Tag: Lord’s Prayer

Prayer Course and prayer resources

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

Screen Shot 2018-07-05 at 10.03.07 AM.pngAs we prepare for a week of 24/7 Prayer at Eastbrook Church (July 15-21) as part of our summer of prayer, I want to encourage you to explore the great resources available at the 24-7 Prayer movement’s web-site.

Specifically, I’d like to encourage you to access the online Prayer Course they have put together.  Journey through the Lord’s Prayer with six short videos and a handy ‘cheat sheet’ for each session, all designed to fuel discussion and deepen your prayer life and the prayer life of the church. The sessions are:

  • Adoration (“Our Father in heaven”)
  • Petition (“Give us this day”)
  • Intercession (“Your kingdom come”)
  • Perseverance (“Your will be done”)
  • Listening (“Our daily bread”)
  • Warfare (“Deliver us from evil”)

Praying with Praise [30 Days of Prayer]

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

Summer of Prayer Ads_Banner“For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:13)

The Lord’s Prayer ends with a brief statement that returns our focus to the power and presence of God. This ascription does not appear in the earliest biblical manuscripts and is usually seen only in footnotes within our contemporary Bible translations. As John Calvin notes, however, “it is so appropriate to this place that it ought not to be omitted.”[1]

These final words are appropriate because they return attention to God at the conclusion of prayer, which is where Jesus taught us to begin our prayers. Jesus teaches that our prayers should be book-ended with Godward praise. After moving through the second half of the prayer’s petitions related to the needs of our earthly lives, the Lord’s Prayer concludes with deep assurance of God’s stability, faithfulness, and rule over all the earth. This assurance includes all that we have presented to Him in prayer. After all is said and down we enter into a place of rest and peace in the presence of our holy and good Father to whom all praise belongs.

When we pray, we go on a journey with God. The journey of prayer begins with His holy and good presence, meanders through our requests related to His kingdom and our needs, and concludes with attentive trust in God’s faithful character. And so, we begin to enter into what the psalmist proclaims:

Truly my soul finds rest in God;
my salvation comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. (Psalm 62:1-2)

Jesus teaches us to pray in such a way that from start to finish, in all our praise and confession, in all our gratitude and petition, we are held in the gracious power of our kingly God, who is also our loving Father.

Lord, receive the praise in me
that You truly deserve,
for all the praise truly belongs
to You before and after all others.
You are so holy and so good.
You are so righteous and so just.
You are my Rock and my Fortress.
You are my King and my Father.
And I trust You above all.
Receive the praise You deserve in me.
Amen.

[1] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), 915.

[This post is part of the “30 Days of Prayer” devotional. Read other posts here.]

Praying as a Forgiver [30 Days of Prayer]

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

Summer of Prayer Ads_Banner“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)

The second part of the words on forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer relates to the way we treat others. Notice that there is no exhortation here to pray that God would help us to forgive others. No, there is merely the recognition that those who are forgiven also appropriately extend forgiveness to others.

Once, when Jesus was in the midst of a meal at a religious leader’s house, a woman of questionable reputation came in to the house. She drew near to Jesus, wept over His feet, wiped them with her hair and then anointed His feet with precious ointment. In the midst of this socially tense situation, Jesus offers forgiveness to the woman and uses it as a teachable moment for the religious leader, named Simon.

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. (Luke 7:40-43)

Returning to the situation before Him, Jesus summarizes the teaching in this way: “I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little” (7:47). The truth is that before God and through Christ all of us have been forgiven greatly. When we understand the depth of God’s grace toward us, the natural overflow is great love toward God and toward others, including forgiveness of their indebtedness to us.

Has someone wronged you at work this week? Has someone spoken ill of you in your apartment complex or neighborhood? Has a sharp word pierced your soul from a loved one in your own home? Let Jesus’ words speak to us: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

As we ask God for forgiveness, our hearts become contrite. When we receive forgiveness from God through Christ, our hearts grow soft with gratitude. This softness of heart should lead us outward with forgiveness toward others as well.

How many times should we forgive others? Let us hear these words of Jesus in response:

If a brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them. (Luke 17:3-4).

Lord, I thank You for Your grace
in forgiving me of my sins.
Help me to extend that forgiveness
toward those who have wronged me.
I choose – by the Holy Spirit’s power in me –
to forgive as You have forgiven me.  

[This post is part of the “30 Days of Prayer” devotional. Read other posts here.]

Praying for Forgiveness [30 Days of Prayer]

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

Summer of Prayer Ads_Banner“And forgive us our debts” (Matthew 6:12a)

The fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer centers upon our relationship with God and with others. Specifically, it is a request for forgiveness. This request forces us to recognize that often we are not the sort of people we would like to be, others would like us to be, or God would like us to be.

Unfortunately, we are often dishonest in our lives, and this dishonesty can sometimes creep into prayer. Dishonest prayer does not lead us anywhere helpful, but inadequately hides us from God like Adam and Eve sheltering behind fig leaves. Jesus’ teaching on prayer, however, confronts us with the bare reality of who we are and who we are not.

When David was confronted by the prophet Nathan after his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, he turned from hiding his sin to uncovering it before God. Psalm 51 is the record of that uncovering within prayer, which we call confession.

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. (Psalm 51:1-2)

This psalm expresses the cry of a heart that knows its debts and calls out for mercy. John the Apostle offers words that respond meaningfully to our confession of our sinfulness: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). So, let us run to Our Father, holy and merciful, uncovering our sinful indebtedness with boldness and humility in prayer.

Search through my soul, O God.
Reveal my hidden sin.
Cut through my self-deception,
and cleanse me from within.
Apart from You our souls are lost.
We’re blind to our wrong ways.
We trick ourselves to walk a path
that leads to our disgrace.
So lead me on the path of life,
and purify my soul.
I kneel before You;
I give myself to You.

[This post is part of the “30 Days of Prayer” devotional. Read other posts here.]

Give Us Our Daily Bread [30 Days of Prayer]

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

Summer of Prayer Ads_Banner“Give us today our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11)

The first three petitions of the Lord’s prayer orient us with God at the center in prayer. With the next three petitions, however, the pronouns switch from ‘You’ and ‘Your’ to ‘us’ and ‘our.’ This switch reminds us that prayer is not only about God in heaven but also about us here on earth. We and our lives are of great interest to God.

The first of the requests related to humanity is an acknowledgement of our basic need before God. Every day we face the fact that our rumbling stomachs need sustenance. And so, we turn to God in dependence, requesting that He provide for us. In a world bent on acquisitiveness yet struggling with an imbalance of material goods it is an important reminder that this is not a prayer for our daily wants but for our daily needs.

Some who are reading this devotional today may be in deep places of need. Bring your deep needs to God and ask Him to provide. Others may be in a place of great abundance. If so, thank God for all He has given, for “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights” (James 1:17).

This request is also one we can lift up on behalf of others. We can pray for our family and friends that God will provide for their daily needs, whatever those needs may be. We can lift up those caught in the midst of conflicts, homelessness, oppression, and difficulty, that God would provide for their needs. The psalmist writes: “This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles” (Psalm 34:8). Martin Luther, in his commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, viewed this request also as a warning. Regarding “those who wantonly oppress the poor and deprive them of their daily bread,” he wrote, “let them take care that they do not lose the common intercession, and beware lest this petition in the Lord’s Prayer be against them.”[1]

Standing with our Father, we turn our eyes to the true needs of the world and our lives, presenting them to Him in order that He will provide for us. “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him” (Matthew 7:11).

Our Father,
give us our daily bread.
Provide for our true needs,
the seen and the unseen,
in ways that only You can
because of Your knowledge and grace.
We call out to You because You are good
and Your mercy endures forever.
Lord, I do not deserve to have You
  come under my roof,
but just say the word,
and I will be healed.

[1] Martin Luther, “The Lord’s Prayer,” in The Larger Catechism, http://bookofconcord.org/lc-5-ourfather.php.

[This post is part of the “30 Days of Prayer” devotional. Read other posts here.]