Our Father Prayer

The Lord's Prayer is also sometimes called the "Our Father Prayer."

Jesus gave us this prayer as an example of how to pray.

This Prayer is found in Matthew 6:9-13.

This is Part Two

For Part One about "The Lord's Prayer" click this line.

Part one covered Matthew 6:9-10.

Here are the questions that are answered from Part One:

Why did Jesus begin his prayer the way he did?

What is the kingdom of Heaven?

How do we bring the kingdom of heaven to earth?

Is God's will always done on earth?

Part Two will cover Matthew 6:11-13.

Scripture verses are in red.

_______________________

Give us this day our daily bread.

Bread symbolizes our needs.

Here Jesus is teaching us to pray for our daily needs.

The Lord's Prayer teaches us to pray for our daily needs, yet after 2,000 years, most Christians rarely pray for their daily needs.

When we accept Jesus as Savior and get born again, we can easily get the idea that we are now set for life. We may never be rich but we will always have all our needs met.

Then when we have needs that are not met, we tend to redefine what the word "need" means.

This idea of automatically getting our needs met

is silently perpetuated in the church by emphasizing such verse as:

"But my God shall supply all my needs

according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:19

Without relating them to such verses as:

"Ye have not, because ye ask not."

James 4:2b

Philippians 4:19 is scripture and therefore, it is true. Yet we need to remember that sometimes there are conditions to the promises of God.

In this "Our Father Prayer" Jesus appears to be showing us that we also need to request that our needs be supplied.

I am not trying to say that God is nit picky. I am trying to highlight that there are sometimes conditions to the promises of God.

For example, Jesus said,

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
For every one that asketh receiveth;
and he that seeketh findeth; and
to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Matthew 7:7-8

In this "Our Father Prayer" it does look like Jesus is teaching us to ask.

James chapter four not only tells us that we sometimes don't get because we don't ask - James goes on to say that sometimes we still don't get because we ask amiss.

So obviously there are secrets to the fulfillment and manifestation of the promises of God.

"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him;
and he will shew them his covenant."

Psalm 25:14 KJV

____

The "Our Father Prayer" reminds me that Jesus called himself the
Bread of Life.

Jesus IS the ultimate answer to all my needs.

And forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

This is usually the part of the prayer that makes people feel uncomfortable.

It is great to pray for God to meet our needs.

It is not so great to ask God to forgive us as we forgive others.

~ ~ ~

What if Jesus was really serious about that?

What if God forgives us only when we forgive others?

If Jesus is serious here, he is telling us to ask the Father to forgive us if we forgive others.

Does that mean that if we don't pray that verse then we get off the hook?

Well, when we look at the verse right after the Lord's Prayer, it looks like he is not going to let us wiggle off the hook.

After Jesus finished this “Our Father prayer,” he re-emphasized this point in verses 14-15.

Jesus explained,

"For if ye forgive men their trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

Jesus made a point of boldly putting forgiveness and unforgiveness in a prominent place in his discussion of prayer. He included it in his "Our Father Prayer," and then he re-emphasized it immediately after the prayer.

Could it be that he knew that the part in his prayer about forgiveness would be the part that would grab their attention and trouble them the most?

Jesus obviously wanted the people of that day and the people today to deal with his comments about forgiveness.

Forgiveness can be a difficult foe to conquer.

Inspirational-Prayers has significant information on
the subject of forgiveness.
We have helpful content on Learning to Forgive and
How to Forgive.

Look at our Bible Devotions page for all our forgiveness pages.

Lead us not into temptation

The 13th verse of the Our Father Prayer has been a difficult one for theologians over the centuries to interpret.

On the surface, one could think that it meant that God sometimes tempts us, and we are to pray against God tempting us.

But if that were true then what do we do with James 1:13-14, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed."

James tells us that God does not tempt us. The Bible does not contradict itself.

So what does Jesus mean in the Lord's Prayer?

I encourage you to read other commentaries about this, but I will not shy away from this verse. I will give you my commentary.

From reading James, we see that tempting could possibly be defined as:

The drawing away through enticement.

Not just putting someone in a position of being tempted.

It is the demonic forces who speak words of enticement into our mind to try to get us to sin. It is the enemy and his forces who try to deceive us.

For example, the enemy is always trying to get us to see sin as exciting and fun.

God never does that. God tells us the truth.

God does not use deception, and he does not speak words into our mind to entice us to sin.

The following is not the best example, but I'll give it until I think of a better one.

For example, if I take a child to a store, there is an opportunity for that child to steal. (Life is full of opportunities to sin. Giving a person an opportunity is not necessarily a sin. )

But if I plant thoughts about the excitement of stealing inside the child's mind, and then take the child to the store - then I am guilty of enticing the child to steal.

Father God allowed Jesus to be tempted by the devil.

Father God did not plant words of excitement - about sinning - in the mind of Jesus. Father God did not plant words of justification and excuses - about giving in to the devil.

Actually, we know what was running through the mind of Jesus. It was Old Testament scripture that could be used against the devil.

If we will plant scripture in our mind by memorizing scripture, the Holy Spirit will bring the appropriate scriptures to our mind in times of temptation.

Whether we like it or not, Father God will not totally keep us from being in a position to be tempted - BUT he will not do the tempting.

As I pray, "Lead us not into temptation" the Lord knows that I am praying for strength not to sin. He knows that I am expressing my concern that I am capable of sinning and I don't want to sin. He knows that I am voicing my concern that I will sin during a time when I am feeling weak in my spirit and strong in my flesh.

Verse 13 in the "Our Father Prayer" is a

dedication to God and a statement of opposition to evil.

Here are a couple of translations that may bring more clarity:

"Keep us clear of temptation, and save us from evil."

J.B. Phillips New Testament

"And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one."

New Living Translation

"Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil"

The Message Bible

The message of verse 13 certainly embodies the idea of asking the Lord to help me to make good choices so I won't put myself in a position of temptation. And it also includes a prayer for helping me not to give in to temptations that I encounter.

But deliver us from evil.

Jesus highlighted Father God as our Deliverer

in his "Our Father Prayer."

~

Scripture highlighting God as deliverer:

"The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my god, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. " Psalm 18:2

"But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying." Psalm 70:5

"For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper." Psalm 72:12

~

We can see that the Old Testament revealed that our God is a deliverer. That role is one of the key needs we have in this life.

Evil attacks us and sometimes holds us hostage.

It is our God who is our deliverer!

We cannot deliver ourselves. We are not capable.

~

Only a righteous God can rescue us from the traps of evil in this world.

Jesus models the pattern of asking for help in the Our Father Prayer

We must humble ourselves and admit that we cannot deliver ourselves.

We need God.

"God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble."

James 4:6 NKJV

For thine is the kingdom and the power,

and the glory, for ever.

Amen

Jesus ends this prayer the way he started it - with praise.

He gave praise bookends to this "Our Father Prayer."

It is always good to have praise for our Father God ready on our lips.

Copyright © 2012 Beth McLendon of Inspirational-Prayers.com

Back to the top of Our Father Prayer