is dependent on the firm establishment of this foundation in our heart.
Let’s not move on and add the petitions to our prayer life until we put some more work into establishing this foundation of prayer firmly in our heart: ‘Our Father in heaven’.
The enemy has a slick tactic he’s used against us ever since the garden, and it’s still effective today. If you look at his temptation in Genesis 3:1-5, you’ll notice that his tactic is not to convince Eve that it’s ok to eat of the tree; his tactic is to convince Eve that we can’t trust God.
From the very beginning, our enemy has been attacking and maligning the character of God so that we won’t trust Him. He’s been working to disrupt the relationship between us, because what we believe about God and our relationship with Him, is the foundation for how we think, live, and pray. A.W. Tozer said it best:
“What comes into our minds when we think about about God, is the most important thing about us”.
I am hopeful that as we’ve been praying the first few words of this prayer, the Holy Spirit has been changing our perspective on prayer by changing our understanding of who God is to us, who we are to one another, and correspondingly, our own identity. Today I want to focus on our identity. May He continue to shift our perspective as we firmly change our thinking about prayer based upon the foundation: “Our Father in heaven”.
Pop quiz – Fill in the blank: “Christianity is not a religion, it’s a _____________”
Anybody? Bueller?
“Relationship”
For us to move into a powerful, vibrant prayer life, prayer must move from a rote duty based on a religion, to a joyful delight based on a relationship. This is what the foundation of prayer is about – relationship!
“Our” – identifies our relationship within a community of believers, a family. Prayer is not so much about “me” as it is about “we”. Each of us are dependent upon one another, responsible for one another, and essential to one another. None of us are “less than” nor “greater than”. We are equally loved and valued, and we desperately need to love one another.
“Father in heaven” – identifies our personal relationship with God, the ruler of the universe. Through the work of Jesus, we have a redeemed position before God: beloved sons and daughters, and through the work of Jesus, we can “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” - Hebrews 4:16
We’ve spent time digging the foundation of God’s identity as ‘Abba Father’ within our hearts. Let’s dig the foundation a bit deeper with the identity He has given us, by simply looking at a comparison of what we are called in the New Testament.
What do we as believers in Christ typically call ourselves?
‘Christians’ is the answer I’m trying to get you to. Do you know that in the New Testament, we are called ‘Christians’ only 3 times? But do you know what we are called nearly fifty times?
‘Beloved’.
3 times ‘Christian’; ~50 times ‘Beloved’. Let that sink into your heart.
What if instead of thinking of ourselves as a “Christian”, we started thinking of ourselves as “His Beloved”! Truly thinking of ourselves as ‘His Beloved’ is another radical shift in perspective that will dig a deep foundation for our prayer life as we cry out “Abba Father”. If we will genuinely begin to believe the truth that we are His Beloved, our motivation for prayer will be dynamically changed as how can ‘His beloved’ not eagerly desire to be in prayer with our “Father in heaven”?
I am convinced, that this is the foundation that needs to be dug deep within my own heart to transform my desire for prayer. I say this because I must admit that while I know this truth, and can teach this truth, I struggle to believe this truth:
“I am my beloveds and His desire is for me.” Song of Songs 7:10
His desire is for me? Really? Seriously? God really desires me?
While I want to say that I believe this …. my lack of prayer betrays me, and indicates otherwise. And when I forget this truth, prayer becomes a dutiful religious task, instead of the delightful intimate relationship Jesus intends.
Have we fallen prey to the tactic our enemy has been using for 6,000 years?
Do I really trust Him and believe that I am His beloved, and His desire is for me?
Do I really trust that He is my ‘Abba Father’?
There’s a difference between ‘faith’ and ‘belief’. Faith = Belief + Action.
For me to develop have the Faith that I am His Beloved, I need to not only Believe that I am His Beloved, I need to take the Action of His Beloved, and go to Him in prayer.
Let’s dig a deep foundation of faith within our hearts and abandon ourselves to daringly trust Him. Let’s daringly trust that “I am his beloved and His desire is for me”! Let’s daringly trust that my relationship with Him is not based on my performance, but on His grace.
Performance is the metric of a fearful slave; grace is the metric of a beloved son!
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” - Romans 8:15
The foundation of our prayer life, is what we really believe about our relationship with God. And that foundation, determines the size and stability of our prayer life.
How’s your foundation?
Let’s work on our foundation today, as we pray: “Our Father in heaven”.
‘Changing the way we think’, is what scripture calls ‘repentance’. For today’s prayer, let’s change the way we think; let’s dig a deep foundation in our hearts through repentance as we pray ‘Our Father in heaven’.
Our – Repent for coming to prayer with a “me” mindset, instead of a “we”.
Father – Repent for not believing that He intimately cares for me as His beloved, and His desire is for me.
In heaven – Repent for not trusting that His ways are not my ways, and that He is powerfully working all things together for good, in His perfect plan.
Ask Him to dig up your heart and establish a foundation that earnestly loves “our”, faithfully trusts in His loving care as Abba Father, and confidently rests in His power to work all things for good because you are His Beloved!
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“Our Father in heaven,” Matthew 6:9
What’s the most important structure of your house?
The foundation.
The foundation determines the size, and stability of your house.
The bigger your foundation, the bigger your house, the more stable your house.
Similarly, the foundation of our prayers, will determine the size and stability of our prayer life.
I believe the foundation of The Lord’s Prayer, is “Our Father in heaven”.
After this phrase we will pray several powerful petitions which all rest upon the foundation of “Our Father in heaven”. The size and stability of these petitions in our prayer life is dependent on the firm establishment of this foundation in our heart.
Let’s not move on and add the petitions to our prayer life until we put some more work into establishing this foundation of prayer firmly in our heart: ‘Our Father in heaven’.
The enemy has a slick tactic he’s used against us ever since the garden, and it’s still effective today. If you look at his temptation in Genesis 3:1-5, you’ll notice that his tactic is not to convince Eve that it’s ok to eat of the tree; his tactic is to convince Eve that we can’t trust God.
From the very beginning, our enemy has been attacking and maligning the character of God so that we won’t trust Him. He’s been working to disrupt the relationship between us, because what we believe about God and our relationship with Him, is the foundation for how we think, live, and pray. A.W. Tozer said it best:
“What comes into our minds when we think about about God, is the most important thing about us”.
I am hopeful that as we’ve been praying the first few words of this prayer, the Holy Spirit has been changing our perspective on prayer by changing our understanding of who God is to us, who we are to one another, and correspondingly, our own identity. Today I want to focus on our identity. May He continue to shift our perspective as we firmly change our thinking about prayer based upon the foundation: “Our Father in heaven”.
Pop quiz – Fill in the blank: “Christianity is not a religion, it’s a _____________”
Anybody? Bueller?
“Relationship”
For us to move into a powerful, vibrant prayer life, prayer must move from a rote duty based on a religion, to a joyful delight based on a relationship. This is what the foundation of prayer is about – relationship!
“Our” – identifies our relationship within a community of believers, a family. Prayer is not so much about “me” as it is about “we”. Each of us are dependent upon one another, responsible for one another, and essential to one another. None of us are “less than” nor “greater than”. We are equally loved and valued, and we desperately need to love one another.
“Father in heaven” – identifies our personal relationship with God, the ruler of the universe. Through the work of Jesus, we have a redeemed position before God: beloved sons and daughters, and through the work of Jesus, we can “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” - Hebrews 4:16
We’ve spent time digging the foundation of God’s identity as ‘Abba Father’ within our hearts. Let’s dig the foundation a bit deeper with the identity He has given us, by simply looking at a comparison of what we are called in the New Testament.
What do we as believers in Christ typically call ourselves?
‘Christians’ is the answer I’m trying to get you to. Do you know that in the New Testament, we are called ‘Christians’ only 3 times? But do you know what we are called nearly fifty times?
‘Beloved’.
3 times ‘Christian’; ~50 times ‘Beloved’. Let that sink into your heart.
What if instead of thinking of ourselves as a “Christian”, we started thinking of ourselves as “His Beloved”! Truly thinking of ourselves as ‘His Beloved’ is another radical shift in perspective that will dig a deep foundation for our prayer life as we cry out “Abba Father”. If we will genuinely begin to believe the truth that we are His Beloved, our motivation for prayer will be dynamically changed as how can ‘His beloved’ not eagerly desire to be in prayer with our “Father in heaven”?
I am convinced, that this is the foundation that needs to be dug deep within my own heart to transform my desire for prayer. I say this because I must admit that while I know this truth, and can teach this truth, I struggle to believe this truth:
“I am my beloveds and His desire is for me.” Song of Songs 7:10
His desire is for me? Really? Seriously? God really desires me?
While I want to say that I believe this …. my lack of prayer betrays me, and indicates otherwise. And when I forget this truth, prayer becomes a dutiful religious task, instead of the delightful intimate relationship Jesus intends.
Have we fallen prey to the tactic our enemy has been using for 6,000 years?
Do I really trust Him and believe that I am His beloved, and His desire is for me?
Do I really trust that He is my ‘Abba Father’?
There’s a difference between ‘faith’ and ‘belief’. Faith = Belief + Action.
For me to develop have the Faith that I am His Beloved, I need to not only Believe that I am His Beloved, I need to take the Action of His Beloved, and go to Him in prayer.
Let’s dig a deep foundation of faith within our hearts and abandon ourselves to daringly trust Him. Let’s daringly trust that “I am his beloved and His desire is for me”! Let’s daringly trust that my relationship with Him is not based on my performance, but on His grace.
Performance is the metric of a fearful slave; grace is the metric of a beloved son!
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” - Romans 8:15
The foundation of our prayer life, is what we really believe about our relationship with God. And that foundation, determines the size and stability of our prayer life.
How’s your foundation?
Let’s work on our foundation today, as we pray: “Our Father in heaven”.
‘Changing the way we think’, is what scripture calls ‘repentance’. For today’s prayer, let’s change the way we think; let’s dig a deep foundation in our hearts through repentance as we pray ‘Our Father in heaven’.
Our – Repent for coming to prayer with a “me” mindset, instead of a “we”.
Father – Repent for not believing that He intimately cares for me as His beloved, and His desire is for me.
In heaven – Repent for not trusting that His ways are not my ways, and that He is powerfully working all things together for good, in His perfect plan.
Ask Him to dig up your heart and establish a foundation that earnestly loves “our”, faithfully trusts in His loving care as Abba Father, and confidently rests in His power to work all things for good because you are His Beloved!
DAY SEVEN | JAN 12
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Now that we’ve established the foundation of prayer, we’re ready to move into the ‘petitions’, or the ‘requests’, Jesus teaches us to make in prayer.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “Yes! Finally we get to the good stuff in prayer and can start asking for what we need!”.
You’re right – we get to start asking for what we need – what we truly need.
As we move past the foundation of prayer “Our Father in heaven”, and into the requests for our needs, we need to know that God wants to meet our needs! Jesus teaches about God’s desire to meet our needs immediately prior to introducing The Lord’s Prayer. We have needs, and since God is our Abba Father and we are His beloved, He wants to meet our needs! The last comment Jesus makes prior to teaching the Lord’s Prayer, is about our needs in Matthew 6:8, “your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!”.
Abba Father knows exactly what we need! The remainder of the Lord’s Prayer is Jesus teaching us not only how to ask for our needs, but perhaps most importantly, He’s teaching us what our needs truly are.
What do you think your needs are?
Reflect: “What is the need you ask for the most in prayer?”
Mine: forgiveness! I am always starting my prayers with “Lord, I blew it again, please forgive me”. Any other performance-oriented Christians relate to this prayer?
Reflect: “What do you think your most important need is?”
Mine: I need God to help me do what He’s called me to, because I so want to hear “well done good and faithful servant”. My idol of accomplishment loves prayer!
If I were to brainstorm what I think my greatest need is, I don’t think I would have listed what I believe Jesus points to as my greatest need.
Are you ready to have your perspective of prayer shaken again?
Here’s our greatest need and thus our first request: “Hallowed be your name” – Matthew 6:9
In the Bible, a name represents the character, identity, and reputation of a person. The name is a representation of the person. Remember the 3rd commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”? To take God’s name in vain is to tarnish its value, treat it flippantly, or give it a bad reputation. It’s the opposite of hallowing His name.
To "hallow" something is to treat it as sacred and holy and worthy of the highest honor and respect. It means that we take something and set it apart from everything else because it is special, valuable, adored, and unique to us.
My mom has China dishes she received as a wedding gift. These dishes are set apart in her home behind a glass display. She’s preserved them for nearly 60 years of marriage, still spotless, beautiful, and adored. They are uniquely special from all other dishes in her home, uniquely prized; they are hallowed.
Our greatest need, is that the character and reputation of our Abba Father, would be set apart as uniquely special, prized, and adored within the hearts of His beloved.
What would our life look like, if the character and purpose of God, was set apart as the highest desire, prize, and adoration of our heart?
That’s our greatest need, it’s our world’s greatest need, and it’s our first request: ‘hallowed be your name’.
I can’t pray this prayer, without praying against my own heart. My heart loves to ‘hallow’. There are so many things my heart hallows; so many things my heart sets apart, prizes and adores as its highest desire: reputation, recognition, comfort, security, accomplishments, family, pleasure. I fear that if my prayers were answered based on my understanding of my needs, it would be my name that is hallowed, not Our Father’s.
My heart has no problem hallowing; its designed and loves to hallow!
The greatest need of my heart, is for it to function as it was designed and hallow His name!
We were created for this. We were created and designed to adore, prize, and value our Abba Father far above everything else. Setting His name apart in our hearts as our greatest need, brings about our greatest fulfillment. We were created to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever, which is why the first request we pray, is “hallowed be your name”.
Today, let’s once again, repent, change our thinking, and request that God would help us to ‘hallow His name’ in our hearts.
“Oh Abba Father – I hallow so many things in my heart. Within my heart, I set apart and ascribe great value and adoration for __________________________. I repent. I turn from these things and turn to you. Please change my thinking. I no longer want to hallow these things, I want to hallow you! Grant me my greatest need, for you to be set apart as the prize and adoration of my heart. I want your name – your character, reputation, and ways - to be set apart, adored, valued, and desired above all else. I come to you with this need, this request. Change my heart Oh God. Hallow your name within my heart. Hallow your name within the hearts of all those who are praying to you, “Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Now that we’ve established the foundation of prayer, we’re ready to move into the ‘petitions’, or the ‘requests’, Jesus teaches us to make in prayer.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “Yes! Finally we get to the good stuff in prayer and can start asking for what we need!”.
You’re right – we get to start asking for what we need – what we truly need.
As we move past the foundation of prayer “Our Father in heaven”, and into the requests for our needs, we need to know that God wants to meet our needs! Jesus teaches about God’s desire to meet our needs immediately prior to introducing The Lord’s Prayer. We have needs, and since God is our Abba Father and we are His beloved, He wants to meet our needs! The last comment Jesus makes prior to teaching the Lord’s Prayer, is about our needs in Matthew 6:8, “your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!”.
Abba Father knows exactly what we need! The remainder of the Lord’s Prayer is Jesus teaching us not only how to ask for our needs, but perhaps most importantly, He’s teaching us what our needs truly are.
What do you think your needs are?
Reflect: “What is the need you ask for the most in prayer?”
Mine: forgiveness! I am always starting my prayers with “Lord, I blew it again, please forgive me”. Any other performance-oriented Christians relate to this prayer?
Reflect: “What do you think your most important need is?”
Mine: I need God to help me do what He’s called me to, because I so want to hear “well done good and faithful servant”. My idol of accomplishment loves prayer!
If I were to brainstorm what I think my greatest need is, I don’t think I would have listed what I believe Jesus points to as my greatest need.
Are you ready to have your perspective of prayer shaken again?
Here’s our greatest need and thus our first request: “Hallowed be your name” – Matthew 6:9
In the Bible, a name represents the character, identity, and reputation of a person. The name is a representation of the person. Remember the 3rd commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”? To take God’s name in vain is to tarnish its value, treat it flippantly, or give it a bad reputation. It’s the opposite of hallowing His name.
To "hallow" something is to treat it as sacred and holy and worthy of the highest honor and respect. It means that we take something and set it apart from everything else because it is special, valuable, adored, and unique to us.
My mom has China dishes she received as a wedding gift. These dishes are set apart in her home behind a glass display. She’s preserved them for nearly 60 years of marriage, still spotless, beautiful, and adored. They are uniquely special from all other dishes in her home, uniquely prized; they are hallowed.
Our greatest need, is that the character and reputation of our Abba Father, would be set apart as uniquely special, prized, and adored within the hearts of His beloved.
What would our life look like, if the character and purpose of God, was set apart as the highest desire, prize, and adoration of our heart?
That’s our greatest need, it’s our world’s greatest need, and it’s our first request: ‘hallowed be your name’.
I can’t pray this prayer, without praying against my own heart. My heart loves to ‘hallow’. There are so many things my heart hallows; so many things my heart sets apart, prizes and adores as its highest desire: reputation, recognition, comfort, security, accomplishments, family, pleasure. I fear that if my prayers were answered based on my understanding of my needs, it would be my name that is hallowed, not Our Father’s.
My heart has no problem hallowing; its designed and loves to hallow!
The greatest need of my heart, is for it to function as it was designed and hallow His name!
We were created for this. We were created and designed to adore, prize, and value our Abba Father far above everything else. Setting His name apart in our hearts as our greatest need, brings about our greatest fulfillment. We were created to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever, which is why the first request we pray, is “hallowed be your name”.
Today, let’s once again, repent, change our thinking, and request that God would help us to ‘hallow His name’ in our hearts.
“Oh Abba Father – I hallow so many things in my heart. Within my heart, I set apart and ascribe great value and adoration for __________________________. I repent. I turn from these things and turn to you. Please change my thinking. I no longer want to hallow these things, I want to hallow you! Grant me my greatest need, for you to be set apart as the prize and adoration of my heart. I want your name – your character, reputation, and ways - to be set apart, adored, valued, and desired above all else. I come to you with this need, this request. Change my heart Oh God. Hallow your name within my heart. Hallow your name within the hearts of all those who are praying to you, “Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
DAY EIGHT | JAN 13
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Yesterday we learned that we were designed by our Creator to have a heart that ‘hallows’. A heart designed by our Father to adore Him, love Him, prize Him, and set Him apart as our greatest desire. But we can walk outside of the purpose of God’s intended design when we hallow anything higher than His Name. When we hallow something above God, we’ve created an idol, and our hearts’ love to create idols; as Calvin says, it’s an idol factory!
“The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.” - John Calvin
Our heart just keeps elevating idols and setting them apart as our priority to adore, pursue, sacrifice for, and find pleasure in. We can’t help it, because this is what our heart was designed by God to do – to hallow! Yesterday we spent some time repenting of the things that we wrongly hallow, and my prayer for us is that the Holy Spirit identified some hallowed ‘idols’ in our hearts that needed to be torn down.
Our greatest need, is that our hearts fulfill the purpose they are designed for, to hallow the Name of Our Father. When we pray “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”, a personal application of this prayer is: “Oh Father, reveal to me the idols I am hallowing in my heart so that I might repent, change my thinking, tear them down and set apart your Name, your character, reputation and purpose, as chief amongst all other desires.”
After we have repented and turned from the idols that have been hallowed within our hearts, and we rightly hallow His name, the result is that we learn that not only is hallowing His Name our greatest need, it is also our greatest privilege.
Our greatest privilege: hallowing His Name as an act of worship to Our Father.
“Hallowed be your Name”: Our greatest need, and our greatest privilege!
As we pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”, let us consider that our greatest need and privilege is to have Our Father’s name set apart as the priority of our heart. As His name is hallowed in our heart, it will result in a life lived in worship to Our Father.
“Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of the conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose - - all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable, and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness, which is the source of our sin.” - William Temple Nature, Man and God.
We were created and designed for a purpose: to Hallow His Name.
Or as the Westminster Shorter Catechism states: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”
Our greatest need and privilege, is to fulfill the purpose that God designed us for. God designed another creature to hallow Him as well, but this one . . . has a very unique design.
In Revelation 4, John describes some unique creatures that are around the Throne of God. In verse 8, we read that one of the characteristics that God designed these creatures with is that they “are full of eyes”. What’s the purpose of being full of eyes? I think the answer to that question is found as we continue to read verse 8, because right after reading they are “full of eyes” we read that: “day and night they do not cease to say, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.’”
I think the lesson in this is that when we see God, we can’t help but being overwhelmed by His holiness, and the result is constant and continual worship as we hallow His Name.
As we pray “Our Father, hallowed be your name” today; let’s pray for spiritual eyes to be able to see Him so that we might never cease to live a life of worship. To help us hallow His Name, please find below several names from scripture that describe the character of our Father. Hallow His Name today by praying through these names.
Exalt Him, praise Him, thank Him, Hallow His Name as you pray through these.
Ask the Holy Spirit to fulfill your greatest need, that Our Father’s name would be hallowed in your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to fulfill your greatest privilege, that you would worship and Hallow His Name today.
Jehovah Jireh – The Lord, my Provider
Jehovah Rapha – The Lord who heals
Jehovah M’Kaddesh – The Lord who sanctifies
Jehovah Chereb – The Lord, my Sword
Jehovah Magen – The Lord, my Shield
Jehovah Shalom – The Lord, my Peace
Jehovah Kahbodi – The Lord, my Glory
Jehovah Chezeq – The Lord, my Strength
Jehovah Seli – The Lord, my Rock
Jehovah Hoshea – The Lord, my Savior
Jehovah Rohi – The Lord, my Shepherd
Jehovah Ori – The Lord, my Light
Jehovah Machsi – The Lord my Refuge
Jehovah Hamelech – The Lord, my King
Jehovah Bara – The Lord, my Creator
Jehovah Goel – The Lord, my Redeemer
Jehovah Tsidkenu – The Lord, my Righteousness
Jehovah Shammah – The Lord who is present
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Yesterday we learned that we were designed by our Creator to have a heart that ‘hallows’. A heart designed by our Father to adore Him, love Him, prize Him, and set Him apart as our greatest desire. But we can walk outside of the purpose of God’s intended design when we hallow anything higher than His Name. When we hallow something above God, we’ve created an idol, and our hearts’ love to create idols; as Calvin says, it’s an idol factory!
“The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.” - John Calvin
Our heart just keeps elevating idols and setting them apart as our priority to adore, pursue, sacrifice for, and find pleasure in. We can’t help it, because this is what our heart was designed by God to do – to hallow! Yesterday we spent some time repenting of the things that we wrongly hallow, and my prayer for us is that the Holy Spirit identified some hallowed ‘idols’ in our hearts that needed to be torn down.
Our greatest need, is that our hearts fulfill the purpose they are designed for, to hallow the Name of Our Father. When we pray “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”, a personal application of this prayer is: “Oh Father, reveal to me the idols I am hallowing in my heart so that I might repent, change my thinking, tear them down and set apart your Name, your character, reputation and purpose, as chief amongst all other desires.”
After we have repented and turned from the idols that have been hallowed within our hearts, and we rightly hallow His name, the result is that we learn that not only is hallowing His Name our greatest need, it is also our greatest privilege.
Our greatest privilege: hallowing His Name as an act of worship to Our Father.
“Hallowed be your Name”: Our greatest need, and our greatest privilege!
As we pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”, let us consider that our greatest need and privilege is to have Our Father’s name set apart as the priority of our heart. As His name is hallowed in our heart, it will result in a life lived in worship to Our Father.
“Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of the conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose - - all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable, and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness, which is the source of our sin.” - William Temple Nature, Man and God.
We were created and designed for a purpose: to Hallow His Name.
Or as the Westminster Shorter Catechism states: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”
Our greatest need and privilege, is to fulfill the purpose that God designed us for. God designed another creature to hallow Him as well, but this one . . . has a very unique design.
In Revelation 4, John describes some unique creatures that are around the Throne of God. In verse 8, we read that one of the characteristics that God designed these creatures with is that they “are full of eyes”. What’s the purpose of being full of eyes? I think the answer to that question is found as we continue to read verse 8, because right after reading they are “full of eyes” we read that: “day and night they do not cease to say, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.’”
I think the lesson in this is that when we see God, we can’t help but being overwhelmed by His holiness, and the result is constant and continual worship as we hallow His Name.
As we pray “Our Father, hallowed be your name” today; let’s pray for spiritual eyes to be able to see Him so that we might never cease to live a life of worship. To help us hallow His Name, please find below several names from scripture that describe the character of our Father. Hallow His Name today by praying through these names.
Exalt Him, praise Him, thank Him, Hallow His Name as you pray through these.
Ask the Holy Spirit to fulfill your greatest need, that Our Father’s name would be hallowed in your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to fulfill your greatest privilege, that you would worship and Hallow His Name today.
Jehovah Jireh – The Lord, my Provider
Jehovah Rapha – The Lord who heals
Jehovah M’Kaddesh – The Lord who sanctifies
Jehovah Chereb – The Lord, my Sword
Jehovah Magen – The Lord, my Shield
Jehovah Shalom – The Lord, my Peace
Jehovah Kahbodi – The Lord, my Glory
Jehovah Chezeq – The Lord, my Strength
Jehovah Seli – The Lord, my Rock
Jehovah Hoshea – The Lord, my Savior
Jehovah Rohi – The Lord, my Shepherd
Jehovah Ori – The Lord, my Light
Jehovah Machsi – The Lord my Refuge
Jehovah Hamelech – The Lord, my King
Jehovah Bara – The Lord, my Creator
Jehovah Goel – The Lord, my Redeemer
Jehovah Tsidkenu – The Lord, my Righteousness
Jehovah Shammah – The Lord who is present
DAY NINE | JAN 14
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
The Teacher in me wants to keep going and start writing about the next petition - - ‘cause it’s stinking amazing and I’m so excited to get into it! But I think the Spirit is stirring the Pastor in me to rest a bit longer in “Hallowed be your name”. I’m often guilty of teaching via firehose (yesterday another case in point), so let’s stay here one more day because there’s another word that is stirring in me that I want to pray about in ‘Hallowed be your name’.
“Hallowed be your name”:
As I’ve been praying through “Hallowed be your name” the last couple of days, I’ve seen how He’s using this prayer to shine a light on my greatest need and repent of the idols in my heart; He’s opening my eyes to see Our Father’s Name in a wondrous new light that motivates the privilege of His beloved to worship in renewed adoration; and He’s stirring a desire within my heart to see His Name hallowed in every area of my life.
God seems to have wired our hearts in such a way that our desires are transformed based on what we expose our heart to. Maybe that’s a principle based in how He designed us as the “Image of God”; whatever we present our hearts to, we desire to become an ‘image of’.
I’ve seen the negative effects within my heart when I:
What I present my heart to, I desire to become an image of.
What I give my attention to, shapes my affection.
Through prayer, I’m seeing the positive power of this principle.
As we present ourselves to Him in prayer, He will transform our hearts with a renewed desire to have the name of our Father be hallowed – and we will desire to look more like Him!
Hallowing His Name, hallows our heart!
As we present our heart to Him, He becomes the desire of our heart.
As we set our attention on Him, He becomes our affection.
I think a desire for ‘hallowed be your name’ needs to be stirred a bit more within our hearts before we move on to the other petitions.
We are going to see that the remainder of this prayer is simply a continuation of Our Father’s name being hallowed in our hearts, as every petition that follows should be connected with the sincere desire of: “Hallowed be your name”.
Why do I want His Kingdome come? I want His name hallowed!
Why do I want His will be done on earth and heaven? I want His name hallowed!
Why do I want Him to give us His provision? I want His name hallowed!
Why do I want the blessings of forgiveness? I want His name hallowed!
Why do I want to be free of sin and overcome the evil one? I want His name hallowed!
Why do I want to see His eternal kingdom, power, and glory? I want His name hallowed!
The power in these petitions is released when the cry of His beloved never cease to worship with hearts which passionately desire: “Hallowed be your name”!
Jesus is inviting us into more than simply spending some time in prayer. We are being invited into experiencing the transformative power of a people who pray with holy passionate desire: “Hallowed be your name”!
Jesus is about to teach us to pray bigger than I think any of us can imagine. He’s going to invite us to enter into world-changing prayer. So, before we do, let’s pause and have our hearts cleansed and filled with the holy desire which motivates the power of the coming petitions: “Hallowed be your name”.
Let’s spend another day focused on “Hallowed be your name”.
Spend your prayer time presenting yourself to Him in worship and reflection on His name.
It may be helpful to look again at yesterday’s devotion and:
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
The Teacher in me wants to keep going and start writing about the next petition - - ‘cause it’s stinking amazing and I’m so excited to get into it! But I think the Spirit is stirring the Pastor in me to rest a bit longer in “Hallowed be your name”. I’m often guilty of teaching via firehose (yesterday another case in point), so let’s stay here one more day because there’s another word that is stirring in me that I want to pray about in ‘Hallowed be your name’.
“Hallowed be your name”:
- Is our greatest need
- Is our greatest privilege
- Needs to be our greatest desire
As I’ve been praying through “Hallowed be your name” the last couple of days, I’ve seen how He’s using this prayer to shine a light on my greatest need and repent of the idols in my heart; He’s opening my eyes to see Our Father’s Name in a wondrous new light that motivates the privilege of His beloved to worship in renewed adoration; and He’s stirring a desire within my heart to see His Name hallowed in every area of my life.
God seems to have wired our hearts in such a way that our desires are transformed based on what we expose our heart to. Maybe that’s a principle based in how He designed us as the “Image of God”; whatever we present our hearts to, we desire to become an ‘image of’.
I’ve seen the negative effects within my heart when I:
- present myself to greed – my heart becomes greedy.
- present myself to lust – my heart becomes lustful.
- present myself to laziness – my heart becomes lazy.
What I present my heart to, I desire to become an image of.
What I give my attention to, shapes my affection.
Through prayer, I’m seeing the positive power of this principle.
As we present ourselves to Him in prayer, He will transform our hearts with a renewed desire to have the name of our Father be hallowed – and we will desire to look more like Him!
Hallowing His Name, hallows our heart!
As we present our heart to Him, He becomes the desire of our heart.
As we set our attention on Him, He becomes our affection.
I think a desire for ‘hallowed be your name’ needs to be stirred a bit more within our hearts before we move on to the other petitions.
We are going to see that the remainder of this prayer is simply a continuation of Our Father’s name being hallowed in our hearts, as every petition that follows should be connected with the sincere desire of: “Hallowed be your name”.
Why do I want His Kingdome come? I want His name hallowed!
Why do I want His will be done on earth and heaven? I want His name hallowed!
Why do I want Him to give us His provision? I want His name hallowed!
Why do I want the blessings of forgiveness? I want His name hallowed!
Why do I want to be free of sin and overcome the evil one? I want His name hallowed!
Why do I want to see His eternal kingdom, power, and glory? I want His name hallowed!
The power in these petitions is released when the cry of His beloved never cease to worship with hearts which passionately desire: “Hallowed be your name”!
Jesus is inviting us into more than simply spending some time in prayer. We are being invited into experiencing the transformative power of a people who pray with holy passionate desire: “Hallowed be your name”!
Jesus is about to teach us to pray bigger than I think any of us can imagine. He’s going to invite us to enter into world-changing prayer. So, before we do, let’s pause and have our hearts cleansed and filled with the holy desire which motivates the power of the coming petitions: “Hallowed be your name”.
Let’s spend another day focused on “Hallowed be your name”.
Spend your prayer time presenting yourself to Him in worship and reflection on His name.
It may be helpful to look again at yesterday’s devotion and:
- consider the definition of worship by William Temple, and prayerfully ask Him to help you worship in each area
- pray through the names of Jehovah and plant these truths in your heart
DAY TEN | JAN 15
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
What’s the biggest, grandest, most extraordinary prayer you’ve ever prayed?
I can’t say that I pray ‘big’, and certainly not ‘extraordinary’. It’s difficult for me to even remember any of my ‘biggest’ prayers because I pray them so infrequently. I’m sure I’ve prayed for “peace in the Middle East”, and “revival across America”. The ‘biggest’ prayer I’ve recently prayed would be for the wildfires to cease in L.A., and for the gospel to have an incredible opportunity in the midst of the loss.
But I don’t regularly pray for something ‘Big’! As I think about “why don’t I pray big prayers?”, I think it’s because I can only pray as big as my vision. I pray small, because my vision is small. I tend to limit my prayer life to the vision of the most important people in my life: me, myself, and I.
My prayer is trapped within the confines of my selfish vision.
No wonder I struggle in prayer.
But Jesus.
But Jesus comes along in this model of prayer and with each phrase, He continues to shake our perspective. With just three words, the shortest petition in all of The Lord’s Prayer, He breaks through the confines of our vision with a glorious light and invites us to pray His vision! Jesus prays the biggest, grandest, most extraordinary prayer imaginable!
“Your Kingdom Come!”
There’s our Jesus again, the ‘Teacher of Teachers’, teaching us to pray the biggest prayer possible …. with just 3 words! I love how He makes big prayers simple. I need that.
In three words, we have a petition with a vision so big I think only Jesus could envision it, and a prayer so big, only our Father in heaven can answer it!
Do you know what we’re praying for when we pray “Your Kingdom Come”?
We are praying:
For every earthly government to be crushed like powder under the dominion of King Jesus and a new government resting upon His shoulders.
For every spiritually dark throne, dominion, and power to be subjected under His feet.
For every unjust law to be abolished and His law go forth from the Throne of the Lord.
For every injustice to be righteously judged and every dispute settled in perfect justice.
For every lie and deceit to be eradicated by revealed truth.
For every sickness, disease and infirmity to be healed, and perfect health enjoyed.
For the cursed earth to be redeemed - no more famine, drought, nor natural disasters.
For the end of conflict, crime and war – His people live securely.
For a peace so pervasive that even the wolf lives with the lamb, and the child plays with the viper.
For a society and culture filled with peace, prosperity, creativity, labor, art, innovation, beauty, worship, fellowship, and joy.
For death and decay to be defeated, swallowed up by our King’s great victory.
This is just a glimpse of over 1,800 prophecies about the second coming of Jesus. This is the vision Jesus shares with us to set our hope on when He invites us to pray “Your Kingdom Come”.
I can’t imagine a bigger vision!
I can’t imagine a bigger prayer!
The biggest, grandest, most extraordinary prayer we can pray: will come to pass!
His Kingdom is coming!
I think that’s a really important point: this Kingdom is certain and coming. It’s incredible for me to consider that our participation with Jesus in this prayer plays a role in the coming of His Kingdom. I won’t speculate on how that works as I don’t think we can fully comprehend that on this side of the Kingdom, and I’m not so sure that’s the primary reason for this prayer.
Throughout the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus has been reshaping our perspective, changing the way we think, and once again, He wants us to gain a perspective far beyond the limits of our selfish vision.
I pray that we are experiencing a change of perspective in prayer. I pray that He’s kindling a desire and vision beyond the confines of our selfish vision, motivated by a holy desire where Our Father’s name being hallowed is more important than resolving all of the chaos, pain, injustice, darkness, and frustration we experience and see.
As we consider His Kingdom, and set the gaze of our soul upon ‘Your Kingdom Come’, I pray we’ll be strengthened with the sure expectation of His coming Kingdom as our confident hope.
I pray that “…we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” - Romans 8:18
May we seek first His Kingdom.
Today, let’s pray “Your Kingdom Come”.
I love to spend time reading the OT prophecies of His Kingdom. Here’s some of my favorites: Isaiah 11:6-10, 35:5-7, 65:21-25, Ezekiel 34:26-30, Daniel 7:13-14, Amos 9:13-15, Micah 4:1-4, Zechariah 8:3-8. If you need your vision expanded, I encourage you to mediate on these verses.
As we pray “Your Kingdom Come”, may our vision be expanded to see the hope of this glorious and certain future. May ‘Our Father in Heaven’ provide us with a daily renewal of endurance, strength, and purpose in the circumstances and conditions in which we struggle. May we be encouraged today as we set the desire of our soul upon the cry of His beloved: “Hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom Come.”
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
What’s the biggest, grandest, most extraordinary prayer you’ve ever prayed?
I can’t say that I pray ‘big’, and certainly not ‘extraordinary’. It’s difficult for me to even remember any of my ‘biggest’ prayers because I pray them so infrequently. I’m sure I’ve prayed for “peace in the Middle East”, and “revival across America”. The ‘biggest’ prayer I’ve recently prayed would be for the wildfires to cease in L.A., and for the gospel to have an incredible opportunity in the midst of the loss.
But I don’t regularly pray for something ‘Big’! As I think about “why don’t I pray big prayers?”, I think it’s because I can only pray as big as my vision. I pray small, because my vision is small. I tend to limit my prayer life to the vision of the most important people in my life: me, myself, and I.
My prayer is trapped within the confines of my selfish vision.
No wonder I struggle in prayer.
But Jesus.
But Jesus comes along in this model of prayer and with each phrase, He continues to shake our perspective. With just three words, the shortest petition in all of The Lord’s Prayer, He breaks through the confines of our vision with a glorious light and invites us to pray His vision! Jesus prays the biggest, grandest, most extraordinary prayer imaginable!
“Your Kingdom Come!”
There’s our Jesus again, the ‘Teacher of Teachers’, teaching us to pray the biggest prayer possible …. with just 3 words! I love how He makes big prayers simple. I need that.
In three words, we have a petition with a vision so big I think only Jesus could envision it, and a prayer so big, only our Father in heaven can answer it!
Do you know what we’re praying for when we pray “Your Kingdom Come”?
We are praying:
For every earthly government to be crushed like powder under the dominion of King Jesus and a new government resting upon His shoulders.
For every spiritually dark throne, dominion, and power to be subjected under His feet.
For every unjust law to be abolished and His law go forth from the Throne of the Lord.
For every injustice to be righteously judged and every dispute settled in perfect justice.
For every lie and deceit to be eradicated by revealed truth.
For every sickness, disease and infirmity to be healed, and perfect health enjoyed.
For the cursed earth to be redeemed - no more famine, drought, nor natural disasters.
For the end of conflict, crime and war – His people live securely.
For a peace so pervasive that even the wolf lives with the lamb, and the child plays with the viper.
For a society and culture filled with peace, prosperity, creativity, labor, art, innovation, beauty, worship, fellowship, and joy.
For death and decay to be defeated, swallowed up by our King’s great victory.
This is just a glimpse of over 1,800 prophecies about the second coming of Jesus. This is the vision Jesus shares with us to set our hope on when He invites us to pray “Your Kingdom Come”.
I can’t imagine a bigger vision!
I can’t imagine a bigger prayer!
The biggest, grandest, most extraordinary prayer we can pray: will come to pass!
His Kingdom is coming!
I think that’s a really important point: this Kingdom is certain and coming. It’s incredible for me to consider that our participation with Jesus in this prayer plays a role in the coming of His Kingdom. I won’t speculate on how that works as I don’t think we can fully comprehend that on this side of the Kingdom, and I’m not so sure that’s the primary reason for this prayer.
Throughout the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus has been reshaping our perspective, changing the way we think, and once again, He wants us to gain a perspective far beyond the limits of our selfish vision.
I pray that we are experiencing a change of perspective in prayer. I pray that He’s kindling a desire and vision beyond the confines of our selfish vision, motivated by a holy desire where Our Father’s name being hallowed is more important than resolving all of the chaos, pain, injustice, darkness, and frustration we experience and see.
As we consider His Kingdom, and set the gaze of our soul upon ‘Your Kingdom Come’, I pray we’ll be strengthened with the sure expectation of His coming Kingdom as our confident hope.
I pray that “…we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” - Romans 8:18
May we seek first His Kingdom.
Today, let’s pray “Your Kingdom Come”.
I love to spend time reading the OT prophecies of His Kingdom. Here’s some of my favorites: Isaiah 11:6-10, 35:5-7, 65:21-25, Ezekiel 34:26-30, Daniel 7:13-14, Amos 9:13-15, Micah 4:1-4, Zechariah 8:3-8. If you need your vision expanded, I encourage you to mediate on these verses.
As we pray “Your Kingdom Come”, may our vision be expanded to see the hope of this glorious and certain future. May ‘Our Father in Heaven’ provide us with a daily renewal of endurance, strength, and purpose in the circumstances and conditions in which we struggle. May we be encouraged today as we set the desire of our soul upon the cry of His beloved: “Hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom Come.”
DAY ELEVEN | JAN 16
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Let me give you fair warning: this prayer is about to get extremely difficult.
Especially on my favorite people.
To be honest with you: ‘I’ don’t like this next petition.
To be completely vulnerable, if it was up to ‘myself’, we’d skip the next petition.
There is nothing within ‘me’ that wants to continue on and pray this next petition.
But Jesus….knows exactly what ‘I’ need,
He keeps wooing ‘myself’ to continue,
He encourages ‘me’ to follow Him.….
to a cross.
In this prayer, Jesus has been changing ‘our’ thinking by teaching us:
And oh, how thankful we should be for these principles of prayer He’s taught us so far.
Because without them, without the tears already shed through praying these, without the shifted perspective in the way we pray, without the desire He is blooming within our hearts through prayer, we would have no ability to genuinely pray what He teaches us next:
Isn’t it just like our Jesus, to be so gracious and understanding that He dare not show ‘me’ what is coming, else ‘I’ will not follow. He knows the weakness of ‘myself’. Instead, Jesus invites “our”, and leads ‘us’ down a road of prayer …. that leads to a cross.
In hindsight, He warned this was coming from the first word when He didn’t invite my favorite people to join in this prayer journey: “Me”, “Myself”, and “I”. He just invited “Our”.
He knew the destination of His prayer.
He knew that ‘I’, ‘Me’, and ‘Myself’ would not have the will to follow Him to a cross.
“Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’” - Luke 9:23
Here we are, before a daily cross, in the form of a prayer: “Your will be done”.
We’ve always known there would be a cross.
But within the style of Christianity that best suits ‘me’, the cross just means there will be some inconveniences, (which ‘I’ will make sure everyone knows to pray for ‘me’ during) but mostly ‘I’ will experience gain for ‘myself’! After all, God has a wonderful plan for ‘me’! ‘I’ am sure of it!
He didn’t really mean that within this journey we must lose our favorite people: ‘me’, ‘myself’ and ‘I’ upon a cross….. did He?
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25
With all the scheming within ‘me’, ‘I’ have desperately tried to find a way to teach “Your will be Done”, without teaching the end of ‘myself’; but the Teacher of Teachers has left no room for ‘me’, ‘myself’ and ‘I’ within His prayer. Each phrase in this prayer has been leading to this.
The conclusion is clear, to continue in this prayer, means the cross for ‘me’, ‘myself’, and ‘I’.
It’s time to leave them here, upon this prayer, upon the cross of “Your will be done”.
But ‘I’ have no strength within ‘me’ to put ‘myself’ on this cross!
“What a wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:24-25a
What should we do to take up this cross?
Pray.
Prayerfully thank Jesus for this prayer journey.
Choose to trust Him that He has brought us to this cross because it is for our good.
Place our faith in Him and believe that if we were able to fully see as He sees, and know as He knows; we would eagerly and willingly pray for the cross of: “Your will be done”.
Perhaps why I have struggled so much to take up my cross and follow Him, is because I have struggled so much to pray.
So let’s pray.
“Oh thank you for this prayer dear Jesus. Thank you for the strength of your Holy Spirit within us. ‘Our Abba Father’, we are so thankful for your compassionate love for your Beloved. Thank you that you are ‘in heaven’, far above our perspective. Shape our vision to yours. We repent, we change our thinking to believe that our most important need is ‘hallowed be your name’. That in every area of our life we need your name hallowed, in every area of our life we want to see your name glorified, not ours. We set you apart as the priority of our life. We desire to see you high and lifted up, exalted above every name. We long for ‘your Kingdom come’, not ours. The Spirit and the Bride say “Come”. Thank you that you are coming soon! We desire to see ‘your will be done’. Begin with us! Before you change the world, change us. Give us the strength to lay our will down before you. That in every area of our life, may your Spirit strengthen us to take up our cross and follow you. Our Father, your will be done! We would not be able to put our will on your cross if we weren’t your Beloved, if you weren’t Our Abba Father. Change the desire of our heart to long for your name to be hallowed. Change the desire of our heart to long for your kingdom to come. And as you do, change our heart to submit our will, so that your will be done. Who will set us free from our will? Who will set us free from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Thank you Jesus for the cross. Strengthen us as we take up our cross today, as we follow you and say: ‘your will be done’. Amen.”
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Let me give you fair warning: this prayer is about to get extremely difficult.
Especially on my favorite people.
To be honest with you: ‘I’ don’t like this next petition.
To be completely vulnerable, if it was up to ‘myself’, we’d skip the next petition.
There is nothing within ‘me’ that wants to continue on and pray this next petition.
But Jesus….knows exactly what ‘I’ need,
He keeps wooing ‘myself’ to continue,
He encourages ‘me’ to follow Him.….
to a cross.
In this prayer, Jesus has been changing ‘our’ thinking by teaching us:
- The foundational relationship of our prayer: “Our Father in Heaven”
- The most important petition we can pray: “Hallowed be your name.”
- The biggest petition we can possibly pray: “Your Kingdome Come.”
And oh, how thankful we should be for these principles of prayer He’s taught us so far.
Because without them, without the tears already shed through praying these, without the shifted perspective in the way we pray, without the desire He is blooming within our hearts through prayer, we would have no ability to genuinely pray what He teaches us next:
- The most difficult petition for us to pray: “Your will be done.”
Isn’t it just like our Jesus, to be so gracious and understanding that He dare not show ‘me’ what is coming, else ‘I’ will not follow. He knows the weakness of ‘myself’. Instead, Jesus invites “our”, and leads ‘us’ down a road of prayer …. that leads to a cross.
In hindsight, He warned this was coming from the first word when He didn’t invite my favorite people to join in this prayer journey: “Me”, “Myself”, and “I”. He just invited “Our”.
He knew the destination of His prayer.
He knew that ‘I’, ‘Me’, and ‘Myself’ would not have the will to follow Him to a cross.
“Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’” - Luke 9:23
Here we are, before a daily cross, in the form of a prayer: “Your will be done”.
We’ve always known there would be a cross.
But within the style of Christianity that best suits ‘me’, the cross just means there will be some inconveniences, (which ‘I’ will make sure everyone knows to pray for ‘me’ during) but mostly ‘I’ will experience gain for ‘myself’! After all, God has a wonderful plan for ‘me’! ‘I’ am sure of it!
He didn’t really mean that within this journey we must lose our favorite people: ‘me’, ‘myself’ and ‘I’ upon a cross….. did He?
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25
With all the scheming within ‘me’, ‘I’ have desperately tried to find a way to teach “Your will be Done”, without teaching the end of ‘myself’; but the Teacher of Teachers has left no room for ‘me’, ‘myself’ and ‘I’ within His prayer. Each phrase in this prayer has been leading to this.
The conclusion is clear, to continue in this prayer, means the cross for ‘me’, ‘myself’, and ‘I’.
It’s time to leave them here, upon this prayer, upon the cross of “Your will be done”.
But ‘I’ have no strength within ‘me’ to put ‘myself’ on this cross!
“What a wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:24-25a
What should we do to take up this cross?
Pray.
Prayerfully thank Jesus for this prayer journey.
Choose to trust Him that He has brought us to this cross because it is for our good.
Place our faith in Him and believe that if we were able to fully see as He sees, and know as He knows; we would eagerly and willingly pray for the cross of: “Your will be done”.
Perhaps why I have struggled so much to take up my cross and follow Him, is because I have struggled so much to pray.
So let’s pray.
“Oh thank you for this prayer dear Jesus. Thank you for the strength of your Holy Spirit within us. ‘Our Abba Father’, we are so thankful for your compassionate love for your Beloved. Thank you that you are ‘in heaven’, far above our perspective. Shape our vision to yours. We repent, we change our thinking to believe that our most important need is ‘hallowed be your name’. That in every area of our life we need your name hallowed, in every area of our life we want to see your name glorified, not ours. We set you apart as the priority of our life. We desire to see you high and lifted up, exalted above every name. We long for ‘your Kingdom come’, not ours. The Spirit and the Bride say “Come”. Thank you that you are coming soon! We desire to see ‘your will be done’. Begin with us! Before you change the world, change us. Give us the strength to lay our will down before you. That in every area of our life, may your Spirit strengthen us to take up our cross and follow you. Our Father, your will be done! We would not be able to put our will on your cross if we weren’t your Beloved, if you weren’t Our Abba Father. Change the desire of our heart to long for your name to be hallowed. Change the desire of our heart to long for your kingdom to come. And as you do, change our heart to submit our will, so that your will be done. Who will set us free from our will? Who will set us free from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Thank you Jesus for the cross. Strengthen us as we take up our cross today, as we follow you and say: ‘your will be done’. Amen.”
DAY TWELVE | JAN 17
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Of all the gifts I thank Jesus for, perhaps my most often made praise is: “Thank you Jesus for taste buds!”. I often let Him know what an amazing job He did on my taste buds: “Outstanding Jesus, A+!”.
Yesterday my son decided to hold a worship session in the evening. He told me that tonight we’ll be worshipping Jesus because he’s going to prepare an offering of praise: ‘Milky Way Rice Krispie Bars’. For clarification, my son didn’t actually say any of those words, except for: ‘tonight, Milky Way Rice Krispie Bars’; but that’s what I heard.
These bars are an absolute praise Jesus worship session. Nothing like your ordinary ‘Rice Krispie Treats’; I’ve eaten enough of those to cry “vanity, vanity”. These are delectable bars with melted chocolate, caramel, and nougat perfectly blended into the rice krispies for just the right amount of ‘krisp’ in every holy bite. When it comes to these bars, I know the heart of my son, and if he says we’re going to worship tonight because his will is to bring milky way rice krispie bars to my kitchen; then I can bank on it, it’s coming! I was motivated by hunger all afternoon for the worship session to be held that evening. In the back of my mind (and from my innermost bowels), I hungered anxiously for the opportunity to praise Jesus for taste buds! Hunger for these bars enabled me to sacredly set aside space for the promise to come. Even if some of the kindest ladies in church were to stop by to tempt me with a pie (hint), my hunger for the bars would give me the self-control to boldly exclaim, ‘get thee behind me satan’ and choose to protect what I have devoted for the son’s coming promise!
Anyone relate?
There’s something powerful about hunger that motivates us for what’s to come.
Hunger has the power to change the way we think, behave, and make decisions.
What if we became spiritually hungry?
I mean really hungry! I think there’s even room for some spiritual “hangry”.
How would our life change if we became spiritually hungry?
Yesterday we prayed what has been called ‘the hardest petition’: “Your will be done”. I encouraged us to go through the Lord’s Prayer because we won’t be able to genuinely pray the hardest petition if we don’t have a firm foundation of our relationship with Abba Father, and we have to understand our greatest need is to have His name hallowed, and we need our desire kindled to cry out for the biggest petition we can pray, “Your Kingdome come”.
As I’ve spent time dwelling in these prayers, I’m getting hungry for the Son’s promise.
And the more I pray, the hungrier I get for the promise to come.
When I dedicate time communicating with our Father, and speaking to my soul that I am His beloved and His desire is for me, and meditating on His wondrous holy name, and dreaming of His kingdom to come – I get hungry! I’m motivated to put my favorite people on the cross of “Your will be done”, as I get hungry enough to recognize the ‘vanity, vanity’ they bring to the kitchen of my soul. I’m hungry for real food! True nourishment for my soul!
C.S. Lewis defined our real problem: it’s not that we’re hungry, it’s that we’re not hungry enough for what’s coming.
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Jesus wants us hungry. He wants us really hungry!
Instead of being ‘far too easily pleased’ with the daily vanity of me, myself, and I; what if we got really hungry by praying about what Jesus promises? He’s planning a worship session for our spiritual taste buds that we need to meditate on and pray over. As we do, it will cause our soul to long with hunger, and anxiously await His coming promise. He wants us eagerly awaiting the wedding feast to come with such a hunger we daily cry out in prayer because our hearts yearn with hunger for what He has promised!
He wants His church to be really, really, hungry.
What does a really, really hungry prayer look like?
I think it would look like prayer that isn’t satisfied with “your name be hallowed, your kingdom come, your will be done” – ‘in my life’. It wouldn’t be satisfied with it ‘in my home’, or even ‘in my church’. It wouldn’t even be satisfied with it: ‘in my community’. And hard enough as it is to believe for us American Christians, Jesus wants us so hungry that we aren’t even satisfied with it: ‘in our nation’. The hunger that Jesus is calling us to is a hunger that isn’t satisfied until Our Father’s name is hallowed and His Kingdom comes and His will is done in nothing less than “on earth as it is in heaven”.
The more we pray about it, the hungrier we’ll get for it.
What would a hungry church look like?
Let’s pray today and ask our Father to make us hungry - so hungry, we aren’t satisfied with anything less than “on earth as it is in heaven”.
“Oh Lord make us hungry. Make us sick and tired of the vain imaginations that pollute our soul with earthly desire. We’re tired of being so easily pleased with what this world offers; we hunger for your Kingdom! We desperately hunger for our Father’s name to be hallowed! Make us so hungry that we’re not satisfied with anything less than your name hallowed everywhere on earth, just as it is in heaven! So hungry that there’s nothing on this earth that can possibly satisfy our hunger; we want the promised coming Kingdom and we can’t help but anxiously cry out “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.”! We faithfully set apart our hearts for you, we take up our cross today as we pray you will grant us a hunger that is nothing less than ‘on earth as it is in heaven’.”
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Of all the gifts I thank Jesus for, perhaps my most often made praise is: “Thank you Jesus for taste buds!”. I often let Him know what an amazing job He did on my taste buds: “Outstanding Jesus, A+!”.
Yesterday my son decided to hold a worship session in the evening. He told me that tonight we’ll be worshipping Jesus because he’s going to prepare an offering of praise: ‘Milky Way Rice Krispie Bars’. For clarification, my son didn’t actually say any of those words, except for: ‘tonight, Milky Way Rice Krispie Bars’; but that’s what I heard.
These bars are an absolute praise Jesus worship session. Nothing like your ordinary ‘Rice Krispie Treats’; I’ve eaten enough of those to cry “vanity, vanity”. These are delectable bars with melted chocolate, caramel, and nougat perfectly blended into the rice krispies for just the right amount of ‘krisp’ in every holy bite. When it comes to these bars, I know the heart of my son, and if he says we’re going to worship tonight because his will is to bring milky way rice krispie bars to my kitchen; then I can bank on it, it’s coming! I was motivated by hunger all afternoon for the worship session to be held that evening. In the back of my mind (and from my innermost bowels), I hungered anxiously for the opportunity to praise Jesus for taste buds! Hunger for these bars enabled me to sacredly set aside space for the promise to come. Even if some of the kindest ladies in church were to stop by to tempt me with a pie (hint), my hunger for the bars would give me the self-control to boldly exclaim, ‘get thee behind me satan’ and choose to protect what I have devoted for the son’s coming promise!
Anyone relate?
There’s something powerful about hunger that motivates us for what’s to come.
Hunger has the power to change the way we think, behave, and make decisions.
What if we became spiritually hungry?
I mean really hungry! I think there’s even room for some spiritual “hangry”.
How would our life change if we became spiritually hungry?
Yesterday we prayed what has been called ‘the hardest petition’: “Your will be done”. I encouraged us to go through the Lord’s Prayer because we won’t be able to genuinely pray the hardest petition if we don’t have a firm foundation of our relationship with Abba Father, and we have to understand our greatest need is to have His name hallowed, and we need our desire kindled to cry out for the biggest petition we can pray, “Your Kingdome come”.
As I’ve spent time dwelling in these prayers, I’m getting hungry for the Son’s promise.
And the more I pray, the hungrier I get for the promise to come.
When I dedicate time communicating with our Father, and speaking to my soul that I am His beloved and His desire is for me, and meditating on His wondrous holy name, and dreaming of His kingdom to come – I get hungry! I’m motivated to put my favorite people on the cross of “Your will be done”, as I get hungry enough to recognize the ‘vanity, vanity’ they bring to the kitchen of my soul. I’m hungry for real food! True nourishment for my soul!
C.S. Lewis defined our real problem: it’s not that we’re hungry, it’s that we’re not hungry enough for what’s coming.
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Jesus wants us hungry. He wants us really hungry!
Instead of being ‘far too easily pleased’ with the daily vanity of me, myself, and I; what if we got really hungry by praying about what Jesus promises? He’s planning a worship session for our spiritual taste buds that we need to meditate on and pray over. As we do, it will cause our soul to long with hunger, and anxiously await His coming promise. He wants us eagerly awaiting the wedding feast to come with such a hunger we daily cry out in prayer because our hearts yearn with hunger for what He has promised!
He wants His church to be really, really, hungry.
What does a really, really hungry prayer look like?
I think it would look like prayer that isn’t satisfied with “your name be hallowed, your kingdom come, your will be done” – ‘in my life’. It wouldn’t be satisfied with it ‘in my home’, or even ‘in my church’. It wouldn’t even be satisfied with it: ‘in my community’. And hard enough as it is to believe for us American Christians, Jesus wants us so hungry that we aren’t even satisfied with it: ‘in our nation’. The hunger that Jesus is calling us to is a hunger that isn’t satisfied until Our Father’s name is hallowed and His Kingdom comes and His will is done in nothing less than “on earth as it is in heaven”.
The more we pray about it, the hungrier we’ll get for it.
What would a hungry church look like?
Let’s pray today and ask our Father to make us hungry - so hungry, we aren’t satisfied with anything less than “on earth as it is in heaven”.
“Oh Lord make us hungry. Make us sick and tired of the vain imaginations that pollute our soul with earthly desire. We’re tired of being so easily pleased with what this world offers; we hunger for your Kingdom! We desperately hunger for our Father’s name to be hallowed! Make us so hungry that we’re not satisfied with anything less than your name hallowed everywhere on earth, just as it is in heaven! So hungry that there’s nothing on this earth that can possibly satisfy our hunger; we want the promised coming Kingdom and we can’t help but anxiously cry out “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.”! We faithfully set apart our hearts for you, we take up our cross today as we pray you will grant us a hunger that is nothing less than ‘on earth as it is in heaven’.”
DAY THIRTEEN | JAN 18
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
We’re at a transition point in the Lord’s Prayer. The petitions that we’ve read so far use the word “Your” in them. The remainder use the words “our”, “us”, and “we”.
The petitions are about to get personal, and for me, I’d much rather stay right here and keep the prayers at “Your”.
Why?
Because of verses like this one:
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” - Mark 11:24
Typically, I don’t like personal petitions because I know it requires something of me that I don’t believe I have according to the verse above: faith. I don’t like personal petitions because I struggle with believing that God is actually going to answer my prayers. I think that because I have asked for things before and have not received it, the reason must be that I don’t have enough faith. And since I know I struggle with faith, I know it’s my fault God doesn’t answer my prayers. And since I don’t have enough faith that He’s going to answer my prayers…. why pray?
Just me again? Anyone? Bueller?
I do realize many of my prayers have not been answered because I have asked for things that are not aligned with God’s will - - like the blue ’68 Mustang convertible with a white top I diligently prayed and fasted for when I was 16. (Still asking for it in the Millennial Kingdom though Jesus)
As I’m praying The Lord’s Prayer, I’m noticing something He’s doing in my heart: He’s building a new faith.
I think I’ve been doing it backwards! (Another one for the list my wife keeps)
I thought I needed to believe before I could start praying, but now I’m realizing:
I need to pray, so I’ll start believing.
I’m thinking of it like this: Jesus is the coach and we’re the Quarterback. Since He knows how nervous we are at being beginner prayers, He’s starting us off in the prayer playbook with a couple easy pass plays to get our confidence up, and then He plans to open up the playbook once our confidence is built. So how did He build our confidence? With “Your” prayers.
Since the first 3 petitions are all about “Your”, we can be totally on board believing that He is going to:
1. Hallow His Name in the earth!
“I will show my greatness and holiness, and I will make myself known to all the nations of the world. Then they will know that I am the LORD.” Ezekiel 38:23
2. Bring His Kingdom to the earth!
“…the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.” Daniel 2:44
3. Bring about His Will on the earth!
“The LORD of Heaven’s Armies has spoken— who can change his plans? When his hand is raised, who can stop him?” Isaiah 14:27
We have just prayed these huge petitions, that only God could possibly do – Hallow Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done. And the more we pray them, the more faith He places in us that He’s going to answer these prayers! God is absolutely going to answer these unbelievable, God-sized prayers! We believe that, we stake our life on that, it encourages and pushes us to chase Him, it helps us endure through tough times, and it’s our sure and confident hope for the future. We believe Our Father is going to accomplish these incredible God-sized prayers! He’s given us amazing confidence-building prayers to get us started; Yay Coach Jesus!
If He’s built our faith to pray that He’s going to do the first petitions, then why would we struggle in our faith with whether or not He will do the remaining petitions?
Jesus started us with petitions that we can absolutely have confident faith in, some easy pass plays to build our confidence with for the prayer play book He’s about to step us into.
He’s teaching us what faithful prayer is like as He’s enabling us to faithfully pray and believe:
We will pray as faithfully in the ‘our’ and ‘us’ petitions, as we did in the ‘Your‘ petitions!
I’m excited about praying the remaining petitions with you. I’m praying for a newly formed faith in all of us. But before we begin – let’s do a faith check. Let’s once again ground our hearts in faith in what He will do in the first three petitions.
Today, let’s pray again over the three ‘Your’ petitions:
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
We’re at a transition point in the Lord’s Prayer. The petitions that we’ve read so far use the word “Your” in them. The remainder use the words “our”, “us”, and “we”.
The petitions are about to get personal, and for me, I’d much rather stay right here and keep the prayers at “Your”.
Why?
Because of verses like this one:
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” - Mark 11:24
Typically, I don’t like personal petitions because I know it requires something of me that I don’t believe I have according to the verse above: faith. I don’t like personal petitions because I struggle with believing that God is actually going to answer my prayers. I think that because I have asked for things before and have not received it, the reason must be that I don’t have enough faith. And since I know I struggle with faith, I know it’s my fault God doesn’t answer my prayers. And since I don’t have enough faith that He’s going to answer my prayers…. why pray?
Just me again? Anyone? Bueller?
I do realize many of my prayers have not been answered because I have asked for things that are not aligned with God’s will - - like the blue ’68 Mustang convertible with a white top I diligently prayed and fasted for when I was 16. (Still asking for it in the Millennial Kingdom though Jesus)
As I’m praying The Lord’s Prayer, I’m noticing something He’s doing in my heart: He’s building a new faith.
I think I’ve been doing it backwards! (Another one for the list my wife keeps)
I thought I needed to believe before I could start praying, but now I’m realizing:
I need to pray, so I’ll start believing.
I’m thinking of it like this: Jesus is the coach and we’re the Quarterback. Since He knows how nervous we are at being beginner prayers, He’s starting us off in the prayer playbook with a couple easy pass plays to get our confidence up, and then He plans to open up the playbook once our confidence is built. So how did He build our confidence? With “Your” prayers.
Since the first 3 petitions are all about “Your”, we can be totally on board believing that He is going to:
1. Hallow His Name in the earth!
“I will show my greatness and holiness, and I will make myself known to all the nations of the world. Then they will know that I am the LORD.” Ezekiel 38:23
2. Bring His Kingdom to the earth!
“…the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.” Daniel 2:44
3. Bring about His Will on the earth!
“The LORD of Heaven’s Armies has spoken— who can change his plans? When his hand is raised, who can stop him?” Isaiah 14:27
We have just prayed these huge petitions, that only God could possibly do – Hallow Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done. And the more we pray them, the more faith He places in us that He’s going to answer these prayers! God is absolutely going to answer these unbelievable, God-sized prayers! We believe that, we stake our life on that, it encourages and pushes us to chase Him, it helps us endure through tough times, and it’s our sure and confident hope for the future. We believe Our Father is going to accomplish these incredible God-sized prayers! He’s given us amazing confidence-building prayers to get us started; Yay Coach Jesus!
If He’s built our faith to pray that He’s going to do the first petitions, then why would we struggle in our faith with whether or not He will do the remaining petitions?
Jesus started us with petitions that we can absolutely have confident faith in, some easy pass plays to build our confidence with for the prayer play book He’s about to step us into.
He’s teaching us what faithful prayer is like as He’s enabling us to faithfully pray and believe:
- He is going to Hallow His Name!
- He is going to bring His Kingdom!
- He will accomplish His Will!
- He is going to take care of our daily needs!
- He is going to forgive us!
- He is going to help us forgive and heal!
- He will bring us escape in temptation!
- He will deliver us from the evil one!
We will pray as faithfully in the ‘our’ and ‘us’ petitions, as we did in the ‘Your‘ petitions!
I’m excited about praying the remaining petitions with you. I’m praying for a newly formed faith in all of us. But before we begin – let’s do a faith check. Let’s once again ground our hearts in faith in what He will do in the first three petitions.
Today, let’s pray again over the three ‘Your’ petitions:
- Hallowed be Your name….. On earth as it is in heaven.
- Your kingdom come…. On earth as it is in heaven.
- Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.
DAY FOURTEEN | JAN 19
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
I have a mental picture of the Lord’s Prayer I want to share with you.
Think about being in a crystal-clear pool of water that is fed by a huge waterfall in front of you. Picture the waterfall in your mind as you look up and see the water flowing over the rocks high above you, and watch the water as it falls and crashes into your pool. Can you see it, hear it? (This is a bit weird for us left brain people, but go with it). Now, look behind you and watch how the water flows out of the pool into a river that flows through a valley. Can you see the whole picture connected together: the waterfall, the pool, the river through the valley? This is important. Got it?
This is how I’m picturing the Lord’s Prayer.
We just came through the water fall portion of the Lord’s Prayer. We corporately looked up to Our Father in heaven, and we prayed the “Your” petitions: Hallowed be Your Name, Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be done. Yesterday as we prayed those petitions together, we opened the floodgates of that waterfall as wide as our collective faith is capable, and we poured out the waterfall of His Hallowed Name, Kingdom, and Will down into the pool that we are in.
The pool at the bottom of the waterfall is His church, the “Our”. The more that the “Our” of His church corporately prays these petitions, the wider the floodgates of our faith will open and continue to crash down the waters of His Hallowed Name, Kingdom, and Will into His church below. The pool is His church, consisting of our hearts and our homes. But the blessing of these waters can’t be held just to a pool, His waterfall is too vast. The waters flow out of the pool and into the valley.
The valley is our neighborhood, our community, our state, our nation; it consists of all that is “on earth”. There should be a river flowing out of the pool of our church and into the valley of our community. The size of this river, is dependent upon how wide the floodgates of heaven’s waters are opened. The “Our”, must corporately open the floodgates of heaven through prayer. Without our prayer, there’s little water in our pool, and nothing for our valley. We must be diligently praying for the floodgates of heaven to be opened like a waterfall which crashes into our church, and overflows into a river, to our valley.
Today we take a new perspective of the Lord’s Prayer as we shift our gaze from looking up and praying for the waterfall, to now looking to the pool and out to the valley. Today we begin to pray for the waters to flow through the pool of our hearts, our homes and our church, into a river flowing through the valley of our neighborhood, our community, our states, and throughout our earth.
As we turn the perspective of our prayer to look to the river that flows from the pool of His church and into the valley, we can’t forget that the entirety of this prayer is dependent upon the waters falling from heaven. If no waters fall, there is no pool, and no river for the valley.
These petitions are not independent, they are interdependent.
If we want to see the rivers of:
As we pray, let’s posture our hearts into three postures for prayer:
1. Confident Faith
Yesterday we focused on this heart posture. God is absolutely going to provide each of these petitions. These are the requests Jesus told us to pray for, and we faithfully pray them because we confidently know He is Our Abba Father, we are His Beloved, and He is going to accomplish these petitions. With the same confident faith we hold when we pray that His Kingdom is going to come, so too we faithfully pray with confidence that He is going to provide, pardon, and protect!
2. Humble Dependence
We have no ability to bring about any of these petitions. We are just as dependent upon Our Father to Hallow His Name on the earth, as we are that He will provide for our daily needs. In each of these petitions we humble ourselves and confess our absolute dependency upon Our Father, especially to provide, pardon, and protect. We must humble ourselves and realize we are completely dependent upon Him to accomplish each of these petitions in our hearts, in our homes, in our community, and on the earth.
3. Thankful Adoration
It is only because He is Our Abba Father and He has made us His Beloved, that we would ever be able to enjoy the blessings of these petitions. Thank Him and Adore Him for each and every petition. As you prayerfully consider the blessed waters He pours from heaven upon us, and the wondrous provision, pardon, and protection He provides: Worship Him with Thankful Adoration for each and every petition. With thanksgiving, adore Our Father in heaven.
As we pray today, begin by setting the gaze of your soul to look up and pray for His waters to crash upon His church; then pray these waters would flow as a river of provision, pardon, and protection as you set your gaze upon His church and our valley. Pray the three postures of your heart over each petition. Remember, it’s not just you praying, all throughout the world His church is gathering to pray. Go open a floodgate with “Our”!
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
I have a mental picture of the Lord’s Prayer I want to share with you.
Think about being in a crystal-clear pool of water that is fed by a huge waterfall in front of you. Picture the waterfall in your mind as you look up and see the water flowing over the rocks high above you, and watch the water as it falls and crashes into your pool. Can you see it, hear it? (This is a bit weird for us left brain people, but go with it). Now, look behind you and watch how the water flows out of the pool into a river that flows through a valley. Can you see the whole picture connected together: the waterfall, the pool, the river through the valley? This is important. Got it?
This is how I’m picturing the Lord’s Prayer.
We just came through the water fall portion of the Lord’s Prayer. We corporately looked up to Our Father in heaven, and we prayed the “Your” petitions: Hallowed be Your Name, Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be done. Yesterday as we prayed those petitions together, we opened the floodgates of that waterfall as wide as our collective faith is capable, and we poured out the waterfall of His Hallowed Name, Kingdom, and Will down into the pool that we are in.
The pool at the bottom of the waterfall is His church, the “Our”. The more that the “Our” of His church corporately prays these petitions, the wider the floodgates of our faith will open and continue to crash down the waters of His Hallowed Name, Kingdom, and Will into His church below. The pool is His church, consisting of our hearts and our homes. But the blessing of these waters can’t be held just to a pool, His waterfall is too vast. The waters flow out of the pool and into the valley.
The valley is our neighborhood, our community, our state, our nation; it consists of all that is “on earth”. There should be a river flowing out of the pool of our church and into the valley of our community. The size of this river, is dependent upon how wide the floodgates of heaven’s waters are opened. The “Our”, must corporately open the floodgates of heaven through prayer. Without our prayer, there’s little water in our pool, and nothing for our valley. We must be diligently praying for the floodgates of heaven to be opened like a waterfall which crashes into our church, and overflows into a river, to our valley.
Today we take a new perspective of the Lord’s Prayer as we shift our gaze from looking up and praying for the waterfall, to now looking to the pool and out to the valley. Today we begin to pray for the waters to flow through the pool of our hearts, our homes and our church, into a river flowing through the valley of our neighborhood, our community, our states, and throughout our earth.
As we turn the perspective of our prayer to look to the river that flows from the pool of His church and into the valley, we can’t forget that the entirety of this prayer is dependent upon the waters falling from heaven. If no waters fall, there is no pool, and no river for the valley.
These petitions are not independent, they are interdependent.
If we want to see the rivers of:
- Provision: for the present needs of our body – bread
- Pardon: for the past sins of our soul – forgiveness received and given
- Protection: for the future trials of our spirit – temptation and evil
- His hallowed Name
- His Kingdom Come
- His will be done
As we pray, let’s posture our hearts into three postures for prayer:
1. Confident Faith
Yesterday we focused on this heart posture. God is absolutely going to provide each of these petitions. These are the requests Jesus told us to pray for, and we faithfully pray them because we confidently know He is Our Abba Father, we are His Beloved, and He is going to accomplish these petitions. With the same confident faith we hold when we pray that His Kingdom is going to come, so too we faithfully pray with confidence that He is going to provide, pardon, and protect!
2. Humble Dependence
We have no ability to bring about any of these petitions. We are just as dependent upon Our Father to Hallow His Name on the earth, as we are that He will provide for our daily needs. In each of these petitions we humble ourselves and confess our absolute dependency upon Our Father, especially to provide, pardon, and protect. We must humble ourselves and realize we are completely dependent upon Him to accomplish each of these petitions in our hearts, in our homes, in our community, and on the earth.
3. Thankful Adoration
It is only because He is Our Abba Father and He has made us His Beloved, that we would ever be able to enjoy the blessings of these petitions. Thank Him and Adore Him for each and every petition. As you prayerfully consider the blessed waters He pours from heaven upon us, and the wondrous provision, pardon, and protection He provides: Worship Him with Thankful Adoration for each and every petition. With thanksgiving, adore Our Father in heaven.
As we pray today, begin by setting the gaze of your soul to look up and pray for His waters to crash upon His church; then pray these waters would flow as a river of provision, pardon, and protection as you set your gaze upon His church and our valley. Pray the three postures of your heart over each petition. Remember, it’s not just you praying, all throughout the world His church is gathering to pray. Go open a floodgate with “Our”!
DAY FIFTEEN | JAN 20
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“Give us this day our daily bread”.
As we pray this petition, let’s make sure we remember yesterday’s waterfall because these petitions are connected! Our confidence in this petition comes from the first petitions we’ve already prayed. Jesus teaches us this principle in Matthew 6:33: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
We’ve already set our hearts on His Kingdom as we prayed “Your Kingdom Come”; and we’ve prayed for His righteousness in “Hallowed be Your Name” and “Your Will Be done”. It’s only because we’ve prayed and applied those waterfall petitions, that we’re ready to pray this petition as we pray into the valley.
Let’s pray through this petition, one bite at a time.
“Give”
Isn’t it wonderful that the first word of our prayer journey into the valley is “Give”! I love that!
Our Father is a caring, generous Father, and our first prayer for the valley is that He will bring provision. Let’s remember our 3 postures of prayer as we begin this petition and remember that when it comes to Our Father “giving”, we can have:
1. Confident Faith that He will give
2. Humble Dependency upon Him giving
3. Thankful Adoration for His giving.
“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” – Matthew 7:11
“Bread”
“What does ‘Daily Bread’ mean? Everything that nourishes our body and meets its needs, such as: food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, yard, fields, cattle, money, possessions, a devout spouse, devout children, devout employees, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors and other things like these.” - Martin Luther, Small Catechism
What’s ‘Bread’? Whatever we need.
Not our greed, our need.
Not our comforts, pleasures, wants, nor wishes; our needs.
There are several things in Luther’s list that we absolutely need: food, drink, and clothing for example. But there are also things there we may not need, but think we need: possessions, good weather, and peace for example.
This prayer invites us to daily bring whatever it is we think we need to ‘Our Father’ and ask Him to give it to us. We are to faithfully pray and apply the waterfall of the first three petitions: Hallowing His Name in every area of our life, seeking His Kingdom Come and our kingdom go, and crucifying ‘myself’ to His will be done.
If we rest in the three heart postures of prayer: ‘Confident Faith’ that He is going meet our needs, ‘Humble Dependency’ upon Him as we labor, and ‘Thankful Adoration’ for the needs He provides, we come to understand:
Whatever we did not receive today, is not our need today.
It may be our need tomorrow, so we’ll pray it again tomorrow with the same heart posture, then peacefully rejoice in whatever Our Father gives.
We are praying for our needs, not our greeds, and that requires contentment. He is our Abba Father, and we trust that whatever He gives us is for our good, so we choose to be content with how and when He gives us our needs.
“….give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” - Proverbs 30:8-9
“Us” and “Our”
Carefully look at what we are praying: “Give us …. our”.
This is not a prayer for ‘me’, ‘myself’, and ‘I’, we left them on the cross of “your will be done”.
This is an intercessory prayer for a group of people to which we belong: “us” and “our”.
Jesus does not invite me to pray for me alone. This is a prayer I pray corporately for us, as we are all provided for by Our Father.
And something else to notice: we all eat from the same table! The phrase is “give us our”! This prayer recognizes that what the Father gives, He gives to all of us. It invites us to look at the valley, see the needs around us, and imitate our Father and give. I have to consider that whatever provision I have been given is provided for not just “me and mine”, but as a means to provide for “our”!
This petition calls me to pray for others, and challenges me to provide for others.
“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” – James 2:15-16
“this day” and “daily”
When we pray this prayer, how much provision are we asking for?
Just enough for today!
That’s crazy to me. I never ask for enough for just today, I’m asking for at least “monthly”, and I’d really like at least 20 years of bread in my 401K. This prayer challenges the posture of my heart in several areas: Do I genuinely believe He’s going to faithfully provide day, after day, after day? Do I realize that I am absolutely dependent upon Him to provide? Do I experience peace knowing He will provide, or am I worrying about what I can provide?
This petition challenges our spiritual maturity as it invites us to simply pray that we’ll have enough for today, and be at peace with that. If He gives us more than today’s needs, be looking to give to others in the valley. Tomorrow, we’ll do this again! Daily praying for Our Father to provide for just today’s needs, grows our faith, peace, dependency, thankfulness and contentment.
Let’s not confuse this as a definition of God’s plan for financial stewardship; that’s another topic. This prayer establishes the perspective of the heart of good stewards. As stewards, we are to financially plan for tomorrow, but we are not to financially worry for tomorrow! A good section of scripture for dealing with worry and trusting Our Father for provision is Matthew 6:25-34.
A final thought on this prayer. An opportunity I had to see the power of this prayer was on a mission trip to South Africa. I was incredibly impressed with the spiritual maturity of our Brothers and Sisters there. Their depth of knowledge of the Word, their commitment to God, their fervent prayers, and the intimate relationship they held with our Father blew me away. As I considered the difference in spiritual maturity of the church in South Africa versus the United States, I realized that these Believers have the blessing of something which plays a huge role in their spiritual growth which we don’t have. Do you know the blessing they have that we don’t? The blessing of ‘nothing’. They have ‘nothing’, and as a result, they know what it is to pray “Give us this day our daily bread”.
They know the faithfulness of Our Father who daily provides for them; they know the joyful experience of seeing Our Father provide in ways they didn’t imagine; they know the contentment of daily bread; they generously give when they have more than enough; they have peace about tomorrow. They have seen His faithfulness, day, after day, after day.
Let’s grow with them, as we join them and other brothers and sisters around the world as we corporately pray: “Give us this day our daily bread”.
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“Give us this day our daily bread”.
As we pray this petition, let’s make sure we remember yesterday’s waterfall because these petitions are connected! Our confidence in this petition comes from the first petitions we’ve already prayed. Jesus teaches us this principle in Matthew 6:33: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
We’ve already set our hearts on His Kingdom as we prayed “Your Kingdom Come”; and we’ve prayed for His righteousness in “Hallowed be Your Name” and “Your Will Be done”. It’s only because we’ve prayed and applied those waterfall petitions, that we’re ready to pray this petition as we pray into the valley.
Let’s pray through this petition, one bite at a time.
“Give”
Isn’t it wonderful that the first word of our prayer journey into the valley is “Give”! I love that!
Our Father is a caring, generous Father, and our first prayer for the valley is that He will bring provision. Let’s remember our 3 postures of prayer as we begin this petition and remember that when it comes to Our Father “giving”, we can have:
1. Confident Faith that He will give
2. Humble Dependency upon Him giving
3. Thankful Adoration for His giving.
“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” – Matthew 7:11
“Bread”
“What does ‘Daily Bread’ mean? Everything that nourishes our body and meets its needs, such as: food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, yard, fields, cattle, money, possessions, a devout spouse, devout children, devout employees, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors and other things like these.” - Martin Luther, Small Catechism
What’s ‘Bread’? Whatever we need.
Not our greed, our need.
Not our comforts, pleasures, wants, nor wishes; our needs.
There are several things in Luther’s list that we absolutely need: food, drink, and clothing for example. But there are also things there we may not need, but think we need: possessions, good weather, and peace for example.
This prayer invites us to daily bring whatever it is we think we need to ‘Our Father’ and ask Him to give it to us. We are to faithfully pray and apply the waterfall of the first three petitions: Hallowing His Name in every area of our life, seeking His Kingdom Come and our kingdom go, and crucifying ‘myself’ to His will be done.
If we rest in the three heart postures of prayer: ‘Confident Faith’ that He is going meet our needs, ‘Humble Dependency’ upon Him as we labor, and ‘Thankful Adoration’ for the needs He provides, we come to understand:
Whatever we did not receive today, is not our need today.
It may be our need tomorrow, so we’ll pray it again tomorrow with the same heart posture, then peacefully rejoice in whatever Our Father gives.
We are praying for our needs, not our greeds, and that requires contentment. He is our Abba Father, and we trust that whatever He gives us is for our good, so we choose to be content with how and when He gives us our needs.
“….give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” - Proverbs 30:8-9
“Us” and “Our”
Carefully look at what we are praying: “Give us …. our”.
This is not a prayer for ‘me’, ‘myself’, and ‘I’, we left them on the cross of “your will be done”.
This is an intercessory prayer for a group of people to which we belong: “us” and “our”.
Jesus does not invite me to pray for me alone. This is a prayer I pray corporately for us, as we are all provided for by Our Father.
And something else to notice: we all eat from the same table! The phrase is “give us our”! This prayer recognizes that what the Father gives, He gives to all of us. It invites us to look at the valley, see the needs around us, and imitate our Father and give. I have to consider that whatever provision I have been given is provided for not just “me and mine”, but as a means to provide for “our”!
This petition calls me to pray for others, and challenges me to provide for others.
“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” – James 2:15-16
“this day” and “daily”
When we pray this prayer, how much provision are we asking for?
Just enough for today!
That’s crazy to me. I never ask for enough for just today, I’m asking for at least “monthly”, and I’d really like at least 20 years of bread in my 401K. This prayer challenges the posture of my heart in several areas: Do I genuinely believe He’s going to faithfully provide day, after day, after day? Do I realize that I am absolutely dependent upon Him to provide? Do I experience peace knowing He will provide, or am I worrying about what I can provide?
This petition challenges our spiritual maturity as it invites us to simply pray that we’ll have enough for today, and be at peace with that. If He gives us more than today’s needs, be looking to give to others in the valley. Tomorrow, we’ll do this again! Daily praying for Our Father to provide for just today’s needs, grows our faith, peace, dependency, thankfulness and contentment.
Let’s not confuse this as a definition of God’s plan for financial stewardship; that’s another topic. This prayer establishes the perspective of the heart of good stewards. As stewards, we are to financially plan for tomorrow, but we are not to financially worry for tomorrow! A good section of scripture for dealing with worry and trusting Our Father for provision is Matthew 6:25-34.
A final thought on this prayer. An opportunity I had to see the power of this prayer was on a mission trip to South Africa. I was incredibly impressed with the spiritual maturity of our Brothers and Sisters there. Their depth of knowledge of the Word, their commitment to God, their fervent prayers, and the intimate relationship they held with our Father blew me away. As I considered the difference in spiritual maturity of the church in South Africa versus the United States, I realized that these Believers have the blessing of something which plays a huge role in their spiritual growth which we don’t have. Do you know the blessing they have that we don’t? The blessing of ‘nothing’. They have ‘nothing’, and as a result, they know what it is to pray “Give us this day our daily bread”.
They know the faithfulness of Our Father who daily provides for them; they know the joyful experience of seeing Our Father provide in ways they didn’t imagine; they know the contentment of daily bread; they generously give when they have more than enough; they have peace about tomorrow. They have seen His faithfulness, day, after day, after day.
Let’s grow with them, as we join them and other brothers and sisters around the world as we corporately pray: “Give us this day our daily bread”.
DAY SIXTEEN | JAN 21
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
On Day 7 I asked: “What is the need you ask for the most in prayer?”
My answer was: “Forgiveness! I am always starting my prayers with ‘Lord, I blew it again, please forgive me’”.
On day 16 of this prayer journey, we arrive at the petition that most typifies how my prayer life begins: “Forgive me!”. I’m appreciative of this slow journey through the Lord’s Prayer as I’m going to commit to never start my pattern of prayer with that petition again.
Today we’ll pray the first half of this petition: “And forgive us our debts,”.
Notice that this petition begins with “And”. This links it to the previous petition where Jesus taught us that bread is a daily need for our body which we must depend upon God for. Similarly, Jesus instructs us that forgiveness is a daily need for our soul that we must depend upon God for.
What we need every day is forgiveness, not justification as that occurred at the moment of salvation. Our justification is eternal, God is our Abba Father and we are His Beloved, and that relationship will not end. If sin could cause us to lose our salvation, we would lose our salvation. By grace alone our spirits have been made holy and acceptable so that we can boldly pray “Our Father”.
Then why do we need to pray daily for forgiveness?
I think the answer is one Martin Luther gave: we are simultaneously holy and sinful.
Though our spirit has been redeemed and made holy, we still have a sinful flesh nature. The redemption of our flesh will not occur until the resurrection. Until then, the war between our natures is on! This war is what scripture calls “sanctification”. This war is the subject Paul discusses in Romans 6-8 between our spirit nature (which is holy), and our flesh nature (which is sinful).
In this war we face a barrage of traps, or temptations to sin, which we either escape, or we step into. We escape temptations through the Holy Spirit’s strength which grows us in our spiritual maturity. We step into traps of temptation due to our flesh nature, which is made up of the lust of the eyes, flesh, and boastful pride (1 John 2:16). Every day we need to be cleansed from the filth of the sin we stepped into.
We are at war for the remainder of our life here on earth, and every day we will be trapped by temptation and we will sin. So, every day, our soul needs us to pray “And forgive us our debts”, and through His grace, we are cleansed from the filth and damage of sin.
None of us recognize the full extent of this daily war. None of us recognize all of the temptations, nor the extent of the filth and damage of sin upon our soul.
Romans 3:23 says: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Each of us are going to miss the target of holiness, we are going to sin and fall short of God’s glory, every single day. And according to James 2:10, “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumble at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it”. There is no room for judgment between us, none of us are “worse” nor “better” than the another because every day, every one of us is “guilty of breaking the entire law”. The ground is level beneath the cross, there is no room for condemnation nor judgment within His family because “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
This is the freedom of the gospel because it means we are done with performance! None of us are farther from grace than anyone else! We are no longer under the law, we are under grace. We are all equally guilty, and we are all offered equal grace. His grace is more than sufficient, it can never be exhausted, so run to Our Father and pray: “And forgive us our debts”.
One of the greatest victories of the enemy, is when our spiritual eyes are so blinded by his deceit that we don’t believe we’re in this war. An example of this deceit is when Jesus exposes the prayer life of the Pharisee. Perhaps the prayer of today’s Pharisees from Luke 18:11-12 might sound something like: “Thank you God that I’m not like others in my church who are compromising their Christianity by drugs, sex, alcohol, and partying. They need to get their act together and get serious about you. Help them see my example with the ministry you have launched me into, bless it God!”. (Interesting to note that a Pharisee’s prayer includes “I, my, me, they, them” – none of which are in the Lord’s Prayer!)
Another example of being blinded to the war is the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:17. This church was accustomed to thinking of themselves as “rich, wealthy, and in need of nothing.” If we don’t know what to ask forgiveness for when we daily pray “And forgive us our debts”, we have the same heart attitude as the Laodiceans; we think we need nothing from God, when in reality we “do not know that we are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked”.
If these examples convict any part of our heart - then welcome to the war. There is grace and forgiveness for all.
“Until we know we’re at war, we won’t know what prayer is for.” - John Piper
Every day, each of us step into a temptation, we sin, and we break God’s entire law.
And every day, there is grace.
Every day, there is the wondrous cleansing of forgiveness, when we pray “And forgive us our debts”.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” - 1 John 1:9
The difference between our permanent justification and our daily need to be forgiven is what Jesus illustrates in the upper room when He washes the disciples feet. Peter asks Jesus to wash his head and hands too. Jesus replies in John 13:10, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean”. If you have repented and believed in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are one of His disciples, your spirit is entirely clean, its justified, no need to wash your head and hands.
But, in every day of this war, we will step into a trap of temptation and our soul will once again be filthy from sin. And every day on this journey, we need to be willing to humbly allow Jesus to once again wash the days filth off our feet by praying: “And forgive us our debts”. And every day that we do, by His inexhaustible grace, Jesus is faithful and just to get on his knees, wash our feet, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and forgive us. Oh, our wondrous Jesus!
“He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” - Psalm 103:12
Today, let’s humbly pray “And forgive us our debts”.
Let’s begin this prayer by asking that Jesus would anoint our eyes with salve that we may see the condition of our soul, just as He offered the Laodiceans in Revelation 3:18.
Then, slowly pray through the Lord’s Prayer. As we pray, let Holy Spirit convict us as we ask:
The eye salve of the Lord’s prayer, will open our eyes that we may see the condition of our soul and our prayer will now rightly sound like the tax-collector in Luke 18:13, Father “have mercy on me the sinner.”
If so, we’re ready to pray: “And forgive us our debts”.
Two wonderful Psalms of forgiveness are 32 and 51. Spend time in these if the Holy Spirit is ministering to you with grace and forgiveness during your prayer time.
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
On Day 7 I asked: “What is the need you ask for the most in prayer?”
My answer was: “Forgiveness! I am always starting my prayers with ‘Lord, I blew it again, please forgive me’”.
On day 16 of this prayer journey, we arrive at the petition that most typifies how my prayer life begins: “Forgive me!”. I’m appreciative of this slow journey through the Lord’s Prayer as I’m going to commit to never start my pattern of prayer with that petition again.
Today we’ll pray the first half of this petition: “And forgive us our debts,”.
Notice that this petition begins with “And”. This links it to the previous petition where Jesus taught us that bread is a daily need for our body which we must depend upon God for. Similarly, Jesus instructs us that forgiveness is a daily need for our soul that we must depend upon God for.
What we need every day is forgiveness, not justification as that occurred at the moment of salvation. Our justification is eternal, God is our Abba Father and we are His Beloved, and that relationship will not end. If sin could cause us to lose our salvation, we would lose our salvation. By grace alone our spirits have been made holy and acceptable so that we can boldly pray “Our Father”.
Then why do we need to pray daily for forgiveness?
I think the answer is one Martin Luther gave: we are simultaneously holy and sinful.
Though our spirit has been redeemed and made holy, we still have a sinful flesh nature. The redemption of our flesh will not occur until the resurrection. Until then, the war between our natures is on! This war is what scripture calls “sanctification”. This war is the subject Paul discusses in Romans 6-8 between our spirit nature (which is holy), and our flesh nature (which is sinful).
In this war we face a barrage of traps, or temptations to sin, which we either escape, or we step into. We escape temptations through the Holy Spirit’s strength which grows us in our spiritual maturity. We step into traps of temptation due to our flesh nature, which is made up of the lust of the eyes, flesh, and boastful pride (1 John 2:16). Every day we need to be cleansed from the filth of the sin we stepped into.
We are at war for the remainder of our life here on earth, and every day we will be trapped by temptation and we will sin. So, every day, our soul needs us to pray “And forgive us our debts”, and through His grace, we are cleansed from the filth and damage of sin.
None of us recognize the full extent of this daily war. None of us recognize all of the temptations, nor the extent of the filth and damage of sin upon our soul.
Romans 3:23 says: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Each of us are going to miss the target of holiness, we are going to sin and fall short of God’s glory, every single day. And according to James 2:10, “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumble at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it”. There is no room for judgment between us, none of us are “worse” nor “better” than the another because every day, every one of us is “guilty of breaking the entire law”. The ground is level beneath the cross, there is no room for condemnation nor judgment within His family because “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
This is the freedom of the gospel because it means we are done with performance! None of us are farther from grace than anyone else! We are no longer under the law, we are under grace. We are all equally guilty, and we are all offered equal grace. His grace is more than sufficient, it can never be exhausted, so run to Our Father and pray: “And forgive us our debts”.
One of the greatest victories of the enemy, is when our spiritual eyes are so blinded by his deceit that we don’t believe we’re in this war. An example of this deceit is when Jesus exposes the prayer life of the Pharisee. Perhaps the prayer of today’s Pharisees from Luke 18:11-12 might sound something like: “Thank you God that I’m not like others in my church who are compromising their Christianity by drugs, sex, alcohol, and partying. They need to get their act together and get serious about you. Help them see my example with the ministry you have launched me into, bless it God!”. (Interesting to note that a Pharisee’s prayer includes “I, my, me, they, them” – none of which are in the Lord’s Prayer!)
Another example of being blinded to the war is the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:17. This church was accustomed to thinking of themselves as “rich, wealthy, and in need of nothing.” If we don’t know what to ask forgiveness for when we daily pray “And forgive us our debts”, we have the same heart attitude as the Laodiceans; we think we need nothing from God, when in reality we “do not know that we are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked”.
If these examples convict any part of our heart - then welcome to the war. There is grace and forgiveness for all.
“Until we know we’re at war, we won’t know what prayer is for.” - John Piper
Every day, each of us step into a temptation, we sin, and we break God’s entire law.
And every day, there is grace.
Every day, there is the wondrous cleansing of forgiveness, when we pray “And forgive us our debts”.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” - 1 John 1:9
The difference between our permanent justification and our daily need to be forgiven is what Jesus illustrates in the upper room when He washes the disciples feet. Peter asks Jesus to wash his head and hands too. Jesus replies in John 13:10, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean”. If you have repented and believed in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are one of His disciples, your spirit is entirely clean, its justified, no need to wash your head and hands.
But, in every day of this war, we will step into a trap of temptation and our soul will once again be filthy from sin. And every day on this journey, we need to be willing to humbly allow Jesus to once again wash the days filth off our feet by praying: “And forgive us our debts”. And every day that we do, by His inexhaustible grace, Jesus is faithful and just to get on his knees, wash our feet, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and forgive us. Oh, our wondrous Jesus!
“He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” - Psalm 103:12
Today, let’s humbly pray “And forgive us our debts”.
Let’s begin this prayer by asking that Jesus would anoint our eyes with salve that we may see the condition of our soul, just as He offered the Laodiceans in Revelation 3:18.
Then, slowly pray through the Lord’s Prayer. As we pray, let Holy Spirit convict us as we ask:
- In what areas of my life am I not setting apart your name as holy?
- Where am I seeking my kingdom come, instead of your kingdom come?
- Where have you asked me to submit my will, but I have refused?
- Where have you called me to bring your name, kingdom, and will on the earth that I’m ignoring?
- How am I not trusting you for my needs (bread)?
- What needs have you provided that I am not content with?
- Who am I judging?
The eye salve of the Lord’s prayer, will open our eyes that we may see the condition of our soul and our prayer will now rightly sound like the tax-collector in Luke 18:13, Father “have mercy on me the sinner.”
If so, we’re ready to pray: “And forgive us our debts”.
Two wonderful Psalms of forgiveness are 32 and 51. Spend time in these if the Holy Spirit is ministering to you with grace and forgiveness during your prayer time.
DAY SEVENTEEN | JAN 22
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Ephesians 5:1 calls us to be “imitators of God”.
Do you desire to imitate God?
What do you think is the greatest imitation of God that we can do?
Take a moment to answer those questions.
My answer ‘would have been’ that Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus is the “exact representation” of God, and since Jesus left His heavenly home to sacrificially love people, our greatest imitation would be to leave our homes for a distant country to sacrificially love people. And if we die while doing so – that’s the greatest, greatest imitation!
That ‘would have been’ my answer - until The Lord’s Prayer.
I don’t believe that God calls all of us to leave our home and become missionaries, yet I believe He calls all of us to greatly imitate Him. So, what can all of us do, that is the greatest imitation of God?
I’m not sure that there is a greater imitation of Our Father than when: “we forgive our debtors”.
Still desire to imitate Him?
Do you know what prayer does?
It not only gives us the desire to imitate Him, it gives us the power to.
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” – Philippians 2:13
My prayer for us today is that we will experience the desire and the power to imitate God, as “we forgive our debtors”.
Yesterday we spent time in prayer experiencing the joy and blessing of receiving His forgiveness of our debts. I’m realizing how much my soul needs to experience His forgiveness every day. Just as my body is dependent on Our Father’s lifegiving bread through His provision every day, so too my soul is dependent on Our Father’s lifegiving forgiveness through His pardon every day.
Since He is the provider of bread, His gift of bread is our only source of bread to give. Similarly, since He is the provider of forgiveness, His forgiveness is our only source of forgiveness to give.
Forgiveness always begins with God.
Remember the waterfall? If there’s no forgiveness crashing down into our pool, there’s no forgiveness to overflow into the valley. I’m praying for His waterfall of forgiveness to crash down into our pool and overflow into our valley.
Forgiveness begins with God.
Every day, our soul needs to experience the waterfall of Our Father’s gracious forgiveness. We need to open the floodgates of forgiveness by praying He would open the eyes of our deceitful heart so that we might see the greatness of our sin before Him. Not just the sins we commit, but the sins we omit. As He opens our eyes to the greatness of the sin within our hearts, we will repent and cry out “forgive us our debts”, and our soul will experience the blessings of His gracious forgiveness. The wondrous joy of his great forgiveness causes us to love Him even more, because those who have been forgiven much, love much (Luke 7:47).
Daily experiencing the waterfall of His gracious forgiveness gives us a new desire. The desire to live our lives differently, to honor Him, worship Him, love Him and obey Him because: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” – John 14:15.
With this new desire, birthed from daily abiding in the loving gracious forgiveness of Our Father, Jesus leads us to the next petition, to His command: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” - Ephesians 4:32
“We forgive our debtors”.
Surely this is too much.
Yes, I desire to serve you, worship you, honor you, but forgive my debtors??!!
God, why would I even consider forgiving the unjust and cruel actions of those who owe me?
Today He wrecked me with the answer.
I can consider praying “we forgive our debtors” because today, as I prayed through The Lord’s Prayer, I got alone with “Our Father” as ‘His Beloved”. After I prayed “And forgive us our debts”, I graciously experienced His faithful forgiveness as I thought of Jesus removing my sandals and cleansing my feet from the filth of the day. As He washes my feet, I think about what’s next in this prayer He’s been teaching us and I’m not sure how I will pray it with a new sense of understanding. As I consider how to continue and pray forgiveness for those who have been unjust and cruel to us, I can’t help but tearfully look down at the One who faithfully kneels before me with such love and service. Once again, Jesus is faithfully and graciously washing my feet. I look at the scars of His pierced hands as they wash the sin from my feet, and His Spirit kindles a fresh revelation within me: I have been forgiven of a much greater injustice and cruelty toward the very one who washes my feet, our precious Lord Jesus.
I made those scars. I drove every nail.
I crucified Him, and the whip was in my hand for every bloody lash. I am as guilty as Adam for eating, and as guilty as those who crucified Him. I unjustly rebelled against His Holy Law. I have broken the entirety of His commands. Because of me – He suffered and died an unjust and cruel death. I justly deserve a condemnation of eternal torment – and yet, here He is, graciously washing the days sin from my feet.
He forgave me. He rescued me. He bought me. He removed my shame. He loves me. Oh, how He loves me.
And here He is before me. Here’s our Jesus washing my feet.
And from my prayer closet, He looks up at me. He’s done washing my feet. We meet eyes, as we both know what comes next. Through the strength of His Spirit, I have the power to do what pleases Him: to imitate Him by continuing the prayer He taught me. I look into His eyes of grace and love; I long to greatly imitate Him, so by His strength I pray: “I forgive my debtors”.
As we continue this prayer today, let’s remember: Forgiveness begins with God.
We need a fresh revelation of His waterfall of forgiveness to overflow through us.
Below are some prayer thoughts that helped me today as I prayed through The Lord’s Prayer.
I pray that we’ll experience the lifegiving waters that bring us to a place where we would not just desire forgiveness, but have the power to graciously forgive as we pray: “we forgive our debtors”.
As we pray through the Lord’s Prayer, may we realize there’s no greater honor nor worship we can extend, than when we depend upon His forgiveness, and extend it to someone else – someone who just like us, does not deserve it.
May we greatly imitate Him as we pray: “we forgive our debtors”.
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Ephesians 5:1 calls us to be “imitators of God”.
Do you desire to imitate God?
What do you think is the greatest imitation of God that we can do?
Take a moment to answer those questions.
My answer ‘would have been’ that Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus is the “exact representation” of God, and since Jesus left His heavenly home to sacrificially love people, our greatest imitation would be to leave our homes for a distant country to sacrificially love people. And if we die while doing so – that’s the greatest, greatest imitation!
That ‘would have been’ my answer - until The Lord’s Prayer.
I don’t believe that God calls all of us to leave our home and become missionaries, yet I believe He calls all of us to greatly imitate Him. So, what can all of us do, that is the greatest imitation of God?
I’m not sure that there is a greater imitation of Our Father than when: “we forgive our debtors”.
Still desire to imitate Him?
Do you know what prayer does?
It not only gives us the desire to imitate Him, it gives us the power to.
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” – Philippians 2:13
My prayer for us today is that we will experience the desire and the power to imitate God, as “we forgive our debtors”.
Yesterday we spent time in prayer experiencing the joy and blessing of receiving His forgiveness of our debts. I’m realizing how much my soul needs to experience His forgiveness every day. Just as my body is dependent on Our Father’s lifegiving bread through His provision every day, so too my soul is dependent on Our Father’s lifegiving forgiveness through His pardon every day.
Since He is the provider of bread, His gift of bread is our only source of bread to give. Similarly, since He is the provider of forgiveness, His forgiveness is our only source of forgiveness to give.
Forgiveness always begins with God.
Remember the waterfall? If there’s no forgiveness crashing down into our pool, there’s no forgiveness to overflow into the valley. I’m praying for His waterfall of forgiveness to crash down into our pool and overflow into our valley.
Forgiveness begins with God.
Every day, our soul needs to experience the waterfall of Our Father’s gracious forgiveness. We need to open the floodgates of forgiveness by praying He would open the eyes of our deceitful heart so that we might see the greatness of our sin before Him. Not just the sins we commit, but the sins we omit. As He opens our eyes to the greatness of the sin within our hearts, we will repent and cry out “forgive us our debts”, and our soul will experience the blessings of His gracious forgiveness. The wondrous joy of his great forgiveness causes us to love Him even more, because those who have been forgiven much, love much (Luke 7:47).
Daily experiencing the waterfall of His gracious forgiveness gives us a new desire. The desire to live our lives differently, to honor Him, worship Him, love Him and obey Him because: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” – John 14:15.
With this new desire, birthed from daily abiding in the loving gracious forgiveness of Our Father, Jesus leads us to the next petition, to His command: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” - Ephesians 4:32
“We forgive our debtors”.
Surely this is too much.
Yes, I desire to serve you, worship you, honor you, but forgive my debtors??!!
God, why would I even consider forgiving the unjust and cruel actions of those who owe me?
Today He wrecked me with the answer.
I can consider praying “we forgive our debtors” because today, as I prayed through The Lord’s Prayer, I got alone with “Our Father” as ‘His Beloved”. After I prayed “And forgive us our debts”, I graciously experienced His faithful forgiveness as I thought of Jesus removing my sandals and cleansing my feet from the filth of the day. As He washes my feet, I think about what’s next in this prayer He’s been teaching us and I’m not sure how I will pray it with a new sense of understanding. As I consider how to continue and pray forgiveness for those who have been unjust and cruel to us, I can’t help but tearfully look down at the One who faithfully kneels before me with such love and service. Once again, Jesus is faithfully and graciously washing my feet. I look at the scars of His pierced hands as they wash the sin from my feet, and His Spirit kindles a fresh revelation within me: I have been forgiven of a much greater injustice and cruelty toward the very one who washes my feet, our precious Lord Jesus.
I made those scars. I drove every nail.
I crucified Him, and the whip was in my hand for every bloody lash. I am as guilty as Adam for eating, and as guilty as those who crucified Him. I unjustly rebelled against His Holy Law. I have broken the entirety of His commands. Because of me – He suffered and died an unjust and cruel death. I justly deserve a condemnation of eternal torment – and yet, here He is, graciously washing the days sin from my feet.
He forgave me. He rescued me. He bought me. He removed my shame. He loves me. Oh, how He loves me.
And here He is before me. Here’s our Jesus washing my feet.
And from my prayer closet, He looks up at me. He’s done washing my feet. We meet eyes, as we both know what comes next. Through the strength of His Spirit, I have the power to do what pleases Him: to imitate Him by continuing the prayer He taught me. I look into His eyes of grace and love; I long to greatly imitate Him, so by His strength I pray: “I forgive my debtors”.
As we continue this prayer today, let’s remember: Forgiveness begins with God.
We need a fresh revelation of His waterfall of forgiveness to overflow through us.
Below are some prayer thoughts that helped me today as I prayed through The Lord’s Prayer.
I pray that we’ll experience the lifegiving waters that bring us to a place where we would not just desire forgiveness, but have the power to graciously forgive as we pray: “we forgive our debtors”.
- He is “our Father”. He’s redeemed my life from the pit and given me a family, a community, a kingdom where I’m no longer alone as I’m now eternally joined through the blood bought purchase of Jesus with everyone in this Kingdom family.
- I desire His name be hallowed. The greatest need of my life is to fulfill the purpose I was created for: to glorify His holy name as His Image. I find real purpose and meaning when I do what I was created to do: Be His Image – look like Him, imitate Him, live for Him, give Him glory and enjoy Him forever.
- I am a citizen of His Kingdom and I am to diligently work to bring His Kingdom come. His Kingdom is my eternal hope, and my eternal purpose. It’s what I am seeking above all else and I desire His Kingdom to grow and His Kingdom come.
- He’s my King so I submit my will to Him. All of my fleshly decisions lead to death. But in His will there is abundant life. I find joy, peace, love, purpose, goodness, strength, wisdom, and more when I choose to pray “not my will, but your will be done”. I will never regret living life God’s way.
- He gives me my daily bread. He takes care of all my needs. I find true contentment and joy when I simply set my heart on thanking Him for what He provides and knowing that in Him I shall not want. I will always have my needs met so I am free of fear, anxiety, and worry because I have an Abba Father who gives to His beloved.
- I experience the daily joy, grace, and life that comes from His forgiveness. I’m no longer a slave, I’m done with the law, performance, guilt, shame, and condemnation. I am a beloved child who depends upon and experiences His amazing grace as I humbly accept it day after day through His forgiveness.
As we pray through the Lord’s Prayer, may we realize there’s no greater honor nor worship we can extend, than when we depend upon His forgiveness, and extend it to someone else – someone who just like us, does not deserve it.
May we greatly imitate Him as we pray: “we forgive our debtors”.
DAY EIGHTEEN | JAN 23
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Before we move forward, we have to move back a bit. There is a critical word in this petition we need to understand: “as”.
Through this little comparative conjunction, Jesus teaches another radical shift in perspective that dramatically changes our thinking. This conjunctive caused Augustine to call this “a terrible petition”.
Because of the word “as”, this petition becomes a comparative, an “if then” statement. Due to “as”, this petition becomes: “Forgive me, only to the degree, that I forgive others”. Another way of saying it: “Father, if we forgive others, please forgive us, but if we don’t forgive others, please don’t forgive us.” Incredibly enough, this could be a prayer asking God not to forgive us, as we will not forgive others.
After Jesus teaches The Lord’s Prayer, the only commentary He provides is on this petition. He knew “as” would cause such angst, that we’d do all we could to reason away what He said. To ensure there was no ‘side-stepping’, He teaches: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” – Matthew 6:14-15
Jesus gave us no way to get around “as”. If we don’t forgive others, He will not forgive us.
Does this mean you are not justified (saved) if you don’t forgive? No. That was the discussion two days ago. This is not about salvation nor our eternal destination. This is about the blessings of fellowship we experience with Our Father and one another through His forgiveness.
We should ask ourselves: “Why would we think Our Father will graciously give us the blessed waterfalls of freedom and fellowship through His forgiveness, if we are unwilling to give it to others in the valley?”
I fear it is because we think so little of the greatness of our sins against God, and so greatly of the little sins of others against us.
We think so much about how the one who sinned against us does not deserve forgiveness, but we forget that we do not deserve forgiveness. Forgiveness is only available for the undeserving, else it’s not forgiveness.
In this petition, we are reminded that Our Father is just, and thus we pray, “forgive me, just as, I forgive others.”
Is it just for God to forgive me if I won’t forgive?
Jesus teaches us the answer to this in Matthew 18:21-35: The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. A servant owed his King $10 million dollars, and his King forgave all of it! Someone owed the servant $300, and the servant refused to forgive it. What happened to the servant? The King delivered him over to the jail of unforgiveness, where the servant experiences torments such as stress, anxiety, depression, fear, lack of genuine fellowship with Our Father and one another, anger, resentment, loneliness, and bitterness. Jesus concludes with a warning in verse 35: ““That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
What must we do to get out of this prison? Forgive.
We will only experience the blessings of Our Father’s forgiveness, such as fellowship, grace, peace, joy, kindness, patience, freedom – as much as – we are willing to extend His forgiveness to others.
This petition is particularly convicting to me as I consider how I can withhold God’s blessings of relationship, kindness, patience, and grace to others. How can I ask God to extend the depths of His relationship, kindness, patience and grace to me – if I’m not willing to extend it to others?
Perhaps a greater principle within this petition is: We will only experience the blessings of our Fathers “________”, to the extent that we are willing to extend the blessings of our Fathers “_________” to others.
Based on this petition, Matthew 7:1-2 and 1 John 4:19-21, I think this blank can be filled in with more than forgiveness. I think it includes love, kindness, patience, goodness, etc.
Forgive us, ‘as’ we forgive others.
God gives blessings to us, ‘as’ we give blessings to others.
God withholds blessings from us, ‘as’ we withhold blessings from others.
What blessing of God are you withholding from others?
As, we pray today, let’s ask Holy Spirit to search our heart and identify where we are withholding forgiveness (or any blessing) that He wants us to give. As He does, let’s choose to begin the process of giving.
Forgiveness sometimes happens in a moment, and sometimes it is a process filled with tears, confession, counseling, and healing. Every blessing begins with God. This is not your forgiveness, this is His waterfall of forgiveness flowing through you to others. Will you give it?
Pray: “And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.”
ADDENDUM: PRINCIPLES OF FORGIVENESS
CLICK HERE TO READ
The process of forgiveness can be a long road of healing, often entangled in misunderstandings of what forgiveness is, and isn’t. If your forgiveness will be a journey, please use this link to access some principles of forgiveness and a worksheet which provides a guide through the process of forgiveness which I, and many others, have found incredible freedom by following.
Additionally, I’d like to provide some perspectives of a friend who has shared their experience of the journey of forgiveness from unjust trauma to healing:
Trust in the goodness of God within suffering. He came to heal and walk with us through our suffering. He’s not far off, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those whose spirits are crushed” – Psalm 34:18. Daily spending time with our wonderful counselor in prayer, and soaking in His healing word is life and healing to our soul.
Where is Jesus in our suffering? He was on the cross. Jesus doesn’t avoid our suffering, He entered into our suffering. No matter what we have suffered, when we abide in Him, He offers us strength and compassion as one who has experienced more unjust suffering than any of us can imagine. Pray Philippians 3:10, and cry out to Him “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings”.
As we draw close to Him, He graciously strengthens us. We obediently lay down our life to live for Him and imitate Him. As we do, we understand that He has called us for the purpose of extending forgiveness. That’s why Jesus suffered for us, so that we can too! Just like Jesus, when we forgive, we are given victory over suffering by exchanging our earthly suffering, for the eternal value of God’s favor. Jesus offers us an eternal value that can only be realized in the forgiveness of unjust suffering. This is our victory! “For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience towards God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return. While suffering He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.” – 1 Peter 2:19-23
Seek Him daily, depend upon His strength, and be willing to find that strength through His Body the church. Don’t suffer alone. Share your pain and struggles with close friends, and embrace the giftings of Biblical counselors. The journey of forgiveness, is not only a road of healing, it is a road of victory and eternal value on our road to Christlikeness.
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Before we move forward, we have to move back a bit. There is a critical word in this petition we need to understand: “as”.
Through this little comparative conjunction, Jesus teaches another radical shift in perspective that dramatically changes our thinking. This conjunctive caused Augustine to call this “a terrible petition”.
Because of the word “as”, this petition becomes a comparative, an “if then” statement. Due to “as”, this petition becomes: “Forgive me, only to the degree, that I forgive others”. Another way of saying it: “Father, if we forgive others, please forgive us, but if we don’t forgive others, please don’t forgive us.” Incredibly enough, this could be a prayer asking God not to forgive us, as we will not forgive others.
After Jesus teaches The Lord’s Prayer, the only commentary He provides is on this petition. He knew “as” would cause such angst, that we’d do all we could to reason away what He said. To ensure there was no ‘side-stepping’, He teaches: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” – Matthew 6:14-15
Jesus gave us no way to get around “as”. If we don’t forgive others, He will not forgive us.
Does this mean you are not justified (saved) if you don’t forgive? No. That was the discussion two days ago. This is not about salvation nor our eternal destination. This is about the blessings of fellowship we experience with Our Father and one another through His forgiveness.
We should ask ourselves: “Why would we think Our Father will graciously give us the blessed waterfalls of freedom and fellowship through His forgiveness, if we are unwilling to give it to others in the valley?”
I fear it is because we think so little of the greatness of our sins against God, and so greatly of the little sins of others against us.
We think so much about how the one who sinned against us does not deserve forgiveness, but we forget that we do not deserve forgiveness. Forgiveness is only available for the undeserving, else it’s not forgiveness.
In this petition, we are reminded that Our Father is just, and thus we pray, “forgive me, just as, I forgive others.”
Is it just for God to forgive me if I won’t forgive?
Jesus teaches us the answer to this in Matthew 18:21-35: The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. A servant owed his King $10 million dollars, and his King forgave all of it! Someone owed the servant $300, and the servant refused to forgive it. What happened to the servant? The King delivered him over to the jail of unforgiveness, where the servant experiences torments such as stress, anxiety, depression, fear, lack of genuine fellowship with Our Father and one another, anger, resentment, loneliness, and bitterness. Jesus concludes with a warning in verse 35: ““That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
What must we do to get out of this prison? Forgive.
We will only experience the blessings of Our Father’s forgiveness, such as fellowship, grace, peace, joy, kindness, patience, freedom – as much as – we are willing to extend His forgiveness to others.
This petition is particularly convicting to me as I consider how I can withhold God’s blessings of relationship, kindness, patience, and grace to others. How can I ask God to extend the depths of His relationship, kindness, patience and grace to me – if I’m not willing to extend it to others?
Perhaps a greater principle within this petition is: We will only experience the blessings of our Fathers “________”, to the extent that we are willing to extend the blessings of our Fathers “_________” to others.
Based on this petition, Matthew 7:1-2 and 1 John 4:19-21, I think this blank can be filled in with more than forgiveness. I think it includes love, kindness, patience, goodness, etc.
Forgive us, ‘as’ we forgive others.
God gives blessings to us, ‘as’ we give blessings to others.
God withholds blessings from us, ‘as’ we withhold blessings from others.
What blessing of God are you withholding from others?
As, we pray today, let’s ask Holy Spirit to search our heart and identify where we are withholding forgiveness (or any blessing) that He wants us to give. As He does, let’s choose to begin the process of giving.
Forgiveness sometimes happens in a moment, and sometimes it is a process filled with tears, confession, counseling, and healing. Every blessing begins with God. This is not your forgiveness, this is His waterfall of forgiveness flowing through you to others. Will you give it?
Pray: “And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.”
ADDENDUM: PRINCIPLES OF FORGIVENESS
CLICK HERE TO READ
The process of forgiveness can be a long road of healing, often entangled in misunderstandings of what forgiveness is, and isn’t. If your forgiveness will be a journey, please use this link to access some principles of forgiveness and a worksheet which provides a guide through the process of forgiveness which I, and many others, have found incredible freedom by following.
Additionally, I’d like to provide some perspectives of a friend who has shared their experience of the journey of forgiveness from unjust trauma to healing:
Trust in the goodness of God within suffering. He came to heal and walk with us through our suffering. He’s not far off, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those whose spirits are crushed” – Psalm 34:18. Daily spending time with our wonderful counselor in prayer, and soaking in His healing word is life and healing to our soul.
Where is Jesus in our suffering? He was on the cross. Jesus doesn’t avoid our suffering, He entered into our suffering. No matter what we have suffered, when we abide in Him, He offers us strength and compassion as one who has experienced more unjust suffering than any of us can imagine. Pray Philippians 3:10, and cry out to Him “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings”.
As we draw close to Him, He graciously strengthens us. We obediently lay down our life to live for Him and imitate Him. As we do, we understand that He has called us for the purpose of extending forgiveness. That’s why Jesus suffered for us, so that we can too! Just like Jesus, when we forgive, we are given victory over suffering by exchanging our earthly suffering, for the eternal value of God’s favor. Jesus offers us an eternal value that can only be realized in the forgiveness of unjust suffering. This is our victory! “For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience towards God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return. While suffering He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.” – 1 Peter 2:19-23
Seek Him daily, depend upon His strength, and be willing to find that strength through His Body the church. Don’t suffer alone. Share your pain and struggles with close friends, and embrace the giftings of Biblical counselors. The journey of forgiveness, is not only a road of healing, it is a road of victory and eternal value on our road to Christlikeness.
DAY NINETEEN | JAN 24
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
I don’t think there is a more confusing petition than: “And do not lead us into temptation”
This petition has been discussed, and unfortunately debated, for centuries.
My understanding of the confusion is because the Greek word that is translated as “temptation” in The Lord’s Prayer, is a word that can have two meanings. The word itself is neutral, but depending on the context, it can have either a negative meaning, a positive meaning, or it can remain neutral.
An example of an English word that can have different meanings in my home based on context is “sick”. Sorry for this illustration, but it fits in a household with all boys. Years ago, if I hit a possum while driving and the family looked back and saw it on the road, I’ll hear this word and have to listen to context for its meaning. My wife will look at me and say, “Oh that’s sick”, and I understand that to be a negative meaning like “disgusting”. I also understand it to be an accusation like, “You’re sick. Why would you do that!” (also, negative). My 13-year-old son will say “Whoa, that’s sick”, and I understood that to be a positive meaning like “amazing” (which is why my wife wonders if I did it on purpose). My 8-year-old son hearing both perspectives, might say “Yeah, that’s sick”, and I have no idea what he means.
So that’s what I think the issue is for the translators. Depending on context, the word can mean something negative, translated as “temptation”, or it can mean something positive, translated as “test” or “trial”. Sometimes it’s neutral, or they aren’t sure, so some translations have “temptation” and others will have “trial”.
Great examples of this word context is in James 1. The exact same word is translated different ways.
Positive examples:
Neutral example - same word from different translations:
Negative examples:
So with the two possible words to use in translation, the questions become:
Is Jesus asking us to pray that Father not lead us into something positive? Why not?
Is Jesus asking us to pray that Father not lead us into something negative? Why would He?
Confused? Perfect!
Now you understand why “And do not lead us into temptation” is confusing.
Here’s what I think best reconciles the confusion: It is a normal part of life to encounter circumstances of varying difficulties that can either result in growth, or stumbling. We can’t grow without difficult circumstances.
For the same circumstance:
God’s intention for a circumstance is a “trial” or “test” which will cause us to grow, so the circumstance can be a positive.
Satan’s intention for that same circumstance is a “temptation” which will cause us to stumble, so the circumstance can be a negative.
Whether it becomes a “test” for growth, or a “temptation” for stumbling, is based on what we do with the circumstance.
God will lead us into circumstances that serve as a “trial” because He intends them for our growth and we are supposed to grow so we need “tests” and “trials”. But every circumstance which God leads us to for our growth, also presents Satan an opportunity to use that circumstance as a “temptation” for us to stumble. An example of this is the Holy Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness to be “tempted by the devil”. God intended it as a positive, Satan intended it as a negative. Jesus’s action determined it to be a positive.
When we daily pray this petition, we are recognizing that God will bring circumstances today that He intends as a “test” for our growth, but that the enemy will use as a “temptation” for our stumbling, so we need to be ready for the circumstances.
How should we approach this recognition?
The same way we approach ‘Bread’ and ‘Forgiveness’; with absolute dependency upon Our Father. There is no way we can get ‘Bread’ without Him, there is no way we can get ‘Forgiveness’ without Him, and there is no way we’ll get through this circumstance and ensure it is a ‘trial’ and not a ‘temptation’ without Him.
We pray “and do not lead us into temptation,” with a complete sense of humility realizing without God there is no way I’m going to get through today’s circumstances (which He means for growth, but the enemy means for stumbling) unless I am completely dependent on Him.
This petition convicts me because if I’m admitting my inability to overcome ‘the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life’, then what am I doing to make sure I’m not setting myself up to encounter it in temptation today?
Earlier in The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs us to “gouge out our eye” and “cut off our hand”. By that, He instructed us to take temptation seriously and do everything we can to avoid it. This petition reminds me that if I genuinely want to hallow His name, seek His kingdom, submit to His will, and depend upon Him – I have to humbly and proactively remove temptation from my life, and trust Him that when I follow as He leads, the only temptations I will face, are those that He has sovereignly planned as a trial for my growth.
“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13
Perhaps rather than trying to overcome temptation on our own strength, we should humbly depend on Our Father to provide us the way of escape.
Humble dependency upon Our Father’s escape, transforms a temptation, into a test.
This petition not only convicts, it encourages! Through The Lord’s Prayer we’ve spent time in precious communion with Our Father. We’ve hallowed His name and desired His glory in every area of our life. We’ve set our eyes on His Kingdom to seek it first. We’ve crucified ourselves to His will. We expressed our humble dependency upon Him for our daily needs. We’ve experienced the cleansing of His forgiveness as we’ve extended forgiveness to others. Now, in this petition, we pray that as we face the circumstances He’s set before us, we will humbly depend upon Our Father to lead us to His escape and transform temptation, into a test.
Let’s pray: “And do not lead us into temptation”
“Father, I realize how weak I am. I realize how dependent I am upon you for everything. I know that I will face circumstances today that the enemy is going to tempt me in, and I don’t place confidence in myself not to stumble over them. Through this prayer you’ve given me the sweet fellowship of Our Abba Father with His Beloved and I don’t want anything to separate that today. Today, help me to hallow you in everything I do, help me to seek your Kingdom first, help me to submit my will to you. I know that I am completely dependent upon your strength to accomplish what I need to today. I know I am dependent on your provision and your pardon. And I know I am dependent on seeing your escape plan in the circumstances I will face today. I humbly depend upon you to lead me to the escape that you offer in every circumstance I face today. Help me to grow through the trials today, and give me the endurance not to let the enemy turn them into temptations that cause me to stumble. Help me to call out to you the moment I recognize temptation, and please show me the way of escape you provide. Father, don’t lead me into temptation. I humbly recognize that without you, it will be a temptation. Be with me, give me the endurance, wisdom and strength to grow through the trials you bring today. – Amen”
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
I don’t think there is a more confusing petition than: “And do not lead us into temptation”
This petition has been discussed, and unfortunately debated, for centuries.
My understanding of the confusion is because the Greek word that is translated as “temptation” in The Lord’s Prayer, is a word that can have two meanings. The word itself is neutral, but depending on the context, it can have either a negative meaning, a positive meaning, or it can remain neutral.
An example of an English word that can have different meanings in my home based on context is “sick”. Sorry for this illustration, but it fits in a household with all boys. Years ago, if I hit a possum while driving and the family looked back and saw it on the road, I’ll hear this word and have to listen to context for its meaning. My wife will look at me and say, “Oh that’s sick”, and I understand that to be a negative meaning like “disgusting”. I also understand it to be an accusation like, “You’re sick. Why would you do that!” (also, negative). My 13-year-old son will say “Whoa, that’s sick”, and I understood that to be a positive meaning like “amazing” (which is why my wife wonders if I did it on purpose). My 8-year-old son hearing both perspectives, might say “Yeah, that’s sick”, and I have no idea what he means.
So that’s what I think the issue is for the translators. Depending on context, the word can mean something negative, translated as “temptation”, or it can mean something positive, translated as “test” or “trial”. Sometimes it’s neutral, or they aren’t sure, so some translations have “temptation” and others will have “trial”.
Great examples of this word context is in James 1. The exact same word is translated different ways.
Positive examples:
- Vs 2 “count it all joy when you encounter various trials”
- Vs 12 “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, because having stood the test”
Neutral example - same word from different translations:
- Vs 13 “Let no one man say when he is tempted” – KJV
- Vs 13 “No one undergoing a trial” -HCSB
Negative examples:
- Vs 13 “no one should say ‘God is tempting me’”
- Vs 13 “God cannot be tempted with evil, and He himself tempts no one.”
So with the two possible words to use in translation, the questions become:
Is Jesus asking us to pray that Father not lead us into something positive? Why not?
Is Jesus asking us to pray that Father not lead us into something negative? Why would He?
Confused? Perfect!
Now you understand why “And do not lead us into temptation” is confusing.
Here’s what I think best reconciles the confusion: It is a normal part of life to encounter circumstances of varying difficulties that can either result in growth, or stumbling. We can’t grow without difficult circumstances.
For the same circumstance:
- God’s intention is it is a trial, resulting in growth.
- Satan’s intention is it is a temptation, resulting in stumble.
God’s intention for a circumstance is a “trial” or “test” which will cause us to grow, so the circumstance can be a positive.
Satan’s intention for that same circumstance is a “temptation” which will cause us to stumble, so the circumstance can be a negative.
Whether it becomes a “test” for growth, or a “temptation” for stumbling, is based on what we do with the circumstance.
God will lead us into circumstances that serve as a “trial” because He intends them for our growth and we are supposed to grow so we need “tests” and “trials”. But every circumstance which God leads us to for our growth, also presents Satan an opportunity to use that circumstance as a “temptation” for us to stumble. An example of this is the Holy Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness to be “tempted by the devil”. God intended it as a positive, Satan intended it as a negative. Jesus’s action determined it to be a positive.
When we daily pray this petition, we are recognizing that God will bring circumstances today that He intends as a “test” for our growth, but that the enemy will use as a “temptation” for our stumbling, so we need to be ready for the circumstances.
How should we approach this recognition?
The same way we approach ‘Bread’ and ‘Forgiveness’; with absolute dependency upon Our Father. There is no way we can get ‘Bread’ without Him, there is no way we can get ‘Forgiveness’ without Him, and there is no way we’ll get through this circumstance and ensure it is a ‘trial’ and not a ‘temptation’ without Him.
We pray “and do not lead us into temptation,” with a complete sense of humility realizing without God there is no way I’m going to get through today’s circumstances (which He means for growth, but the enemy means for stumbling) unless I am completely dependent on Him.
This petition convicts me because if I’m admitting my inability to overcome ‘the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life’, then what am I doing to make sure I’m not setting myself up to encounter it in temptation today?
Earlier in The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs us to “gouge out our eye” and “cut off our hand”. By that, He instructed us to take temptation seriously and do everything we can to avoid it. This petition reminds me that if I genuinely want to hallow His name, seek His kingdom, submit to His will, and depend upon Him – I have to humbly and proactively remove temptation from my life, and trust Him that when I follow as He leads, the only temptations I will face, are those that He has sovereignly planned as a trial for my growth.
“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13
Perhaps rather than trying to overcome temptation on our own strength, we should humbly depend on Our Father to provide us the way of escape.
Humble dependency upon Our Father’s escape, transforms a temptation, into a test.
This petition not only convicts, it encourages! Through The Lord’s Prayer we’ve spent time in precious communion with Our Father. We’ve hallowed His name and desired His glory in every area of our life. We’ve set our eyes on His Kingdom to seek it first. We’ve crucified ourselves to His will. We expressed our humble dependency upon Him for our daily needs. We’ve experienced the cleansing of His forgiveness as we’ve extended forgiveness to others. Now, in this petition, we pray that as we face the circumstances He’s set before us, we will humbly depend upon Our Father to lead us to His escape and transform temptation, into a test.
Let’s pray: “And do not lead us into temptation”
“Father, I realize how weak I am. I realize how dependent I am upon you for everything. I know that I will face circumstances today that the enemy is going to tempt me in, and I don’t place confidence in myself not to stumble over them. Through this prayer you’ve given me the sweet fellowship of Our Abba Father with His Beloved and I don’t want anything to separate that today. Today, help me to hallow you in everything I do, help me to seek your Kingdom first, help me to submit my will to you. I know that I am completely dependent upon your strength to accomplish what I need to today. I know I am dependent on your provision and your pardon. And I know I am dependent on seeing your escape plan in the circumstances I will face today. I humbly depend upon you to lead me to the escape that you offer in every circumstance I face today. Help me to grow through the trials today, and give me the endurance not to let the enemy turn them into temptations that cause me to stumble. Help me to call out to you the moment I recognize temptation, and please show me the way of escape you provide. Father, don’t lead me into temptation. I humbly recognize that without you, it will be a temptation. Be with me, give me the endurance, wisdom and strength to grow through the trials you bring today. – Amen”
DAY TWENTY | JAN 25
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“You cannot know what prayer is for, until you know that life is war.” – J. Piper
Do we really believe that statement?
Someone sent me the podcast in which Piper makes this statement and it struck me how little I consider this reality. In a few weeks we’ll see how Paul teaches this reality as we finish Ephesians, and I wonder if Paul is following Jesus’ lead in concluding His teaching with reminding us that we are in a war.
If we haven’t been motivated to begin a daily discipline of prayer from what Jesus has already taught us, then the reality that we are in a war should seal the deal.
In these last petitions, Jesus is teaching us that we must be in daily prayer for Our Father to give us our needs for the day, ‘and’ we must be in prayer to be cleansed through forgiveness from the filth of sin we stepped in that day, ‘and’ we must be in prayer every day to escape daily temptations and to be daily delivered from the evil one.
Let’s not miss that Jesus is teaching a daily deliverance!
Daily delivered from the evil one? Yes, daily!
That’s a perspective shift for us. We need the eyes of our Laodicean hearts to be opened to not only the reality of the war we are in, but the reality of the daily advance of the enemy in our valley and our responsibility to daily fight in this war through prayer!
Jesus chose a strong word when He teaches us to pray ‘Deliver’. This is not a word akin to: “Hey God, there’s some bad stuff raining down in the world, can you prevent any of it from dripping on me with a big spiritual umbrella of protection? Thanks God!”.
This word is about forcefully wrenching something away from an enemy. Bravely facing danger and rescuing the enslaved from bondage. Fiercely fighting evil forces to violently take back what was lost. It “emphasizes greatness of peril from which deliverance is given by a mighty act of power.” – S. Weber This is a petition that Our Father in Heaven would exercise His dominion and power and bring about a forceful act of delivery.
What are we praying for deliverance from?
Depending upon the translation, this petition may either be “the evil one” or “evil”. This is another case where the Greek wording is a bit unique and the closest translation would be “the evil”. I like that wording. This thought encompasses not only Satan and all evil spirits, but any evil circumstance, thought, or behavior, any evil on the earth or the heavens, and any evil in my heart or home.
Perhaps we don’t recognize our daily need for deliverance from ‘the evil’ because our consciences are so seared by the evil we look at, think about, speak, meditate on and pursue that we don’t even recognize what the evil is. We tend to categorize evil simply as those activities which are punishable by imprisonment – things “evil” people do.
Through the Lord’s Prayer, I believe Jesus is teaching us that ‘the evil’ is much more invasive and accessible than I recognize. The evil is anything that dishonors the hallowed name of Our Father, anything that seeks my Kingdom over His Kingdom, and anything that promotes my will over His will be done. The evil is all around me, its infused within my culture’s values and pleasures, it’s taught within my schools, it’s within my home, and it’s within my heart. I desperately need a mighty and powerful deliverance from ‘the evil’ every day.
There is a war going on against His hallowed name, His Kingdom, and His will. As blood bought citizens of His Kingdom we are to rally to the war cry of our King, obediently get on our knees and join His heavenly hosts in battle, by daily praying for His mighty deliverance from ‘the evil’! Deliverance in my heart, in my home, in my church, my valley, and on the earth.
Let’s remember that this is an intercessory prayer. We don’t pray just “deliver me”, we pray “deliver us”. We need to be daily praying for a mighty act of God’s power to forcefully deliver His people from the evil of circumstances, behavior, thoughts, lies, and the enemy.
We continue to pray with our hearts in a posture of humble dependency and confident faith in Our Father. We humbly depend upon Him, and we hold confident faith that He will give, forgive, lead, and deliver!
The flow of these last petitions reminds me of 1 Peter 5:6-9:
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”
Before we resist the devil, we are to humble ourselves before Our Father, throw our cares on Him (give us our bread, forgive us, lead us), wake up to the war by being sober and vigilant, and then resist the devil by prayerfully interceding: “deliver us from the evil one”.
Considering this flow, today let’s pray all of The Lord’s Prayer as we pray: “deliver us from the evil one”.
Here are prayer points to consider as you pray through The Lord’s Prayer today:
Our Father in heaven,
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
“You cannot know what prayer is for, until you know that life is war.” – J. Piper
Do we really believe that statement?
Someone sent me the podcast in which Piper makes this statement and it struck me how little I consider this reality. In a few weeks we’ll see how Paul teaches this reality as we finish Ephesians, and I wonder if Paul is following Jesus’ lead in concluding His teaching with reminding us that we are in a war.
If we haven’t been motivated to begin a daily discipline of prayer from what Jesus has already taught us, then the reality that we are in a war should seal the deal.
In these last petitions, Jesus is teaching us that we must be in daily prayer for Our Father to give us our needs for the day, ‘and’ we must be in prayer to be cleansed through forgiveness from the filth of sin we stepped in that day, ‘and’ we must be in prayer every day to escape daily temptations and to be daily delivered from the evil one.
Let’s not miss that Jesus is teaching a daily deliverance!
Daily delivered from the evil one? Yes, daily!
That’s a perspective shift for us. We need the eyes of our Laodicean hearts to be opened to not only the reality of the war we are in, but the reality of the daily advance of the enemy in our valley and our responsibility to daily fight in this war through prayer!
Jesus chose a strong word when He teaches us to pray ‘Deliver’. This is not a word akin to: “Hey God, there’s some bad stuff raining down in the world, can you prevent any of it from dripping on me with a big spiritual umbrella of protection? Thanks God!”.
This word is about forcefully wrenching something away from an enemy. Bravely facing danger and rescuing the enslaved from bondage. Fiercely fighting evil forces to violently take back what was lost. It “emphasizes greatness of peril from which deliverance is given by a mighty act of power.” – S. Weber This is a petition that Our Father in Heaven would exercise His dominion and power and bring about a forceful act of delivery.
What are we praying for deliverance from?
Depending upon the translation, this petition may either be “the evil one” or “evil”. This is another case where the Greek wording is a bit unique and the closest translation would be “the evil”. I like that wording. This thought encompasses not only Satan and all evil spirits, but any evil circumstance, thought, or behavior, any evil on the earth or the heavens, and any evil in my heart or home.
Perhaps we don’t recognize our daily need for deliverance from ‘the evil’ because our consciences are so seared by the evil we look at, think about, speak, meditate on and pursue that we don’t even recognize what the evil is. We tend to categorize evil simply as those activities which are punishable by imprisonment – things “evil” people do.
Through the Lord’s Prayer, I believe Jesus is teaching us that ‘the evil’ is much more invasive and accessible than I recognize. The evil is anything that dishonors the hallowed name of Our Father, anything that seeks my Kingdom over His Kingdom, and anything that promotes my will over His will be done. The evil is all around me, its infused within my culture’s values and pleasures, it’s taught within my schools, it’s within my home, and it’s within my heart. I desperately need a mighty and powerful deliverance from ‘the evil’ every day.
There is a war going on against His hallowed name, His Kingdom, and His will. As blood bought citizens of His Kingdom we are to rally to the war cry of our King, obediently get on our knees and join His heavenly hosts in battle, by daily praying for His mighty deliverance from ‘the evil’! Deliverance in my heart, in my home, in my church, my valley, and on the earth.
Let’s remember that this is an intercessory prayer. We don’t pray just “deliver me”, we pray “deliver us”. We need to be daily praying for a mighty act of God’s power to forcefully deliver His people from the evil of circumstances, behavior, thoughts, lies, and the enemy.
We continue to pray with our hearts in a posture of humble dependency and confident faith in Our Father. We humbly depend upon Him, and we hold confident faith that He will give, forgive, lead, and deliver!
The flow of these last petitions reminds me of 1 Peter 5:6-9:
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”
Before we resist the devil, we are to humble ourselves before Our Father, throw our cares on Him (give us our bread, forgive us, lead us), wake up to the war by being sober and vigilant, and then resist the devil by prayerfully interceding: “deliver us from the evil one”.
Considering this flow, today let’s pray all of The Lord’s Prayer as we pray: “deliver us from the evil one”.
Here are prayer points to consider as you pray through The Lord’s Prayer today:
Our Father in heaven,
- He is Our Abba Father, and we are His Beloved. He compassionately cares, provides, guides, and watches over us as a loving perfect Father who holds all authority and an understanding far beyond what we can see in Heaven.
- Our greatest need is to have His Name hallowed in every area of our life. There is no greater pleasure in life than doing what we were created to do: worship Him, glorify Him, love Him, and enjoy Him. In every area of our life we want His character and purpose set apart as our first and foremost desire.
- His Kingdom is our ultimate destination and desire. Every hallowed joy we could possibly long for, and more, will be fulfilled. Our purpose, as a citizen of His Kingdom is to seek His Kingdom, not my kingdom. Set His Kingdom as the focus of our life’s work.
- To accomplish this, His will must be done. Me, myself, and I have to die on the cross of Your will be done. To find life, we must lose our life. Go all in! We submit every area of our lives to your will. We desire it not just in our own hearts and homes, but on the earth as it is in heaven.
- We humbly depend upon Him to give us our daily needs. We choose to be content with what He has provided us, because if He has not provided it today, we don’t need it today, as He is faithful to provide us our needs. He has faithfully provided, and He’ll provide again!
- We humbly depend upon Him for forgiveness today. Open our eyes to the extent of the sin within our hearts and lives, not just what we committed today, but what we omitted to do. We humbly ask Him for forgiveness, and thank Him that He is faithful to forgive us as we forgive others. We choose to forgive others and extend the blessings of His grace to others, knowing that they don’t deserve it, just as we don’t. He has faithfully forgiven, and He will forgive again!
- We humbly depend upon Him to lead us away from the hard testing of temptation. We are poor in spirit, and place no confidence in our flesh. Thank Him that He’ll never lead us into a testing that is beyond His ability to faithfully reveal to us the escape He provides. He is faithful to sovereignly guide our paths, and we commit it to Him.
- And now Oh Lord, I look back upon this prayer and I see that you are my Abba Father and I am your Beloved. Your name is hallowed in my life, my desire is for your Kingdom, and I am submitting my will to you. I depend upon you for my needs, you are faithful to forgive, and you are leading me. With my heart now set in this posture, I ask that you would deliver me from the evil. I thank you that the evil has no place for a stronghold in a heart that is fully yours. Our Father in heaven, deliver me from the evil.
- Our Father, I don’t just pray on my own behalf, because I am part of “Our”. I life up my brothers and sisters, I pray that you would deliver us from the evil. In every area of our life where the evil has captured us, Father would you deliver us today.
- Pray for specific people the Holy Spirit lays on your heart.
- Close your prayer in adoration and thanks!
DAY TWENTY ONE | JAN 26
Matt 6:9-13 NKJV
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Throughout this prayer, Jesus has been shifting our perspective. Adjusting the gaze of our soul beyond what we typically look to. We’ve looked up to the heavens and prayed that the floodgates of His Hallowed Name, Kingdom, and Will would come crashing down like a waterfall into the pool of His church. We’ve looked out of our pool, and prayed that every day these waters would overflow to our valley as He provides our bread and needs, forgives us as we forgive others, leads us into escape from temptation, and delivers us from the evil.
As He closes this prayer, He points us to a final perspective. Look way out past our valley, and focus on a magnificent brilliance on the horizon: our certain destiny. With this final petition, Jesus urges us to now go from our prayer with Our Father, to our ministry with Our Father, by setting our eyes on the destiny of His ministry calling:
“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Jesus invited us into prayer, and now He invites us into His ministry.
The “Our” is called to ministry for His Kingdom in our valley.
This prayer will result in:
As this prayer stirs our hearts, we discover another purpose of prayer: Prayer prepares us for ministry.
His Kingdom Ministry
Any time you hear or read “ministry”, quit elevating it to only certain people. Biblical ministry simply means “service”, and we are all called to service in our valley for His Kingdom! My ministry calling used to be in a steel mill in my valley, now it is in a church in my valley. Both ministries are for His Kingdom, so neither is greater nor less than the other. Each of us has an essential calling to the ministry of bringing Kingdom to wherever He has placed us in our valley. To see your ministry, seek “Your Kingdom come” in your valley.
“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” – Matthew 6:33
The priority of our life is to seek His Kingdom, the purpose for our ministry is to bring His Kingdom, and we will only experience abundant life as we participate in His call to ministry for His Kingdom.
His Power
We have absolutely no ability to bring His Kingdom to our valley, except by His Power. We can only use ‘my power for my ministry for my kingdom’; or we can humbly depend on ‘His power for His ministry for His Kingdom”.
“For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.” – 1 Corinthians 4:20
“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.” – 2 Peter 1:3a
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” – Ephesians 3:20
His Glory
When we get to experience His Power working in us for His Kingdom, we need to be reminded of the reason for His ministry: His Glory! We not only get to be called into His ministry, we get to experience His power, and we get to give Him glory while doing so. We get to do what we were created to do: glorify God and enjoy Him forever!
When we reach our certain destiny in His Kingdom, we will all fall on our faces to give Him every weight of glory through worshipful adoration. All glory will be, and is, His. All glory has one destination: to be poured out on Him in worship! We get to live a life capturing glory for Him in ministry. And from now until Forever, we get to pour out this glory on Him through holy worship in the valley, while we journey to His Kingdom!
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” – 1 Corinthians 10:31
“To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” – Ephesians 3:21
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.” – Romans 11:36
Forever
As we close this prayer, Jesus fixes our gaze on ‘Forever’.
Forever is certain, and Forever is coming, so we must urgently be in ministry for His Kingdom and Glory. Our valley is not our home, it is our ministry journey. As we journey through the valley in ministry for His Kingdom, let’s set our eyes on the magnificent brilliance on the horizon: Forever.
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” – Colossians 3:1-3
Amen
Amen speaks to the absolute certainty of this prayer.
His Name will be Hallowed.
His Kingdom will come.
His will on earth and heaven is certain.
Our daily needs will be met.
We will be forgiven as we forgive.
He will provide us an escape from temptation.
He will deliver us from the evil.
His Kingdom, Power, and Glory, Forever – is absolutely certain.
Amen!
Will we participate in this certainty?
Will we answer His ministry call?
Or will we just sit and watch it certainly happen.
Let’s pray
“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
As we finish praying The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus urges us, “You’re not done; you’ve just begun”!
Go bring “Kingdom”!
Depend on His “Power”!
Do it for His “Glory”!
Urgently live for “Forever”!
His Kingdom Forever, Power Forever, Glory Forever is Certain - “Amen”!
Prayer prepares us for His ministry. Keep praying!
Oh Church…...He loves you, He loves you, He loves you!
Amen
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Throughout this prayer, Jesus has been shifting our perspective. Adjusting the gaze of our soul beyond what we typically look to. We’ve looked up to the heavens and prayed that the floodgates of His Hallowed Name, Kingdom, and Will would come crashing down like a waterfall into the pool of His church. We’ve looked out of our pool, and prayed that every day these waters would overflow to our valley as He provides our bread and needs, forgives us as we forgive others, leads us into escape from temptation, and delivers us from the evil.
As He closes this prayer, He points us to a final perspective. Look way out past our valley, and focus on a magnificent brilliance on the horizon: our certain destiny. With this final petition, Jesus urges us to now go from our prayer with Our Father, to our ministry with Our Father, by setting our eyes on the destiny of His ministry calling:
“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Jesus invited us into prayer, and now He invites us into His ministry.
- Our purpose for His ministry: “His Kingdom”
- Our ability for His ministry: “His Power”
- Our reason for His ministry: “His Glory”
- Our urgency for His ministry: “Forever”
- Our certainty of His ministry: “Amen.”
The “Our” is called to ministry for His Kingdom in our valley.
This prayer will result in:
- a heart’s cry desiring His name to be hallowed
- a longing for His Kingdom come
- a readiness to crucify my life on the cross of His will be done
- a humble dependency upon Him for my daily needs
- recognition of my sin and His graceful forgiveness poured out on me and overflowing to others
- my daily dependency upon His leading so that I might escape temptation
- the power of His mighty deliverance over evil
- as we continue to pray daily!
As this prayer stirs our hearts, we discover another purpose of prayer: Prayer prepares us for ministry.
His Kingdom Ministry
Any time you hear or read “ministry”, quit elevating it to only certain people. Biblical ministry simply means “service”, and we are all called to service in our valley for His Kingdom! My ministry calling used to be in a steel mill in my valley, now it is in a church in my valley. Both ministries are for His Kingdom, so neither is greater nor less than the other. Each of us has an essential calling to the ministry of bringing Kingdom to wherever He has placed us in our valley. To see your ministry, seek “Your Kingdom come” in your valley.
“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” – Matthew 6:33
The priority of our life is to seek His Kingdom, the purpose for our ministry is to bring His Kingdom, and we will only experience abundant life as we participate in His call to ministry for His Kingdom.
His Power
We have absolutely no ability to bring His Kingdom to our valley, except by His Power. We can only use ‘my power for my ministry for my kingdom’; or we can humbly depend on ‘His power for His ministry for His Kingdom”.
“For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.” – 1 Corinthians 4:20
“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.” – 2 Peter 1:3a
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” – Ephesians 3:20
His Glory
When we get to experience His Power working in us for His Kingdom, we need to be reminded of the reason for His ministry: His Glory! We not only get to be called into His ministry, we get to experience His power, and we get to give Him glory while doing so. We get to do what we were created to do: glorify God and enjoy Him forever!
When we reach our certain destiny in His Kingdom, we will all fall on our faces to give Him every weight of glory through worshipful adoration. All glory will be, and is, His. All glory has one destination: to be poured out on Him in worship! We get to live a life capturing glory for Him in ministry. And from now until Forever, we get to pour out this glory on Him through holy worship in the valley, while we journey to His Kingdom!
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” – 1 Corinthians 10:31
“To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” – Ephesians 3:21
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.” – Romans 11:36
Forever
As we close this prayer, Jesus fixes our gaze on ‘Forever’.
Forever is certain, and Forever is coming, so we must urgently be in ministry for His Kingdom and Glory. Our valley is not our home, it is our ministry journey. As we journey through the valley in ministry for His Kingdom, let’s set our eyes on the magnificent brilliance on the horizon: Forever.
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” – Colossians 3:1-3
Amen
Amen speaks to the absolute certainty of this prayer.
His Name will be Hallowed.
His Kingdom will come.
His will on earth and heaven is certain.
Our daily needs will be met.
We will be forgiven as we forgive.
He will provide us an escape from temptation.
He will deliver us from the evil.
His Kingdom, Power, and Glory, Forever – is absolutely certain.
Amen!
Will we participate in this certainty?
Will we answer His ministry call?
Or will we just sit and watch it certainly happen.
Let’s pray
“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
As we finish praying The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus urges us, “You’re not done; you’ve just begun”!
Go bring “Kingdom”!
Depend on His “Power”!
Do it for His “Glory”!
Urgently live for “Forever”!
His Kingdom Forever, Power Forever, Glory Forever is Certain - “Amen”!
Prayer prepares us for His ministry. Keep praying!
Oh Church…...He loves you, He loves you, He loves you!
Amen