Luke 11

Posted on Mar 17, 2017 in Bible (NT) in a Year |

Friday

What is so hard about praying the Lord’s Prayer?

I’ll bet that at some point in your life you have heard the words to the Lord’s Prayer. You might have noticed that Luke’s version is shorter than Matthews, but is, as the scholars feel, closer to Jesus’ prayer. How they know that, is beyond my comprehension, but I don’t have any evidence to dispute them either. So let’s not get caught up in semantic and just appreciate the beauty of this prayer. Many of us can recite this prayer without even thinking about what it is that we are saying. But when you study it, suddenly it becomes a challenging prayer, as well as inspiring. I think if we are honest with ourselves, this prayer is difficult to pray in complete sincerity and truth. I read in a commentary on “Luke” by Horace R. Weaver that said,

 “It is difficult to pray the Lord’s Prayer honestly. It presupposes a desire to be Christlike in our attitudes, motives and dispositions. It presupposes are desire to experience God and to know God’s will for our individual and corporate lives. If we do not share that desire,           we really cannot pray as Jesus did or as he taught.”

 “Father, hallowed be your name” (I am using the NIV), Jesus starts this prayer by calling out to Abba – an endearing term for Father. Something that the Jews would never have done. They felt that God should never be addressed so informally. Jesus tells us that God’s name is to be spoken of in a holy manner. His name is holy. When we pray this, we should respect His Holy Name, by living our lives in a way that reflects God’s Holiness. When we ask for God’s “Kingdom to come”,  we are saying in essence that we are willing to live in God’s Kingdom and we are willing to be obedient to Him. You don’t ask for something and then refuse to accept it. We accept it, by living our lives pleasing to what God’s Kingdom asks of us.

When we pray, “give us each day our daily bread,” we are asking that God supply only our basic needs. We don’t need to be given more than we need. To ask for more, means we run the risk of becoming greedy. God will supply all that you need, not all that you want. The next sentence has to do with forgiveness. “Forgive us our sins as we forgive everyone who sins against us.” If we want God to forgive us, we must show forgiveness, mercy to others. This again goes against Jewish tradition, that says, you must forgive those who ask for forgiveness. Jesus is saying forgive, even if they don’t ask you for it. If someone has wronged you, you must be willing to reach out and forgive them. The prayer ends with a petition to “lead us not into temptation.” The hardship for a Christian is to live in the world but not be of the world. There are so many temptations out there and we need God’s protection to help us resist.

 

When we pray, we should keep this model in our hearts to help us. It’s not about memorizing the exact words (although that is not a bad thing) but it is more about remembering the intent of the prayer. Which is to help us be more Christ-like in our daily walk.

 

Praising God

Pastor Kathy