Lords Prayer
V
9-14 – Lord’s
Prayer
This
prayer can be seen in Luke 1:1-4 with a small difference. “For thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen”, which is not in
Luke’s version. The scholarly opinion is that St. Matthew added this prayer to
the teaching about prayer at Sermon, which Lord taught in some other time.
Here
our Lord teaches the ‘how-to’ pray. They are:
1.
Dependence on God
2.
Praising God
3.
Submitting to God’s likes
4.
Prayer for human’s bodily needs
5.
Prayer for our spiritual needs
6.
Praising the Lord
The
Holy Church gave foremost importance to Lord’s Prayer. All other prayers are
modeled in light of this prayer.
The
Jews prayed 18 special prayers and also a prayer authored by their Rabbi daily.
Apostles prayed with Lord’s Prayer, which our Lord taught them. The doctrine
of 12 apostles (Did -ache) commands that each Christian should at least pray
this prayer 3 times a day.
Mar
Yacoob (AD 451) [James of Sarugh] describes the importance of Lord’s Prayer
as:
“Grand
of the Prayer given to us by the Price of God
Blessed is the one who meditate it in his memory
Sanctify, and complete is the beauty of it
And one who pray this daily in faith will get all surely.”
[About
Mar Yacob: “This is the 'Sroogile Mor Yacoob' whose poetic writings are widely
used in our liturgy. He is a very well known figure in the Syriac literature.
His 400 memre and 43 letters survice. He
died in 521. Read Scattered Pearls by H.H. Aphreim I pp.555-561.
He is titled Malfono by Moolayil Achen]
We
pray that:
·
Since
God is our Father, His name should be Hallowed
·
Since
God is our King, His kingdom should come
·
Since
God is our Lord, we pray that His “will be done on earth”
Along
with this prayer we should come close to God with love just like we come to our
father with that intimacy and love. We should also have a passion for and work
for His kingdom to come. We
should be ruled by the thought that we and others should allow His will (glory
and agenda) to be on all of us. His name, kingdom and will should have the
top priority in our lives.
We
pray as His sons, devotee, citizens [of His kingdom], dependants, sinners, and
feeble.
Unless
we consider ourselves as the sons of God, it is meaningless to use this prayer.
We pray “Your will be done on earth” and if this should happen,
then our ‘will’ [desire] should be submitted to God.
This
prayer deals with future, present and past. “Deliver us from the evil one”
is about future, while “Give us this day our daily bread” is about present
and “forgive us our debts” is about past. How noble is this!
Each
verse in this prayer should be a self-introspection for us.
Since God is my Father and I am His son, are we living sinless? “Every
one that is born of God, doth not practice sin; because his seed is in him, and
he cannot sin, because he is born of God
“(1 John 3:9). Do I have the
fatherly love of the Son to God? What
have I done for a) glorifying the name of God b) His kingdom to come c) His Will
be done on earth. I have many
worldly growth and many of my needs are satisfied. Do I pride about this in vain
or do I regard it all as a blessing of God? Do I have a forgiving mind to my
adversaries? Do I avoid the
situations that could lead to temptations? Do I wish to win the temptations with
the help of God?
The presence of heavenly Father is the foremost sign of heaven.
This prayer reminds us to raise our hearts to heavenly God and move
closer to that Heavenly presence with devoutness.
The way Abraham, Moses, Ezekiel, and John did in God’s presence should
be a model for us (Gen 17:3; Exodus 3:6; Ezekiel 1:28; Rev 1: 17).
[“Abram
fell facedown”; “Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at
God”; “When I [Ezekiel]
saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking”; “When I [John]
saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead”]
Along
with that, we should have a repenting mind about our sins, too. (Isaiah 6:1-5:
His place is Holy; therefore we need to be sanctified, too.
Also refer Psalms 15; 24:3, 4; Hebrews 12:14; Matthew 5:8)
[“Make
every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no
one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14)]
Scripture
about Father’s place (Heaven):
1.
“Now I am going to him who sent me” (John 16:5)
2.
It is the Father’s place
3.
Stephen saw “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man
standing at the right hand of God”. (Acts 7:2).
4.
We have an “advocate” (Para-cca-leetha) in heaven (1 John
2:1). “Christ is seated
at the right hand of God” (Col 3:1); our heart and treasure should be in
heaven (Mat 6; 19:21)
5.
Heaven is eternal (2 Cor 5:1; Matthew 25:46; John 10:28 ; 1Pet 1:4; 2
Pet 1:11; Rev 22:5; Psalm 23:6)
6.
Heaven has a throne (Acts 7:49) and “the LORD is on his heavenly
throne”
7.
God answers from Heaven (Nehemiah 9:27; Psalms 20:6)
8.
He passes out Judgments from heaven (Genesis 19:24; Romans 2:8)
9.
The names of saints are written in Heaven (Luke 10:20; Hebrews 12:24)
10.
They will be rewarded in Heaven (Matthew 5:12, 1Peter 1:45)
11.
The other names used are:
a.
Storehouse (Matthew 3:12,
13:30)
b.
“It is the kingdom of the Christ and God” (Eph 5:5; 1 Thess 2:12 ;
Heb 12:28; Luke 22:29; Luke 12:32; Mat 13:43)
c.
Father’s house (John 14:2; John 14:2; Psalm 23:6; 2 Cor 5:1 ; Rev 23)
d.
Mount
Zion (Rev 14:3; Heb 12:22)
e.
Hill
of the Lord ( Psalm 24:3)
f.
Heavenly
city ( Heb 11:10; 14, 16;
12:22)
Even
if a person is praying alone, he is not alone.
All who accept the Fatherhood of God are brothers themselves. Therefore
we are all related not only to God, but also to all human beings.
Our Lord has emphasized in His teachings about not only of brotherly love
but also love for the enemy, too (Mat 5:23, 24, 44, 46).
Before one should pray, one should avoid selfishness and pray for others,
too.
“Our
Father”
In
OT, God is described in some places as Father of Israelites (Hosea
11:1; Isaiah
64:8, etc.).
But in most places God is describes as Holy God and Lord of the Hosts
(Isaiah 44: 6-8, etc.). In Exodus
34:6-7, God is shown as merciful and forgiver of sins.
But it is Christ who showed Fatherhood of God and His character, too;
“One who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
Since
God is the Father, the brotherhood is universal. This is not confined by race,
country, or even date. This is what
our Lord showed through the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Since
God is Father, we can approach Him always and He loves us and forgives us and
always considerate to us (Matthew 10:30).
Verse
6:10: “Since
God is the father, His will be done”
1.
Lord said “I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who
sent me.” (John 5:30)
2.
“For
whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother"
(Mark 3:35)
3.
“Who
looks to the Son is the Will of the Father” (John 6:40)
4.
It
is God's will that you should be sanctified (1 Thess 4:3)
5.
Give
thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will
(1 Thess 5:16)
6.
Doing
good is God’s will (1 Peter
2:15)
7.
We should repent (Acts)
8.
Be
perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48)
9.
Whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin (1 John 3:9)
Jesus
Christ is the “only begotten” Son of God.
When we humans ceased from being the sons of God, our Lord came to
reinstate us into that privilege again. “To all who did receive him, who
believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John
1:12). And this privilege is
so great (1 John 3:1).
St.
Cyprian (AD 250) has said, “Unless church is your mother, you will not have
God as Father”
6:9:
“Hallowed
be your name”
Tethullain
(AD 150-222) has said that “when we pray this, we should think that we have to
glorify His name on us who is in Him and also glorify His name in others, too.
We should be aware of our ‘desire’ to consecrate His name all over
the world and about our ‘responsibilities’ in getting it done.”
Father’s
name should be glorified through us (John 15:8); you should cause God's name to
be blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you (Romans 2:24)
At
any situations glorify God (Job) When
our lifestyle and faith are Christian, then God’s name will be glorified.
We
glorify His name when we:
1.
Die for God (John 21:19;Heb 2:9)
2.
Witness Christ ( John
15:4-8; 2 Cor 9:13; 1 Peter 2:12)
3.
Are being insulted (suffer)
for God (1 Peter 4:14)
[Read
James 3:10; Ecclesiastics 43:30;
1 Corinthians 6:13]
Let
us glorify God’s name. “Therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:20).
Keep in mind also that not glorifying God is punishable (Malachi 2:2;
Acts 12:23; Romans 1:21). King
David, St. Mary, angles, shepherds, paralytic crippled woman, leper, the blind
man, the centurion, Jerusalem church (Acts 11:18), and Gentiles of Antioch all
glorified God’s name (Acts 13:48).
Verse
6:10: “Your
kingdom come”
1.
Kingdom of God was the first preaching of Jesus in His public ministry
(Mark 1:14)
2.
His purpose was to speak about the kingdom of God;
"I was sent for this purpose” (Luke 4:43)
3.
He proclaimed this always; “Jesus traveled about from one town and
village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God” (Luke
8:1)
4.
“The kingdom of God is already within you” (Luke 8:11) and will come
in full as taught in this prayer.
We
should understand that God’s kingdom is a fellowship of people who does
God’s will, just like in heaven. So
it is God’s authority. When we pray “Your kingdom come”, we should
submit to God in full.
The
Jewish thoughts about the kingdom of Heaven:
1.
The Messiah would revive them from their political slavery. He would come
from David’s tribe. He would
establish His kingdom and rule not only Israelites but also Gentiles too. But
for a long time they were ruled by Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and
Romans. But still they hoped for the Messiah as seen in Isaiah (11:1, 23:5,
30:9, 2: 2,3; 4-11, 60:12-45; Amos 9:13, 14; Isaiah 32:15, 51:3).
2.
In the NT, the word ‘Kingdom of God’ is used to describe Heaven and
about the church, which accepts Christ as the King. The membership in the Church
of Christ will make them eligible for salvation. “And the Lord added to the
church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47).
3.
When we pray “Thy kingdom come”:
a.
One accepts Christ as King.
b.
Be thinking that we should accept His commandments and do His will.
c.
We should wish for a society of just, truth, mercy, holiness, and love;
also wish that the whole world be ruled by Christ and an introspection as to
what I should do to materialize this.
d.
Any sacrifice for the establishment of Kingdom of God will be rewarded on
earth and in the Heaven; our Lord told this to the disciples.
e.
If God rules our lives, then Kingdom of God is established in our lives.
Its effect is gracious. We
may have sufferings and loses but we gain great happiness (Remember the parable
of treasure buried in the field [Mat 13:44] and merchant searching for pearls
[Mat 13:45-46]).
f.
The whole world is ruled by Devil (John
12:31; 14:30; 16:11)
and we are in a struggle ‘against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
realms’ (Eph 6:12). But Lord will end it successfully (1 Cor 15:24, 25; Mat
13:33).
g.
Our Lord compared Kingdom of God to “leaven”
(Matthew 13:33). So as a “Christian yeast”, one has to a “leaven” the
whole world. Also the parable
of mustard seed (Mat 13: 21-30) is thought provoking.
If God’s will is sowed on someone, it really grows very well (e.g.: the
apostles).
h.
End of those who is not good for the Kingdom of God is described in the
parable of the weed (Mat 13:24) and fishing net (Mat 13:49-50).
i.
For God’s kingdom to come, our repentance is necessary. “The kingdom
of God is near. Repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15). Faith is also
like this. “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not
enter it” (Mark 10:15).
j.
Our principle is a world that has no wickedness; for God’s kingdom is
filled with truth, justice, love, peace, and satisfaction. So we have to try to
have the Kingdom of God in us and grow it, too.
“Your
will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
God’s
will is done on heaven by angels faithfully, unquestioned. They are good model
for us. So what do they do?
They
worship God and Christ (Heb 1:9; Phil. 2:9-11) and announce God’s will to
humans (Matthew 2:13:20 Luke 1:19-28; Acts 5:19, 20; 8:26, 10:5; 27:23) and
perform God’s intentions (Mat 13:41; 28:2; John 5:4). They praise God (Luke
2:13, 14 Rev 5:11; 7:11, 12) and rejoice in our repentance (Luke 15:7, 10) and
preserves the children of God (Psalm 34:7, 91:11, 12; Mat 18:10, 11).
So
just like the angels, we should praise God, obey God, fulfill the Will of God,
and try to bring others towards repentance, too. Then we are carrying out the
Will of God. From the true interpretations of the H. Bible, God’s Will is
revealed to us. Our Lord’s Prayer “not as I will, but as you will” (Mat
26:39) should be a guide for us. When
we carry out our will instead of God’s, it is the sin (e.g.: Adam’s sin).
Our Lord was emphatic in that knowing God’s will and not carrying out it,
meant punishment. Our Lord said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me
and to finish his work” (John 4:34). Lord
should be our model.
So
far the Lord’s Prayer dealt with God’s will. Now the prayer focuses on our
bodily needs. People who pray for
material prosperity should remember the order: first God, and then our bodily
needs.
In
the first part of the Lord’s Prayer, the focus was on our duties to God, like
worshiping Him, carrying out the Will of the Lord, etc.
But this part deals with the care God gives to His children: absolving
of the sins, protection, etc. These
prayers are not our selfish needs, but it is the cause by which God’s name
will be glorified in us.
Verse
6:11: “Give
us this day our daily bread”
1.
This makes it clear, our dependence on God because God knows all our
needs
2.
People who do not pray Lord’s Prayer also get food. So this is not
merely a prayer for food alone. But it is prayer which shows our
responsibilities and dependence to our Lord as children of God.
3.
This is clearer from the fact that even millionaires and kings also pray
this prayer.
4.
It was our Lord Himself who commanded not to worry about anything and
“your heavenly Father knows that you need” (Matthew 6:32). Same Lord also
asked us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread”. This is to convey a
message that we cannot live without the gifts from God.
Every fruit that we enjoy in our life are gifts from our Lord. All our
abilities are gift from our God. We should always live with this awareness that
nothing is because of our abilities.
5.
Always remember that our clothing, food, etc. is a gift what we received
from our Lord. So use it wisely and
carefully. Also make a decision not to get them by any ungodly manner.
6.
Always give thanks to our Lord before and after meals.
Our
Lord showed that He cares for the needs of His people (e.g.: He ordered to give
food to thousands of people who listened to him continuously [John 6:1-14]).
The
word in the prayer “today” is very important, too.
It shows our dependence every day.
Also trust in God, who gave food today, to give us food tomorrow also,
and not to worry about tomorrow. Remember
God, who gave Manna to Israelites every day (Exodus
16: 14-36).
The
prayer also uses the word “our” and not “my” daily bread.
1.
It shows our status as the children of God and that we all belong to same
family
2.
We should share with others. If we share with others the whole poverty of
the world will go away.
Verse
6:12
“And
forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”
Our
Lord compulsorily exhorts that we should forgive others:
1.
When gifts are brought to Lord
2.
The parable of the servants ( Mat 18:23-26)
3.
Our Lord forgave from the cross
If
we do not forgive other’s faults then God will not forgive our sins either.
There are two types of sins. 1) Do what one is not supposed to do 2)
don’t do what one is supposed to do. The second one is a debt.
When Christians do not do what he is supposed to do for God or for
glorifying His name, then it is a debt that should be paid back to God. One
who does not forgive his brother does not have the right to pray this prayer.
“In your anger do not sin" (Psalm 4:4); “Do not let the sun go down
while you are still angry” (Eph
4:26).
That
is you should forgive the same day, ever better then and there.
Remember three things: forget, forgive, and love. It is not only
forgiving to the one who persecute you, but if you love him too, the enmity will
disappear.
Verse
6:13: “And
do not lead us into temptation”
There
are two Aramaic word ‘nesyono’ (testing) and ‘nesyoono’
(to test). The word ‘test’ is used to mean ‘attracted to
unrighteousness’. There are various verses in the Holy Scriptures that show
different aspects of trial. “God don’t tempt anyone; but each one is
tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed”
(James 1:13).
The
greed for money is a course of trials.
“People
who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and
harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10For the
love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:9-10).
The source of this is from the Devil [Tempter] (Matthew 4:3; 1 Thess 3:5;
Genesis 3:1-5).
“The
trial to examine the faith” (1 Peter 1:7) and “trial for the fear of God”
can all be shielded by God’s power and prayer (Matthew 26:41). Many
faithful suffer because of trials (1 Peter 1:6). “But God is faithful; He
will not suffer you to be tempted beyond that which you are able to bear, but
with the temptation will also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear
it” (1 Cor 10:13). He will keep
you safe in the time of testing (Rev 3:10).
We
fall into temptation because of our weak body [flesh] (Mat 26:41).
Devil continuously looks for an opportunity to tempt us. We
should remember this always and stand firm in the faith (Eph 6:16; 1 Peter
5:9). Always walk away from the
path of the wicked or evil (Proverbs 4:14-15). God will bless you, if you don't
give up when your faith is being tested (James 1:2-4, 12).
Always
pray for God’s help for not falling into temptations.
Keep away from evil wicked things (people, book, TV, internet, radio,
etc.).
[
Also read Proverbs 6:34; 14:17,29,; 15:1,18; 16:14;16:32; 19:11; 19:19;21:14;
22:24,25;24:17,18; 27:4; 29:8;
29:22; 20:33 ; Ephesians 3:8]
Verse
6: “For
thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever: Amen”
In
Luke’s gospel, this part is not there. But this was in the Lord’s Prayer
from the apostolic times (Did ache). Apart from all this, the prayer that
begins with praise of the Lord ends with the praise of the Lord, too.
But
any Christian who thinks that power, strength, nobility of one’s work, etc.
are all because of his own abilities, do not have the right to pray Lord’s
Prayer. The people and society
accept in full God’s kingdom, His omnipotent power. Not
only that, they should also accept that whatever they do is for God’s glory.
Then we will have peace in family, society, and in one’s own life.
“Amen”
= True