Brown's Daily Word 7-30-07

Good Morning.
Praise the Lord for the world in which we live. Praise the Lord for His Word which endures forever. One of the readings for yesterday was taken from Luke 12. This is the record of our Lord's teaching on prayer. Jesus had taught the woman of Samaria on how to worship. Now He teaches His disciples on prayer. Our Lord God is living and He is at work 24/7. He neither sleeps nor slumbers. His telephone # is Jeremiah 33.3. He answers prayer in His divine will and providence.
A tavern was being built in a town that had previously been dry. In opposition to the tavern, a group of Christians began an all night prayer meeting and asked God to intervene. Lightning then struck the tavern and burned it down. The owner of the tavern brought a lawsuit against the church and held them responsible. The Christians hired a lawyer and denied responsibility. In response to this unusual scenario, the judge said, "No matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear. The tavern owner believes in prayer, and the Christians do not."
Jesus gave the Lord’s Prayer in response to the disciple’s request in (v. 1), “Lord, teach us to pray?” The disciples seem to have waited a long time to ask Jesus to teach them to pray. We begin our examination of the Lord’s Prayer by looking at the first four English words, “Our Father in Heaven.” Here Jesus is stating the importance of starting our prayers with the awareness that God is our Father. What Jesus is teaching is pretty revolutionary. The word that Jesus used for Father was not a formal word. It was the common Aramaic word with which a child would address his father – the word “Abba”. Of course, everyone used this word, but no one under any circumstances had ever used it in connection with God. “Abba” meant something like “Daddy”, but with a more reverent touch than how we use the word today. It may have meant something more like, “Dearest Father.”
When Jesus came on the scene he addressed God only as “Father.” All of his prayers addressed God as “Father.” The Gospels record his use of “Father” more than sixty times in reference to God; perhaps you have a great hindrance in this area because did not have a good role model in your earthly father! Perhaps your father was angry and unapproachable or abusive. In such a case, one way to overcome this is to think of God as being everything you ever wished for in a father. God can become for you the fulfillment of your dream for a honorable and decent father who loves you unconditionally. The beginning of effective prayer is the recognition that God possesses a true father’s heart, a father’s love, a father’s strength, and a father’s concern for the best interest of his children.
This concept of a loving heavenly father provides us with a profound sense of being loved. It certainly needs to be remembered that it is impossible to come to God as our Father except that we are born into his family through faith in Jesus Christ. This prayer is based on a relationship with God through faith in Christ and can only be uttered by those who are in the family. When we begin our prayer, “Our Father,” we begin to pray based on an intimate relationship with God – that of a father and child. God is not an angry judge looking for an opportunity to condemn us, nor is aloof and distant, too busy to hear you. He is our Father and can be approached on an intimate basis.
Having the foundational awareness of God as our Father we move on to the first of the petitions, “hallowed be your name.” The Lord’s Prayer contains seven petitions; the first three petitions are called the “Thy Petitions” because in the King James Version they begin with the word “thy” and they center on God.
Thy name be hallowed
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
When you pray “hallowed be your name,” you climb to a new level of respect for God and reverence for his person. You are ascending to the very heart of God to recognize who He is and what He has done for us.
When Jesus taught us to pray “hallowed be your name,” He was telling us to make the presence of God real in our hearts. When you pray “hallowed be thy name,” you are placing God on the throne of your heart. It is about putting God on the throne of our lives on earth, as He sits upon His throne in heaven. How do we “hallow” his name? We hallow, or make holy, his name with our lips, both privately and publicly, and by our actions. To pray that His name is “hallowed” means that first and foremost we desire our lives to reveal to others to the name of Jesus and the character or God.
When we pray “your Kingdom come” this prayer recognizes God’s kingdom, and His rule, His dominion, and His authority over us. If we truly desire God’s rule over all men and women at a future time, then it follows that we desire that He will work out His will in our lives now. When we pray, “your kingdom come,” we are acknowledging God’s right to rule all people, including us. It is unfortunately true that untold millions of individuals have repeated the words “your will be done” down through the centuries without the faintest notion of what God’s will is. Perhaps even more alarming is that even more people have repeated these words without any intention whatever of seeing to it that the Father’s will is done.
When you ask “your will be done,” you must be willing to do it “right now.” Notice that you are not asking God to change His will or to bless your will; you are asking Him to help you find and do His will in your life.
But it is not enough just to know the will God; one must then apply it. “Your will be done”, is in reality a prayer of submission. According to Romans 12:2, it is our privilege to submit to “… that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (NKJV). The truth is that the cause of all the unrest, frustration, unhappiness and sense of powerlessness in the life of a Christian can be traced to trying to follow our own self-will. At the back of all our failure is the desire to have our own way, not His way; it’s basis is a will that says No to God!
As have seen the first three petitions have to do with God. The second set of four petitions, which we begin to examine now, have to do with human well-being and are distinguished by the word “us:” “give us,” “forgive us,” “keep us” and “lead us.” In last half of the prayer we turn from praying for God’s glory to praying for our needs. One of the profound realities of the Christian life is the realization that God cares about the simple, day-to-day, needs of our lives. He cares whether we are warm, fed and housed. He is concerned for our whole well-being, including those things necessary to sustain life.
"Give us this day our daily bread." What does this request mean? We miss its importance for the simple fact that when you awoke this morning, none of you had even the slightest doubt that you would be able to eat today. Most of the major concerns for the average American are in what will we eat, not whether we will eat. We are told to pray “give us day by day our daily bread,” to remind us of our absolute dependence on God for everything. God made us with needs so that we would have to look to Him to supply them. In this prayer for “daily bread,” bread stands for more than just food. It stands for all the physical things we need for life. To pray this prayer for “our daily bread,” expresses our conviction and belief that God is able to answer our prayer and to meet our needs. It is not that we are praying to overcome God’s unwillingness or overcome his reluctance, seeking to bend His will to ours, but it is rather the taking hold of God’s willingness to give.
In the spiritual realm it is just as true that yesterday’s strength is absolutely useless to fight today’s battles. Sometimes we, as Christians, rely on our experiences with God in the past. Of course they were good, but we need a fresh touch of God in our lives every day. God never gives us a reservoir of grace in our lives, but expects to turn to Him everyday for the grace sufficient to meet the challenges of that day.
The phrase, “this day” reminds us as believers that we need daily renewal of our spiritual strength. We often get stressed out with anxiety because we try to face the problems of tomorrow today. Jesus addressed the problem of worry in the Sermon on the Mount were he said, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ (32) For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. (33) But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (34) Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matt 6:31-34 NKJV). When we worry about tomorrow we are telling the heavenly father that we are not sure that He can provide for tomorrow’s bread. The invitation to pray “give us day-by-day our daily bread,” is an invitation to come to God with even those things that others might call small. We are not just to bring the big things to God but even our ordinary request – for a coat, for shoes, a vacation, groceries, or even a bicycle.
The ultimate bread is Jesus Christ himself. The only bread that will satisfy completely and forever is the provision of the Lord Jesus Himself. “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” John 6:51 (NKJV)
6. Praying On the Basis of God’s Pardon - “Forgive Us Our Sins”
This petition is not only an explicit prayer for forgiveness, “forgive us our sins,” but also for a forgiving spirit, “for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” In our model prayer after we have asked the Father for provision, now we ask for pardon. “Forgive” follows “give.” Look back at the beginning of verse four, note the word “and,” because it links the request for daily bread, with the request for daily forgiveness. In that way when we think of our need for food we will think of our need for forgiveness. Many of us are conscious of our need for daily bread, but are utterly unconscious of our need for daily forgiveness. If we are sincere when we pray, “forgive us our sins,” then we are openly admitting ourselves as guilty of wrongdoing, of sin. Many falsely presume that because when we are saved we have no further need to ask for forgiveness or confession of sin. This, of course, is not the case. 1 John 1:8-9 tell us, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (9) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (NKJV) Christian’s still can and do sin and thus stand in need of daily confession and forgiveness.
It needs to be remembered that this is a “family prayer”; it does not deal with the sins of unbelievers. It does not deal with our standing before God, which was established at salvation, and which can never be affected; it concerns the sins of the children of God, which hamper our fellowship with the Father. No non-Christian ever receives forgiveness from God on the basic of claiming to forgive someone else. Although we receive forgiveness when we were saved we will never be able to enjoy full cleansing in our Christian walk unless we are ready to extend it freely to those who offend us. True believers are forgiven and forgiving. That does not mean that forgiveness ever comes easily or naturally even to real Christians. It is always a battle to maintain a forgiving spirit. But the struggle to forgive is in itself evidence of God’s grace in a person’s heart, because otherwise he or she would just give in to bitterness. The warning here is for those who claim to be Christians and but who will not forgive and have no desire to do so.
Some say "I can’t forgive", but is it really "I can’t" or "I won’t"? Jesus did not tell the disciples that they could pray, “Lord, forgive me my trespasses and I will try to forgive those who have wronged me.” He told them that when they had forgiven others they could then claim their own forgiveness.
Ray Stedman tells the story of one man’s explanation for his lack of forgiveness. He said, “A man once said to me, ‘I know I’m a Christian, but someone once did an awful thing to me – something I just can’t forget or forgive.’ I replied, ‘Are you sure you can’t forgive him?’ He maintained that he had really tried to forgive this man, but was unable to do so. As we continued talking, I said, ‘I know, I have found that we often use the word can’t what we really mean is won’t. Isn’t possible that what you are saying is not, “I can’t forgive him,’ but ‘I won’t forgive him?’ If it is really true that you cannot forgive this man, then it indicates that you yourself have never been forgiven and you are only kidding yourself about being a Christian.’ This shook him a bit. He thought it through and then, with a rather sheepish grin, he said, ‘I guess you’re right. I guess I won’t.’ It wasn’t long before he came to me and reported with joy that he had finally forgiven the man who had injured him.” [Ray Stedman. Talking With My Father. ( Grand Rapids; Discovery House, 1997) p. 73
It is possible that right here we are touching upon one of the principle causes of unanswered prayer. Is it possible that anyone would truly rather have his own prayers unanswered for the human satisfaction of hating someone and holding on to a grudge against someone who has offended us? When we do not forgive we set up a roadblock in our prayer life.
7. Praying On the Basis of God’s Protection - “And do not Lead Us Into Temptation” In the preceding petition “forgive us our sins,” the request was that sins already committed might be forgiven, but here we have a plea to be delivered from falling into new sins. The petition in the prayer is primarily for protection. By teaching us to pray for God to “not lead us into temptation”, he is not suggesting that God is the one who tempts us. James states that God “does not tempt anyone” (James 1:13). Rather, it accepts the danger of temptation, acknowledges our deficiency in dealing with it, and asks for deliverance from it. If we are to win in the battle against temptation we must realize the reality of Spiritual warfare. We cannot be victorious over that which we do not understand. Being ignorant of the fact that there is a great spiritual battle being fought in our world does not erase that fact that it is.
We also need to acknowledge our inability to handle temptation on our own. We need to remember everyone is vulnerable to temptation and no one is above falling. No matter how old we are or how mature in the faith we are, although the strength of certain temptations may diminish somewhat with age, we are never free from temptation as long as we live in this world. When we pray for God’s protection from temptation we are agreeing with the High priestly prayer of Jesus. He prayed, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” John 17:15 (NKJV)
The second part of the prayer for God’s protection is found in the request, “Deliver Us From Evil One.” The King James Version translates this, “deliver us from evil” but The New King James Version, The New International Version and The New English Bible translations render it, “deliver us from the evil one” – referring of course to Satan. When you use the phrase “deliver us from the evil one” you are admitting that this life is a struggle with an enemy that opposes us. Because we do not know what dangers we will face each new day, we need God’s protection to cover us. When we pray “deliver us from the evil one” we are turning your protection over to God.
Although Satan may be the ruler of this present evil world, though he may be the prince of the power of the air, though he may have cohorts of evil spirits at his command, he has no claim over the children of God. Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.
In Jesus,
Brown