Prayer 101 #11 - Don't Lead Us

“And lead us not into temptation…” Matthew 6:13a

Hurricanes throughout human history frequently caused a large loss of life. No one could see them coming. Reduction in the loss of life has greatly improved with the advent of a higher perspective known as the satellite. When we pray, we are speaking to someone with a higher and infinitely superior perspective of life. He is our Father “in heaven”. His leading can save us a lot of grief and disaster.

I have 3 observations of Jesus’ prayer regarding the leading of our Father in heaven:

1. We approach our Father knowing that He is involved in leading us. He is not a distant, uncaring God but one who wants to guide us through the maze of life from the perspective of heaven…from the perspective of seeing the entire maze and the path through it.
   
2. We can express our concerns to God about his leading.
   
3. Asking God not to lead us into temptation is a statement to God that we are weak and vulnerable to evil choices. It is a statement that we are dependent on him not to lead us down a path that brings us face to face with something that we know we can’t resist and that we know will cause us not to hallow his name.

This element of the Lord’s Prayer is not about God leading us into temptation unless we ask him not to. It is about his leading from a superior perspective, his willingness to allow us to talk to him about his leading and an acknowledgment of our vulnerability to evil.

Prayer 101 Note

I wrote a Prayer 101 on "Debts and Debtors" and inserted it before "Give Us Then Forgive Us." Be sure and check it out. It's legalistic in nature and that is why I followed it with a grace oriented thought contained in "Give Us Then Forgive Us."

Prayer 101 #9 - Debts and Debtors

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matthew 6:12

Debt is “owing”. In the Lord’s Prayer, debt is what others owe us and what we owe God. People owe us respect because we bear the image of God. They owe us a sense of being valuable because Jesus shed his blood for us. We all owe God the hallowing of his name. Debt accumulates between us and others and between us and God when we do not pay what we owe. For example we accumulate debt when we break the Ten Commandments.

Command 1: Have no other gods before you. We owe God our undivided loyalty.

Command 2: Don’t worship idols. We owe God truthful respect and honor.

Command 3: Don’t irreverence the name of God. We owe God reverent treatment of his name.

Command 4: Remember the Sabbath Day. We owe God time to honor him.

Command 5: Honor your father and mother. We owe parents honor.

Command 6: Do not murder. We owe each other value and respect.

Command 7: Do not steal. We owe each other respect of ownership.

Command 8: Do not lie. We owe each other the truth.

Command 9: Do not commit adultery. We owe each other respect of commitments.

Command 10: Do not have self-centered passions and desires (coveting). We owe God and people the honor that comes from our hidden passions and desires.

The Lord’s Prayer makes us mindful that we are debtors and teaches us when we pray to be sure and forgive any debt anyone owes us in the same way we want God to forgive our debts toward him.

Prayer 101 #10 - Give Us Then Forgive Us

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matthew 6:12

There are two things I learn from Jesus in Matthew 6:12 when teaching his disciples to request forgiveness when praying.

1) Asking for daily bread precedes asking for forgiveness. Generally, if you wrong someone and you need to ask a favor of them, you would begin by asking forgiveness followed by the request of a favor. The counter-intuitive sequence in the Lord’s Prayer reminds us of God’s unmerited favor.

2) The request for forgiveness is a request to remove all barriers to our fellowship with the Father in the same way that we have forgiven those who have wronged us to remove all barriers to our fellowship with them. It is not a request to have a right standing with God. Believers are declared righteous and in right standing with God by faith. (Romans 5:1-2a) A right standing with the Father is a legal declaration and it will never change. However, a right standing does not mean unbroken intimacy and fellowship. This is best illustrated by a Father’s relationship to his child. Nothing that child can do will ever change the father-child relationship. The child can rebel and disown the father but the child is still the father’s child. The father will always love his child. This relationship cannot be changed. The intimacy of their fellowship is nevertheless affected by the child’s disrespect. The intimacy of their relationship can be restored when the child seeks the father’s forgiveness.

Praying, as Jesus taught, is keeping our intimacy and fellowship with him as a consideration when we talk to him.