Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
Matthew 6:9-13
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”…and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Luke 22:40,46
“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Luke 21:34-36
We should absolutely expect our prayers to be answered if we are praying for things which Jesus has explicitly commanded us to pray. Obeying his commands to pray for specific items eliminates the question of whether or not I am praying in the will of God. Last week I wrote the first of two articles on praying as Jesus commanded. I wrote about the prayer for those who abuse or persecute us and the prayer for laborers for the harvest.
What we traditionally refer to as the Lord’s Prayer contains some more specific commands for what to pray for.
Worship first
As a prelude to our petitions, Jesus commands worship in the form of acknowledging the holiness of the Father. I’ll not spend time on this command since it is not a petition.
Your kingdom come
From here, Jesus says to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This petition may seem so daunting that we can’t wrap our heads and hearts around it. My prayers will assist in bringing the kingdom of God on earth? Yes, they will. But let’s look at this on a more local basis instead of the whole world at once.
The kingdom of God is defined in Romans 14:17 as “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Think about your household. Do all your family members live together in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit? What about the personnel in your workplace or school? Aren’t these small arenas that need to experience the kingdom of God? Is it not obedient to Jesus to pray for the kingdom to come in these situations where you live? In this case, the kingdom’s coming will mean the people’s submission to the kingdom’s King; they will become Jesus’ followers.
These prayers for the kingdom to come and God’s will to be done can, and should, be expanded to include all of our society, our schools, our city, county, state, and federal governments.
Give us this day our daily bread
God is the God of provision. In the West, we are all, even the poorest among us, wealthy compared to the standard of living of some parts of the earth. But even in our welfare state, where everyone willing to live responsibly is taken care of, we need to trust God for our provision. In nations that do not have our social safety net, trusting God is required. The prayer is for daily provision. Even we who are blessed with an abundance must realize that we have what we have daily by the mercy of God. It can all disappear overnight except for the providence of God. None of us stand independent of God and his provision. He gives us life, and breath, and everything. Pray for your daily provision.
Forgive us as we forgive
Praying for and extending forgiveness is a command of Jesus. Few, if any of us, can make it through a day without sin of some kind. If we think it is easy not to sin, I believe we have an inadequate understanding of sin. Remember, Jesus extended the definition of adultery to include a lustful look at a woman, and murder as anger, and of course, let’s not forget covetousness, the wanting of something we don’t have (thanks to the advertising industry, undoubtedly the factory of covetousness).
God’s grace has provided for our sin. 1 John 1:9 reads, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Maybe the most challenging part of this petition is that it is connected to our forgiving of others who owe us. Forgiveness is always costly. If you forgive someone, what you are saying is, “What you owe me, I will absorb. It will come out of my pocket.” This is true whether you are forgiving someone a monetary debt, emotional debt, or a social debt. To forgive a murder is to say that you owe me the life of the one you took, but instead, I will bear the loss myself and not require your debt of you. True forgiveness is not easy. Just imagine the debt that the human race owed to God for our sin against him, and he bore the debt on the cross in the person of Jesus. This is why we can forgive. We have received God’s forgiveness. Therefore as his children, we can extend forgiveness to others from the grace which we have received.
Lead us not into temptation – Deliver us from the evil one
This is a difficult passage. How could God tempt us to sin? He doesn’t. (James 1:13) But he will arrange things so we will be challenged and our faith tested. (1 Peter 1:7) The temptation to sin cannot be decoupled from the work of Satan. Yes, we have enough ability to sin just from our fleshly propensities, but Satan also likes to do all he can to bring us down.
The evil one not only wants to tempt us to sin and break fellowship with the Father, but he will also do his best to thwart our work of the kingdom. He will deceive when he can. He will sometimes afflict with physical afflictions if they get in the way of the advancement of the kingdom. One of the most familiar stories of missionaries is the physical affliction and disease that they encounter just when it appears there will be a breakthrough for the gospel in some unreached area. The evil one does not want to give up his captives. Our prayer regularly is to be delivered from the evil one.
Pray for strength
There are terrible things that are to come on the earth, in addition to the many terrible things that have already come on the earth since the ascension of Jesus. The persecution of Jesus-followers is the objective of the evil one. Jesus, knowing that since they mistreated him, they will mistreat us, commands us to pray for strength that we might be able to escape “all these things” and to stand before the Son of Man.
When we don’t anticipate persecution, beatings, jailings, and even death because we follow Jesus, we tend not to take this command seriously. In some parts of the world, this is their daily reality, and this prayer for strength is, I believe, common. Anyone observant in the United States is aware that we are at a watershed. If there is not another Great Awakening and reformation in the United States, this persecution will be our reality.
Books have been written about each of these commands of Jesus to pray. I have done nothing here but identify the commands. The point in writing these two articles is to identify all the things Jesus specifically commanded us to pray for. We all do well when we obey “all the things he has commanded us.”
I pray this will inform your prayer life and mine as well. In a very real sense, the coming of his kingdom is the answer to all of these petitions. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
