In response to the appeal, Lord, teach us to pray, the Saviour gives the model prayer
for all time. When it has been prayed intelligently, Dr.
Campbell Morgan says, we have swept the whole realm of prayer.
Our Lord makes it clear that it is not a set liturgy. He does not say, In
these words pray ye; but, After this manner pray ye: that is, it is a pattern for all prayer, not a stereotyped petition to be
constantly repeated: there is no record in Scripture that it was ever used by
the Apostles or by the
The prayers first words are an open door into the heart of
God:- Our Father, which art in heaven. In the words of Archbishop Trench:- We must not conceive of prayer as an overcoming of Gods
reluctance, but as a laying hold of His highest willingness.
It is all the regenerate on
earth approaching, not the awful Creator of the universe before Whom we are as
dust, but our Father in heaven: our appeal tells of love, tender care, deep
concern on the one side; and of confiding affection, complete trust, and
unhesitating approach on the other. And
the marvel of this Fatherhood is in the words Our Father in
heaven:
it is a Fatherhood comprehending all
knowledge, all power, all wonder, all eternity. And it is Our Father not, My Father: it is a brief prayer in which every petition is offered
by the whole Church: just as, on one occasion some years ago, nine men prayed in fifteen minutes in eight different languages.
Now the prayer, as petition, opens; and its opening is worship:- Hallowed be thy name. We do not pray, Hallow thy name, for it is already
absolutely holy; but, Hallowed be thy name - let it be sacred on every lip of
angels and of men. Our first deep,
strong note in prayer is to be the glory of God: our first petition, prompted
by what we already know of God, is that God will not rest till all Heaven is
filled with His love, and all the universe knows how spotless, how everlasting,
how awful is the holiness of God. It is
the Churchs echo on earth of the cry that envelopes the Throne:- Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and which is
and which is to come (Rev. 4: 8).
The first petition thus concerns the glory of God; the second
petition concerns the dominion of God, and covers all prophecy:- Thy kingdom come. It is the only prayer (so far as we know) that God ever
commanded Christ to pray:- Ask of me, and I will give thee the uttermost parts of the earth for
thy possession (Ps. 2: 8).
At this very moment we are probably entering the greatest war of all
history, in which the whole world may yet be involved: never was there a moment
more urgent for prayer invoking Christs universal dominion. The fundamental denial of Scripture
eschatology in the Churches requires what is, as a fact, almost universal - the
change of the coming of the Kingdom into the extension of the Kingdom: but
the [millennial]
Kingdom has not come. It is very beautiful to observe that we do not pray for the Church to be taken
to the Kingdom, but for the Kingdom to be brought to the world: it is not
love of the world, but love for the world, that is to make us to pray the Bibles last prayer, - Even so come,
Lord Jesus (Rev. 22: 20).
The third petition is missionary:- Thy will be done on
earth, as it is done in heaven. The first petition seeks the glory of the Father; the second,
the glory of the Son; the third absorbs us in the present work of the Holy
Ghost. For what is the will of God which
can now be done? God willeth that all men should be
saved, and come to the knowledge of the
truth (1 Tim. 2: 4).
So here we cover, in one brief sentence, the Holy Spirits work
throughout the world. And what a prayer
of how Gods will should be done at this moment! A Sunday school teacher once asked his class,- How is the will of God done in heaven? The first child replied, Immediately; The second, Diligently; the third, Always; the fourth, With all their
hearts
and the fifth, All together.
So we pray that Gods will may
be done, here and now, as the burning Seraphs do it - without ceasing, without
doubting, without delaying, without sinning.
We now reach the human petitions; and the first is for bodily
need:- Give us this day our daily bread. We are so slow to realize the source
of all our supplies. A minister in
The second human petition - the only one
that is dependent on a condition, and the only one which our Lord
explains and enforces - is most gravely challenging. Forgive its
our debts, as we forgive - as we
have forgiven, in the Revised Version them that trespass
against us; or, still more emphatic in Luke (40: 4), - for we ourselves also forgive
every one that is indebted to us. Our pre-conversion
sins were forgiven on the ground of Calvary alone, with no condition as to our
attitude to others; known sin after conversion, confessed and abandoned, is
instantly forgiven (1 John 1: 9); but our remaining sins, either unknown or unabandoned - and
the Lord assumes sin in us all: the saint must confess sin as well as the
sinner - actually depend for pardon on our forgiveness of others. Ours is to be what was the master-prayer of
The third human petition strikes the keynote of wise and
profound humility. Lead us not
into temptation - testing, proving, sifting; trial in order to the
discovery of character, which may be done by friend or foe. Satan - as job experienced - has no power to
tempt except such as God allows him; but the deeper is our knowledge of our own
hearts; the more passionate will be this prayer. We plead against, any severe trial of our fidelity:
we do not covet martyrdom, lest we fail in the moment of crisis: we pray to
escape the hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try - to test, to prove them that
dwell upon the earth (Rev. 3: 10).
Our final petition is for sanctification. But - if testing does occur - deliver us
from evil. This covers all forms of evil: physical pain,
persecution, peril; but supremely spiritual evil - evil thoughts, evil
ambitions, evil suspicions: all summed up in the Evil One. Deliver us from evil - from all the wretched fascination and all the miserable results of sin,
from its blindness and insensibility, from its un-spirituality and rebellion,
from its hardness and its punishment, from all that dishonours God and ruins
the soul, from its guilt, its power, its shame, and its doom (H. R. Reynolds, D.D.).
The power of prayer Dr. Samuel Chadwick has well summed up:-
Satan
dreads nothing but prayer - the Church that lost its Christ was full of good
works. Activities are multiplied that
meditation may be ousted, and organizations are increased that prayer may have
no chance. Souls may be lost in good
works, as surely as in evil ways. The
one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies,
prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom,
but trembles when we pray!
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THE
LORDS PRAYER
Analyzing more particularly the sentiments of the prayer, we
observe that the model prayer gives a portraiture of a
model man. (1) Filial faith. Our Father.
(2) Reverence. Hallowed, etc. (3) Loyalty. Thy kingdom
come. (4) A conformed spirit. Thy will be done. (5) Recognition of
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I used to think the Lord Prayer was a short prayer; but as I
live longer, and see more of life, I begin to believe there is no such thing as
getting through it. f
a man, in praying that prayer, were to be stopped by every word until he had
thoroughly prayed it, it would take him a lifetime. Our Father - there would be a wall a hundred
feet high in just those two words to most men.
If they might say Our Tyrant, or Our Monarch, or even Our
Creator, they could get along with it; but Our Father - why, a man is almost a saint who
can pray that. You read, Thy will be
done; and say to
yourself, Oh!
I can pray that; and all the time your mind goes round and round
in immense circuits and far-off distances: but God is continually bringing the
circuits nearer to you, till He says, How is it about
your temper and your pride? how is it about your
business and your daily life?
This is a revolutionary petition.
It would make many a mans shop and store tumble to the ground to utter
it. Who can stand at the end of the
avenue along which all his pleasant thoughts and wishes are blossoming like
flowers, and send these terrible words, Thy will be done, crashing down through it? I think it is the most fearful prayer to pray in the world. - HENRY WARD BEECHER.
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In the prayer our Lord taught His disciples, all the
relationships in which we stand to God are taken up. The believer prays as 1.
A CHILD FROM HOME. Our Father, etc. 2.
A WORSHIPPER. Hallowed, etc.
3. A SUBJECT. Thy kingdom
come. 4. A SERVANT.
Thy will be done. 5. A BEGGAR. Give us, 6.
A DEBTOR. Forgive us. 7. A SINNER AMID TEMPTATION AND EVIL. Lead us not into temptation.
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Our Father. 1. Christ here
teacheth us to call God Our Father; and by Gods providence and fatherly goodness we are
incorporated as it were and kneaded together, that by softness of disposition,
by friendly communication, by mutual praying, we may transfuse ourselves one
into another, and receive from others into ourselves. And in this we place the communion of saints. 2.
In the participation of those privileges and characters which Christ hath
granted and the Spirit scaled, calling us to the same faith, baptizing us in
the same laver, leading us by the same rule, filling us with the same grace, sealing
to us the same pardon, upholding us with the same hope. 3.
In those offices and duties which Christ hath made common, which Christ
requires of His Church: Where my fear watcheth not
only for myself, but stands sentinel for others; my sorrow drops not down for
my own sins alone, but for the sins of my brethren; my joy is full with others
joy; and my devotion is importunate and restless for the whole Church. I cry aloud for my brother, and his prayers
are the echo of my cry. We are all
joined together in this word noster, when we call God our Father. - A. FARINDON, D.D.
Give us this day our daily bread. Thomas Hownham, who lived in the North of England, a good many years ago, was once reduced
to great, straits. Having tried in vain
to get work, he went out in the moonlight to a spot some way from his cottage,
and there poured out his soul in prayer, his wife and children having gone to
bed supperless, the little ones crying themselves to
sleep. In an hour or two he returned. To his surprise he found inside the door a
joint of meat and a half-peck loaf. He
woke his wife and children, and they had a hearty meal together. How it came there he could not find out till
twelve years after, when a rich but very miserly farmer died. Then a respectable servant who had lived long
in his employ spoke of his master as having done one act of charity in the
course of his life, though he afterwards regretted it. On the night in question he dreamed three times
over that Hownham, and his family were starving, and at last it had such an
effect on him that he woke his two servants, and sent his man with bread and
meat, which he left at the cottage. Next
morning he was so vexed with himself at what he had done, that he charged both
his servants never to say a word about it as long as he lived, or he would discharge
them.
Lead us not into temptation. I have read in history that two men were condemned to
die as martyrs in the burning days of Queen Mary. One of them boasted very loudly to his companion
of his confidence that he should play the man at the stake. He did not mind the suffering,
he was so grounded in the gospel that he knew he should never deny it. He said that he longed for the fatal morning
even as a bride for the wedding. His
companion in prison in the same chamber was a poor, trembling soul, who could
not and would not deny his Master; but he told his companion that he was very
much afraid of the fire. He said he had
always been very sensitive of suffering, and he was in great dread that when he
began to burn the pain might cause him to deny the truth. He besought his friend to pray for him, and he
spent his time very much in weeping over his weakness and crying to God for
strength. The other continually rebuked
him, and chided him for being so unbelieving and weak. When they both came to the stake, he who had
been so bold recanted at the sight of the fire and went back ignominiously to
an apostates life, while the poor trembling man whose prayer had been, Lead me not
into temptation,
stood firm as a rock, praising and magnifying God as he was burnt to a cinder. ‑C. H. SPURGEON.
Forgive us our trespasses as
we forgive them that trespass against us. A mediaeval Duke learned that an enemy of his was to pass
unprotected near his domain. He
determined to capture and murder him. His
chaplain at prayer that evening, instead of the usual worship, repeated the
Lords Prayer with great earnestness, asking the Duke to repeat each sentence
after him. When the chaplain said:- Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us, the
Duke was silent. Then he said: I will not forgive my enemy. God cannot forgive
you, answered the chaplain. Go to your revenge, and meet your sins un-forgiven at the
judgment. The Duke was silent
for a long time. Then he was heard to
pray:- Forgive me as I
desire to forgive the man who has wronged me. The chaplain responded, Amen, knowing that the enemy was safe and the king
was forgiven.
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