2006-01-27
Good Morning Loved Ones,
In the last message on the subject of the Lord's Prayer from MT 6: 9-13, I shared Kay Arthur's view (with which I totally agree) that the Lord is teaching us worship, allegiance, submission, petition, confession, deliverance, and supplication, in that order. Let me restate the Lord's Prayer for the sake of analysis. "Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen."
At this point, it's appropriate to comment about the issue of forgiveness (which is a part of deliverance). I was led to look up MK 11: 25-26 in three versions of the Scriptures: the Good News Bible, Today's version; the NIV; the KJV. To my surprise, verse 26 didn't appear in the first two, but it did in the KJV. That is why I will cite God's will on this issue from it. [25] "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. [26] But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses." Don't be confused by the archaic language. The Father's intent is clear, as is the two-way aspect of the covenant relationship. When praying, we must be forgiving, as it is likely we have done something to others for which we need to be forgiven. This forces us to look at our interactions that haven't been smooth with another to see if we have done any wrong to cause the problem. There may be some surprises here for us, if we are truly honest with God and ourselves. It's pretty rare when things go wrong between people that only one person is at fault. Verse 26 makes it clear that if we refuse to be forgiving, then God won't forgive us for what we've done wrong.
Just in case someone with weak or no faith in Christ, a modern-day Pharisee for example, questions Christ's authority to grant forgiveness, he should read LK 5: 21-26. This passage is in the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man in which the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were questioning Christ, exclaiming in (21), "Who is this Man Who speaks such blasphemy! God is the only One Who can forgive sins!" Christ's response was to say to the paralyzed man in (24), "I tell you, get up, pick up your bed, and go home!" (25) "At once the man got up in front of them all, took the bed he had been lying on, and went home, praising God. That was followed by amazement, praise, and recognition that they had all seen a marvel accomplished. If it is meant that the questioner should come to faith, the Holy Spirit will take it from there.
One other lesson that should not be missed in the order of things in the Lord's Prayer is that supplication actually came second to last. "Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses... Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil..." God understands that we have a need to ask Him for things, and I believe He wants us to be able to separate the wants from the needs. If we don't understand this, I believe He will teach us this through the circumstances of our lives. He certainly has in my life. At one time, Peter and I lived comfortably financially. Today that is no longer true, but we are closer to God than ever before. That's the way our Lord wants it. And now, let's see what was last. "For Thine is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen." This is a restatement of our acknowledgement of God's ultimate sovereignty, power, authority, and everlasting glory-a reminder of our secondary position in the covenant relationship with Him and His remarkable attributes. As a believer, I have no difficulty now in accepting this position. That's because I now understand the total righteousness and loving nature of our God. But the road to that understanding wasn't easy for me. That was due to the devil's influence on me in making me arrogant and human-centered in the past. I'm not totally perfected yet and know that. If I forget it for a minute, the Lord has an often painful way of reminding me that I'm bringing on my own problems. When I remember God is First and Foremost in my life, then He gives me blessed inner peace. PS 62:5 states this far more eloquently than I can. "Only God gives inward peace, and I depend on Him." While I'm sharing my own views, I urge each of you to join me in looking at how these truths apply in your lives.
PRAYER: Dearest Father, as we approach Your mighty throne, You have told us that we may do so boldly and with confidence in You [EPH 3; 12]. We do this now, knowing that You really are the only Source of real inner peace we have. No giving in to temptation, no idol will ever supply this for us. While we come boldly and with confidence in You, our heads are bowed in reverence and acknowledgement of Your superiority in this covenant relationship. There are many ways we can pray to You, but our prayers must be said in honesty, openness, and respect. You will know when we are being duplicitous, for You see into our hearts. You deserve to have Your name honored, because no man on earth has ever been more perfect, righteous, or loving than You are. Those of us who are mature in the faith know that there is real strength in submission to You. There is nothing too "touchy feely" or cowardly in acknowledging the benefits of falling in love with Your Son, Jesus. Instead, it is the strong sign that a person values Your teaching, His sacrifice in the Atonement, and desires to live in eternal bliss with You. That's strength! Real strength! MT 5: 3 tells us that those who know they are spiritually impoverished without Your influence of righteousness in their lives are the ones who will inherit Your Kingdom. We can't live holy and sanctified lives without You. That kind of dependence on You is a necessity for eternal life with You. We are indeed imperfect sinners who confess our sins to you now... Only You can bring us deliverance in the form of breaking the evil one's strongholds on us [PS 31: 1-5]. Only You can guide us to right thoughts and behavior through our daily study of Your word and prayer interaction. You teach us that prayer is two-way communication where You get to speak first. You alone teach us to be caring listeners, Your servants of others in need. It is You who teaches us to reorder our priorities in the use of our time, in what we do, in the making of godly decisions, and all the other behavior changes from the sinful lives we inherited. And so, Dearest Abba, we acknowledge You as our One and Only true God, offer You our worship, praise, and thanks, and dedicate ourselves to striving to be more Christ-like in our ways. In His strong and holy name, we pray. Amen.
Before the time when Bibles could be printed, it was necessary to teach people by brief index sentences what was to be remembered. In next week's message, we'll look at some of those index sentences and see some of the cross references that can be used from them to give even more profound understanding. The lessons from the Lord's Prayer are numerous and remarkable when we take the time to look into them. An overarching truth is the love that God has for us sinners in taking the time to give us these lessons. We should never miss that. There would be no Bible if God didn't love each and every one of us! We can feel privileged and challenged at the same time for having been born in this information age. We must have the courage to use the technology at our beck and call for God's purposes. And yes, in today's world that does take courage. To help us gain that courage, we should remember 2 CH 16: 9, "The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those who hearts are fully committed to Him." That should give us comfort to know. PS 107: 43 also helps. "Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord." Our loving God offers us blessed hope in LAM 3: 31-33, "The Lord is merciful and will not reject us forever. He may bring us sorrow, but his love for us is sure and strong. He takes no pleasure in causing us grief or pain." And we are given His guidance, the wisest ever in LAM 3: 40, "Let us examine our ways and turn back to the Lord." In the Lord is more comfort than from any other Source. LAM 3: 22-24, "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my Portion; therefore I will wait for Him.'" God is our Hiding Place, as we see in PS 32: 7, "You are my Hiding Place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance." That is why we can make a vow to praise God and praise Him often. PS 86: 12-13, "I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify Your name forever. For great is Your love toward me; You have delivered me from the depths of the grave." Hallelujah! Praise His name forever!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn