Lord, Teach Us

to Pray!

Studies in the Lord's Prayer

Peter J Blackburn

Testimonium Fellowship 1990, 2001, 2013 © Peter J. Blackburn

Contents

Preface

Teach Us to Pray

Our Father...

Hallowed be Your Name

Your Kingdom Come

Your Will be Done

Give Us Today our Daily Bread

Forgive Us Our Trespasses

Lead us not into Temptation

Kingdom, Power and Glory

Amen!

Preface

Prayer is not principally a subject for teaching or discussion, but for practice. It is meant to be a basic part of life, a way of life. Prayer is natural, and most people (including those who say they have no faith) at least call out to God in emergencies.

Of course, it is not meant to be a "last resort" and some folk feel that God has let them down. Perhaps you have seen that poster that says, "If God seems a million miles away, guess who's moved!" Many of us feel that our prayer life is not what it ought to be - we don't know our heavenly Father well enough, we don't know how to pray!

That is why we need to come again and again to the Master Teacher with the request, "Lord, teach us to pray."

We also need to be reminded of the nature and importance of prayer because of the "Christian activism" abroad in the Church today. The prophet Samuel saw intercessory prayer as an important duty when he said, "As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you" (1 Samuel 12.23). Today we have a tendency to think that we should be "getting on with the business" and not using up precious moments with praying. It is sometimes even inferred that the folk who want to do the praying don't have any great concern with the real issues facing the Church and society. Somehow in our very busy-ness we forget the one we are supposed to be serving, like Martha in Luke 10.38-42.

We need a more sober recognition of the inadequacy of our human resources for the holy warfare in which we are engaged. Only as we make our meagre resources available to God in prayer does he channel his mighty resources in and through us.

These studies represent the substance of a sermon series in a number of parishes and congregations. They are presented in this form, not as an exhaustive study of an important subject, but hopefully as a stimulus to all of us to a way of life which includes meaningful and effective prayer.

Teach Us to Pray

Reading: Matthew 6.5-15

Do you have any childhood memories of seeing one of these shows where someone swallows a sword, breathes fire or is blindfolded and throws knives at someone? The big question is, "How does he do it?"

Then perhaps in adult life you see someone doing what you can't seem to manage. You haven't had a decent bite and here's this other fellow pulling in all the big ones. What's his secret? Or - ladies! - you hear this other lady telling about how she never uses a dress pattern - just lays out the material and cuts! It can be rather frightening, can't it?

The earthly life and ministry of Jesus was outstanding in every way. One of the secrets that his disciples noticed was the depth and intimacy of his prayer life. Thinking about what they heard and saw, they must have had a double question - how does he do it all? Answer: prayer. But that raises another question too - what is the secret of his praying?

One day Jesus was praying and this second question was just begging to be asked. So one of the disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples" (Luke 11.1).

In the major body of teaching which we call the Sermon on the Mount Jesus includes specific teaching on prayer (Matthew 6.5-15). And this doesn't surprise us at all.

How not to Pray

The contemporaries of Jesus did a great deal of praying. That is part of the background to the positive teaching of Jesus on "how to pray". The kind of praying they did illustrated so much "how not to pray".

Firstly, prayer must never be an outward show.

There were many who wanted a reputation of being devout. Jesus called them "hypocrites" - our English comes from a Greek word used to refer to play-actors. They were making a show of prayer "to be seen by men".

But God pays no attention to the outward show - he looks on the heart. He knows when prayer is not directed to him!

It is possible to use all the correct formulae - all the right prayer-words - and still be like the Pharisee in Jesus' parable who prayed "about himself" (Luke 18.11 - some translations say he prayed with himself, and the footnote in the New International Version draws attention to other manuscripts which have him praying to himself.)

Such prayers may be very effective - in attracting attention - but "they have received their reward in full" (Matthew 6.5,6 - J.B. Phillips' paraphrase puts it, "Believe me, they have had all the reward they are going to get!").

Secondly, prayer must never be the mechanical repetition of a formula - as if it's some kind of magical charm.

We are reminded of the prophets of Baal in Elijah's time. They built an altar, prepared a sacrifice and "prayed to Baal from morning till noon. "O Baal, answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made". After some taunting from Elijah, "they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed… and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice" (1 Kings 18.26,28-29).

The idea of magic is to manipulate unseen forces to serve our own ends. Nothing could be further removed from Christian prayer. The secret of prayer has nothing to do with "babbling" ("a lot of meaningless words" in the Good News Bible) nor with the length of our prayers. That's a pagan idea and has nothing to do with true prayer (Matthew 6.7).

Have you ever felt intimidated about prayer? Someone else has been full of confidence and seemed to be able to pile all the nice right words together. You have been left with the feeling - I can't pray, not really!

Don't be discouraged! God looks on the heart.

How to Pray

rue prayer is offered to God - he is the one who hears and answers it.

Many years ago a man approaching me after a little country service and complained about my "monologue" in the service. He believed that corporate prayer is wrong, that the most a preacher should do is to suggest some subjects for prayer and leave a period of silence for the people to do the praying.

This is not true to the life of the early Christians. Before Pentecost, we read that "they joined together constantly in prayer" (Acts 1.14). And after Pentecost, one of their prayers is recorded for us (Acts 4.24-30).

The key place to pray is in your room and in secret (Matthew 6.6). All of our praying must be directed to God. Prayer in worship is meaningful when it expresses together the praise and petitions of those who individually and regularly meet in secret with their Father. Our prayer affirms our conviction that God hears. It isn't for the benefit of someone else's ears, but for God himself.

True prayer is offered to God our Father - not to some remote or unwilling being or to some impersonal force. We pray to the one who knows and understands our needs before we come in prayer, who knows and seeks our highest good more than we do ourselves! The Christian comes as one who has been "born again" into God's family. We are coming to our Father who loves us and delights for us to come.

Of course, when Jesus says that we are not to "babble" or "use a lot of meaningless words" in our praying (what the King James version called "vain repetitions"), he still means us to pray with earnestness. We notice him saying later in the Sermon on the Mount, "Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7.6).

Sometimes we pray and receive just on the asking. On other occasions we need to persist in prayer - seeking and knocking. We think of the example of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Three times he prayed for the cup of suffering to be taken from him. Three times he committed himself - "Your will be done" (Matthew 26.36-46).

Our prayer needs to be an expression of our trust in our Father who knows our needs and delights to supply them in response to our prayer of faith.

A Model Prayer

It has been suggested that what we call "the Lord's Prayer" should really be called "the disciples' prayer". Jesus himself never had to pray for forgiveness - he was without sin. Jesus gave this prayer to his disciples as a model prayer - "This is how you should pray..."

Obviously Jesus didn't mean us to use these words in a slavish, mechanical way. That would directly contradict what he has just taught about how not to pray. A lady who once said to me, "I always pray the Lord's Prayer every day." It was almost as if she was wearing a lucky charm, as if the words themselves would guarantee her well-being! Primarily, Jesus is teaching us, not what to pray, but how to pray.

This prayer, of course, gathers up in a concise manner the various things for which we should pray. For this reason, Christians have used it for centuries as a corporate expression of prayer - an appropriate practice that will surely continue.

I commend to you that, in your room alone with the Lord, you pray this prayer slowly, reflecting on each phrase, and above all with the spirit of the disciples - "Lord, teach us to pray!"

Our Father...

Reading: Matthew 6.24-34

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught that prayer must not be an outward show - it is to be offered to God. And it should never be the mechanical repetition of a formula - we are praying to God our Father.

In fact, what we call the Lord's Prayer was given as a model to teach us how to pray. Some have suggested that it is really "the Disciples' Prayer", since Jesus himself never needed to pray for forgiveness. But above all, it is helpful to think about it as the prayer of God's family - the Family Prayer.

The Family Prayer

Perhaps there is a problem here for today's generation. For too many the family is no longer what it used to be. Fathers don't necessarily fulfil the roles God intended. Many families are under stress and breaking down.

It may be that you have faced some of that pain in your own life. Perhaps calling God "Father" brings a measure of painful memory. Whatever our experience, we need to think of God's ideal of family and fatherhood. Learning to relate to God in prayer can be a very important part in healing those painful memories.

When Jesus tells us that we should pray to "Our Father", he is teaching the attitude that needs to flow through all our praying. Notice how it pervades the model prayer.

We are to be concerned for the honour of the family name. We want to see the fulfilment of our Father's purposes, both in our own lives and in the world at large. Even though we do our measure of "bread-winning", we acknowledge that we depend on God our heavenly Father for our bread and all our needs. Our Father is wronged by every wrong we do, so we come to him for forgiveness. We seek his Fatherly help both in guiding us and saving us.

The Family Prayer sets the pattern for all our praying. Our praying will be enriched as we remember that we are praying to our loving heavenly Father.

Our Father...

There is a strong tendency in parts of our society to break down relationships. These days some children call their fathers "Bill", "Bob" or "Joe". Sometimes this has been consciously chosen by parents to liberate their children from undue harmful domination and "ownership" by parents and family. There may be good reason for this, but when it expresses an abrogation of relationship it is a serious mistake. The cure for bad parent-child relationships is to be found in building them with God's help, not in denying them.

When we pray to "our Father", we are not thinking of God simply as the Father of the whole human race. On the lips of Jesus, "Father" always speaks of the intimately personal relationship that was especially his. His prayer in the garden of Gethsemane was addressed to "Abba, Father" (Mark 14.36). The Aramaic word, Abba, is a personal, family word for father - similar to our word, "Daddy".

t is by faith in Christ that we are spiritually reborn and become members of God's family in a personal and vital way. So we find Paul writing, "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father' " (Galatians 4.6; compare Romans 8.15).

Because we are now God's children, we are able to come to him in child-like trust and confidence. And we pray "in Jesus' name" (note John 15.16) because it is only in Jesus that we have this new relationship. It is only because Jesus has brought us into God's family that we can truly pray in this way.

Our Father's Caring Love

We have confidence in our heavenly Father's caring love. As we noted in our first study, we come "to the one who knows and understands our needs before we come in prayer, who knows and seeks our highest good more than we do ourselves... to our Father who loves us and delights for us to come."

It's not as if we have to convince God to come onto our side. He is on our side already. So often we ourselves are the ones who are not "on our side" in the truest sense! As the saying goes, we are our own worst enemies.

In today's reading, we hear Jesus urging us not to make the quest for material security the supreme goal of life. This only leads to anxiety. Instead we are to trust our heavenly Father who knows all your needs. It is in that confidence that we hear his words, "But seek first [God's] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (v.33). We have here a picture of the Father's caring love. It is safe to put the Father's Kingdom and his righteousness first because of his caring love for us.

Family Love

When we are address God as "our Father", we are also expressing our awareness that we are part of his family. We are individually "born again". However, we need to realise that this brings us into a relationship, not only with our heavenly Father, but with the other members of his family as well.

Jesus said, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13.35). It is important that family-love be part of our praying. In Matthew 5.23-24 we hear Jesus saying, "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." These words highlight the importance of family-love as we come to the Father in prayer.

Of course, we remember too that Jesus clearly taught that our family-love is to be open. Perhaps you have heard that prayer, "God bless me, my wife, my son, his wife, us four, no more, Amen." What a contrast to the heart of the Good Shepherd who says, "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd" (John 10.16). Sometimes we can pray and think like an exclusive club who monopolise the Father's love. But we are to pray to the Father who loves the world and who constantly wishes to bring others into his family.

So back to those opening words of the Family Prayer, "Our Father..." Spend time reflecting on the incredible love of the Father for us as individuals.

Then consider the other family members. Do they ever irritate us? Do we irritate them? We have one Father who loves us all and wants us to love one another. Is there some point of reconciliation we need to seek with someone else? Is there someone who needs us to reach out to them in friendship and love?

Now what about "that lot out there"? We are sometimes just content with superficial friendship with people who don't believe - after all, God loves them anyway. This becomes a substitute for the Father's love that earnestly desires to bring them into the family. Think about someone living outside God's family. Now pray "Our Father..." with a strong open love.

Hallowed be Your Name

Readings: Isaiah 57.14-21; Philippians 2.5-11

In our second study we noted that it is helpful to think of the Lord's Prayer as the prayer of God's Family. This is an important thought as we continue our studies of this model prayer, and not least as we consider the first petition, "Hallowed be Your Name".

God's Name

What's in a name? Not much, it seems, for most of us. It is just a pleasant-sounding, useful, identifying tag - personal, of course!

Years ago, so the story goes, a census-collector was going from house to house. At one house he asked the lady, "How many people are living here?" She started saying, "Well, there's Jimmy and Betty and Mary and Tommy..." But the census-collector interrupted, "Look, lady, I'm not interested in names, I just want the numbers." To which she replied, "I'm sorry, sir, but they don't have numbers, just names!"

These days we can feel ourselves defined by a whole series of numbers - tax file number, social security number, bank account numbers, passwords… Sometimes we are worried about all that "the system" knows about us. But it doesn't know "us". Those who know us, know us by name.

A name is much better than a number! Sometimes it is chosen because of some ancestor or relative - or a film star or famous person. Sometimes parents go through one of these books with lists of names and their meanings. At other times a name is chosen simply because it sounds nice. These days some parents are creating new names. But whatever the reason, any "meaning" a name might have doesn't have much significance in today's society.

This wasn't so in Bible times. Then a name was always more than just a convenient label. The name might be given because of the circumstances surrounding a child's birth, because of a promise relating to a child's future. It was often seen to reveal the character of the person who bore it.

This is one of the reasons why the Names of God are so important in the Old Testament. As one writer put it, "Each has a fresh and a fuller revelation of the nature of God. One has a revelation of his might, another was the unveiling of his wisdom, another of his holiness, another of his glory. In the New Testament God's name means his nature as revealed in Jesus Christ - what God is in himself, his being and attributes, as disclosed in Jesus Christ, and now known and confessed by the Church."

In this petition, then, the Name refers to far more than the use of a Name-word. Rather, it speaks of God as he has made himself known to us - especially here as "Father".

Hallowed...

What does it mean to "hallow" God's name? To "hallow" something is to honour it as holy. So what does this petition really mean? The Jews believed that the Name-word of God - Jehovah, probably originally pronounced "Yahweh" - was too sacred to say. They were afraid of "taking the Name in vain", as the third commandment put it (Exodus 20.7). So whenever they came to it in the Old Testament Bible, they said "Adonai" instead (translated as "LORD" in four capitals in most English versions).

Our tour group to Israel in February read from the Scriptures, sang and prayed at each site we visited. We were concerned not to offend our Jewish guide. But, aside from the fact that it was never pronounced "Jehovah" anyway, she told us that modern Jewry, whenever they come to the divine Name, say, HaShem, "The Name".

But is this what Jesus means? Is he suggesting that God has a Name so holy that we had better not use it at all? Of course not! Remember that the Name is not just a label. It's the revelation of the Person. God has revealed himself to us. We can and must approach him in the light of his revelation of himself.

t is said that a young preacher, just fresh from college, was waxing eloquent in prayer. "O you who inhabits eternity, who lives in light eternal, supreme Ruler of the universe, before whom all flesh must stand, by what name shall we approach you..." Just then the voice of a little old lady was heard from the front seat, "We call 'im 'eavenly Father 'ere, sir!"

Perhaps you have had door-knockers who have chided the church for not addressing God as "Jehovah". The reason is that Jehovah God has gone on to reveal himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And by faith we have been born into his family. My children don't call me "Mr Blackburn" but "Dad". This is why Jesus taught us to call God "Father".

Some people see a reference here - and in the third commandment - to the common practice of swearing. Of course, speaking like that shows no appreciation of who God is, and that's a serious matter. Some folk say, "I don't mean anything by it!" But that's the point of the commandment. We shouldn't ever use God's name without meaning to refer to God.

Yet hallowing God's Name is not just refraining from using the Name-word for God in a casual or profane way.

Hallowing the Name

The first and foremost reference is not to our use (or abuse) of words, but to our relationship to the Person. God has brought us into his family, and we call him Father.

Wow! What a privilege! He is the Creator and Ruler of the whole universe and we can call him Father!

Of course, we still need to come with humility, reverence and awe - not with the slap-happy attitude of some modern children to their parents!

Hallowing God's name is more than what we do in prayer and worship. Essentially, we are to hallow God's name in our daily living, as our Father's character and purpose are expressed in our lives.

Spend some time thinking about God's Name. Who is he? How has he revealed himself to us? What is our relationship to him? Do we have confidence to call him "heavenly Father"?

In Hebrews 10.19 we read, "Therefore, my brothers, … we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus." For the Jews there was a great big heavy curtain separating the people from the holiest place in the Temple. It was split from top to bottom when Jesus died (see Matthew 27.51). Our whole relationship with God the Father is changed because of the work of God the Son.

But what about daily life? That is where we must hallow his Name. We cannot do that without the enabling of God the Holy Spirit. By faith in Christ we bear the family name. What does our life say about the Father? To what extent is his character - his Name - revealed in us?

May the Spirit enable us, not just in our praying and praising and worship, but in all of our lives to express that petition, "Hallowed be Your Name".

Your Kingdom Come

Reading: Luke 10.1-12

At the end of the nineteenth century there was a tendency to view the Kingdom of God as some kind of earthly paradise that would inevitably come with the progress of the race. But two world wars and many other major conflicts have tended to dispel that idealistic dream. We need to think again about what we really mean when we pray, “Your Kingdom come.”

God’s Kingdom

The hearers of Jesus were quite familiar with the idea of the Kingdom of God. After all, they had recently been urged by both John the Baptist and by Jesus himself to repent on the grounds that it was “near” (Matthew 3.2; 4.17). Now Jesus is teaching them to pray specifically that it may “come”. What is this Kingdom?

I started my schooling in Stanthorpe. Because of health problems of my father, we lived there is a little borrowed cottage. The path to the front gate had a little bend in it - a granite rock was in the way! That important rock was the castle on which many a young king stood defiantly against the claims of all comers. Not much of a kingdom and a rather solitary and short-lived rule!

God’s Kingdom is not so much the place or extent of his rule, but rather the very fact of his rule.

God is King. His sovereignty may be contested, disregarded or rejected, but it is still very real. Even now we begin to see it visibly among those who are his people. But the time will come when his Lordship will be acknowledged even by those who now reject him. Some eight hundred years before Christ, Isaiah wrote “Before me [i.e. before the LORD] every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear” (45.23b). Strikingly, Paul took the Greek form of these words and applied them directly to Jesus – “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2.10-11).

Jesus and the Kingdom

There is a very close relationship between the Kingdom and the ministry of Jesus. It is because the promised Messiah has come that the Kingdom is at hand. This is what gave force to the temptation to bow down to Satan in order to receive the kingdoms of the world (Matt. 4.9). His refusal reminds us that he did not come to establish political dominion and that to use the devil’s methods would deny the very nature of the Kingdom.

Perhaps some of the crowd who welcomed him on Palm Sunday wanted and expected him to take political leadership. But Jesus said very definitely to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” (Jn 18.36).

People began noticing the authority with which he taught (Matt. 7.28,29). And the miracles that he performed made it quite clear that “the Kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt. 12.28). Refusal to acknowledge the Kingdom and to enter into it doesn’t alter the fact that it has come near to them and made its claims on them (Lk. 10.8-11).

But, right now, we don’t see the Kingdom demonstrated in all its power. For this we must wait for the final return of Jesus the Lord in great glory (see, for example, Matt. 25.31 and following). Then the kingly rule of God will be clear and acknowledged by everyone.

our Kingdom Come

So what do we mean when we pray, “Your Kingdom come”?

The Kingdom “comes” for us when we repent and believe the gospel of Christ. God’s Spirit makes us new people. We are “born again” and both see and enter into God’s Kingdom (Jn 3.3,5). And as we give ourselves to Bible study, prayer, fellowship and worship, the Kingdom is made clearer in our lives – clearer in our own understanding and experience, and clearer to others because our lives are different.

The Kingdom “comes” in this world as more and more people hear and respond to the gospel. To the extent to which that happens, society itself is transformed, becoming much more caring and compassionate. To this end we must recognise our own responsibilities for evangelism in our own community, as well as our support of efforts to spread the gospel throughout the world. Secular historians have commented that English society was so transformed by the preaching of the gospel in the eighteenth century under the Wesleys that a revolution such as occurred in France was averted.

The Kingdom will “come” at the close of earthly history when Jesus returns in power and glory. Of that time we don’t know the day nor hour, but are always to watch and pray (Matt. 24.42; 25.13; 26.41). That will be the final end to sin, and the kingdoms of this world will “become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever!” (Rev. 11.15).

Praying for the Kingdom

So our prayer for the coming of the Kingdom has three elements in it.

It must be personal – involving our own response to the gospel, our spiritual growth and the outworking of this in daily living. Let us prayerfully reflect on the Kingdom in our own lives. Do we want the Jesus who is our Saviour to be our Lord?

It must have community consciousness. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son...” We need to allow that divine love to motivate our praying. We need to listen to the daily news reports of human violence and evil with the commitment to pray for the coming of the Kingdom. The prayerful commitment of our lives needs to be towards the spread of the gospel throughout our own land and beyond.

Notice the instructions that Paul gave to young Timothy, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2.1-4).

It must look forward with confident expectation. At the end of the Bible we find these words, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22.20). Sometimes we may be tempted to pray, “Don’t come yet, Lord! We’re not ready! There’s too much to be done, too many people to reach! Don’t come yet, Lord!”

Yet we must reach out with inviting love, “Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Rev. 22.17), and at the same time expectantly look for the return of the Lord – “Come, Lord Jesus!”

So let us pray, “Your Kingdom come!”

Your Will be Done

Reading: Matthew 26.36-46

In the previous study we were considering the coming of God's Kingdom. We noted that God's Kingdom is his rule, and that there are three elements in our prayer for its coming. First, it must be personal - involving our own response to the gospel, our spiritual growth and the outworking of this in daily living. Second, it must have community consciousness - the prayerful commitment of our lives needs to be directed towards the spread of the gospel throughout our own land and beyond. Third, it must look forward with confident expectation for the return of the Lord Jesus as King.

Are you really praying, "your Kingdom come"? If you are, then it is natural to move on to the petition that follows it - "your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Quite obviously, if we are seriously committed to the coming of the Kingdom, we must also be seeking the fulfilment of God's will on earth. There cannot be one without the other.

The Will of God

But what do we mean by "the will of God"?

Some people have tended to view life as if we are on a set of railway tracks - the course of life, so these folk believe, in both major events and small incidents, follows through some pre-determined plan until the end comes for us. They would view "the will of God" as this pre-determining plan.

There was an old song which said, "Que sera sera. Whatever will be will be." I confess that I haven't studied the lyrics closely. But it always seemed to express a kind of fatalism about the events of life.

From a Christian perspective too there are those who have placed a very strong emphasis on the predetermining, over-riding will of God - almost to the point of denying human responsibility and response to the Gospel.

At the end of the eighteenth century, a cobbler by the name of William Carey heard the call of God to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Carey is often called "the father of modern missions". In fact, when Carey put his plans to the Baptist Church of his day, he was met with stiff opposition from those who argued that, if God wanted to convert the heathen, he would do it himself without Carey's help.

There is sin in the world and in our lives, and God is good and righteous. We can't charge God with sin, nor excuse ourselves for what is so clearly a denial of his will. God has in fact made us as creatures with an ability to choose - We aren't robots but creatures who are able to will to do his will. But we have been disobedient and have chosen what isn't his will.

nd when, like some of Carey's contemporaries, those of us who believe fail to heed the Lord's call to carry the Gospel into the wider community, then we the Church have also chosen what isn't his will.

So an important part of the will of God is his redemptive purpose, his desire to save sinners. Judgement will surely fall on sin, but the Lord "is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3.9). God has provided the way of forgiveness and salvation in Christ, and calls us to repent and believe this good news. And he calls on all those who believe to take this message into the community.

On one occasion Jesus was asked, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus had fed the five thousand. Perhaps they were hoping for some plan and call to political action. His reply was, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent" (Jn 6.28,29). In a rebellious world, this becomes the beginning-point for doing the will of God. Yes, there's plenty of action too, but faith in the Lord Jesus is where it all must begin.

Not Resignation but Commitment

In Matthew 26.36-46, we read of Jesus praying this prayer, too. He was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew his "hour" had come. He was very sorrowful - soon he would be dying on the Cross for the sins of the world. At the heart of his prayer are the words, "Your will be done."

Sometimes we have viewed this Gethsemane prayer as a kind of Stoic resignation to Fate - as if Jesus is saying, "Please save me from this awful thing, but if that cannot be I resign myself to it." Yet as we read the account of what happened next it's not the record of someone who is the victim of Fate. He had dared to say, "I lay [my life] down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again" (Jn 10.18). Later he said to Pilate, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above" (Jn 19.11a) - a staggering claim that was validated in his resurrection.

When Jesus prayed this prayer he wasn't thinking about himself, but about the sinful world he had come to save. There was, of course, a very natural revulsion at the thought of the Cross. So he asked whether there might be some other way that forgiveness might be made possible for us.

But when he prayed for the Father's will to be done, his heart was going out to this world with all its guilt, frustration, anxiety and rebelliousness! And his prayer for this world, his prayer for others, became a prayer, not of resignation, but of commitment and involvement.

Jesus had positively committed himself to the Father's will. And in the intense agony and shame of crucifixion, he prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Lk. 23.34a). His prayer for the Father's will wasn't a prayer of resignation, but of commitment.

And for Us...

And that is how it must be for us. Too often our prayer for God's will has become an excuse for us to opt out of our responsibilities!

So as we pray for God's will to be done, we need to acknowledge that so often we haven't done it - and to seek his forgiveness and help. And he means us to consciously seek to know his will - through prayer, reading the Bible, fellowship, worship, service...

What is God's will for you? for your family? for your church? May we learn to pray with understanding and commitment - "Your will be done!"

Give Us Today our Daily Bread

Reading: John 6.1-15

The first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer have focused on God, our heavenly Father - his Name, his Kingdom, his Will. That is so vitally important for all our praying! There is too much prayer that names God, but scarcely recognises him. Our focus rushes on to ourselves, our needs, our requests…

Remember the parable Jesus told about the Pharisee and the tax-collector. (Lk. 18.9-14). The Pharisee prayed with himself - "about himself", the NIV puts it. His prayer began with the name of God, but was mainly a recitation about himself! He wasn't really acknowledging God, or reaching out to him in any real sense. Having spent his time justifying himself, he didn't go home right with God.

The God to whom we pray isn't a remote God but our caring Father. Spend time to know him as we come to him with our human needs as Jesus teaches us in the next three petitions. We are to come as people who "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness" - in all of our life and not just in our praying. It is with that attitude that we bring those practical needs that he knows we need as well (Matthew 6.32,33). It is the prayer of children coming to their heavenly Father - "Give us today our daily bread" (6.11).

Praying for Daily Bread

Some have thought that, since our Father knows our needs before we ask him, we shouldn't have to pray about them at all. Others have suggested that this prayer is irrelevant, since we have to work whether we pray or not!

However, we are to ask in faith and receive with thankfulness. As one writer has put it this way, "To pray for our 'daily bread' from our heavenly Father means that we acknowledge that it is upon him that we depend to supply these necessities, that we exercise faith in him to do so, and that we recognise that although these come to us in the providence of God through the labour of our hands and brains yet finally they come to us through the blessing and favour of God."

We need to note that the request here is for "bread" - representing necessities, not luxuries. And it is "daily" bread - we are not seeking a stockpile for possible future needs, but a sufficient supply for each day's needs as they come.

ctually the Greek word translated "daily" is best explained by the experience of the Israelites during the Exodus (Exodus 16). They were full of complaints about the food supply. So the Lord sent them quails in the evening, and in the morning the ground was covered with something thin and flaky. They didn't know what it was and gave it the name "what-is-it" (in their language "manna"). Each day they gathered enough for that day. If they tried to keep it for tomorrow, it was "full of maggots and began to smell" (v. 20), except for the sixth day when there was a double supply which kept fresh for the day of rest (v. 24).

For years they experienced this daily lesson - God was supplying them with sufficient food for each day's needs. And it was a lesson they would need to remember when they reached the more regular diet of the promised land.

In the Affluent Society

But, someone suggests, this prayer might have meant something when the standard of living was much lower and the bread-line a lot closer than it is for us. Isn't it a bit ridiculous to pray like this in the context of the modern affluent society and the welfare state?

Actually, these very factors make this petition particularly important for us today. We have become obsessed with acquiring more and more material possessions. Nowadays we can do it all without reference to God - or can we? Surely it is our pride and sense of self-sufficiency that raises objections to this prayer! Our attitude is much closer than we realise to the Pharisee in Jesus' parable! To those with cars and TVs and the benefits of space-age technology, it seems both humiliating and superfluous to have to ask for bread.

And yet - it is our Father's world! We need to humble ourselves before him, acknowledging our dependence on him. This should also cause us to consider carefully how we use this world's resources and the methods we use to improve our lot. Have we, by our attitude to these things, ceased to be true children of our heavenly Father?

Within the Needy World

But, the questioner comes from another angle, can we as Christians truly pray for our daily bread when more than half the world is starving?

To this I reply that we both can and must. As long as we view our time, talents and the possessions that may result from these two as OURS for OUR use and the benefit of OUR OWN life (all glory to US!), we will tend to help others only where it suits our interests.

Sometimes when children set the table, the food may not be evenly distributed around the table. That can also happen in the course of a meal anyway. What do we do if the largest share seems to be near us? We pass it on to others. We don't assume, "Goody! I'm so lucky! All this is for me!" As we recognise that what we have is our Father's provision, we will gladly and thankfully share with others more needy than ourselves. It is God's gifts we are privileged to share.

We need to recover this proper sense of our dependence on God, a deep awareness that what is ours is a gift from God that we might share. The fact that it has come to us through the sweat of our brow doesn't make it more "ours" or any less God's gift to us.

So let's think carefully as we pray. Do we need God? How does God fulfil our needs? How does he mean us to live? What should be our attitude to the needs of others? If we have a supply in excess of our needs and others are in short supply, what is the Giver of all good things calling us to do about it?

As we are transformed in our attitudes and actions, there will be a new and deep significance in our prayer, "Give us today our daily bread."

Forgive Us Our Trespasses

Reading: Matthew 18.21-35

The more aware we are of our Father's will, the more earnest will be the next petition, "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

Trespasses

"Trespassers will be prosecuted," says the sign. Or it used to - the sign, one of the few remaining uses of the word "trespass" is itself becoming rare!

I recall a speaker who had been brought up in a farming district telling how his father had solemnly warned his sons that the sign meant, "If you cross the fence, you might get shooted!"

A few years ago in the Tambourine area, I saw a farm gate with a sign, "Warning! Stay out! Trap guns set in this area!" Presumably, the "trap guns" were for wallabies eating the small crops. But humans had better stay out too or they might get "shooted"!

A trespass is an unlawful intrusion into someone else's property or rights. In fact, the original Greek word here would be better rendered "debts" - as in the New International Version, "Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors". We may compare this with Romans 3.23 where Paul depicts sin as "falling short of the glory of God" - not reaching God's intended plan for us, failing to fulfil God's rightful expectations of us.

Try as he would the little boy couldn't hit the bull's eye. So he thought for a bit. Then he took a sheet of blank paper and put it up for his target. Where his arrow landed he carefully drew his target - he had got a bull's eye!

We are inclined to do that. Our best effort becomes our standard - not "the glory of God". Or if we do look to a standard outside ourselves, it tends to be society's average and this leads us to a rather light view of sin - perhaps as a weakness in human nature. Nobody will worry about it unless it harms another person or infringes their rights.

We need to grasp that the will of God has to do with every relationship of life. As one writer puts it, "Every sin is a blow at the heart of God, and is part of the appalling debt that we incur with God. This is the debt that we cannot pay, and therefore must suffer the consequences or have the debt forgiven."

"Trespassers will be prosecuted" - or will they? There is an easy assumption today that the worst wrong is being caught. Our light view of sin results in a light view of its consequences. Paul wrote that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6.23), but we regard this kind of talk as old-fashioned and out-of-date. We need to grasp afresh that sin is serious and the debt of sin is costly, whichever way it is dealt with.

Forgiveness

So - taking sin and its consequences seriously, what does forgiveness mean? Forgiveness means that the debt has been cancelled, that the creditor has taken the debt on him- or herself.

Think carefully about the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18.21-35). Until the debt was forgiven, the servant was held responsible and accountable for it.

It was quite beyond him. Even selling him, with all his family, into slavery in no way went near covering his debt. It is described as 10,000 talents. The footnote says "millions of dollars". There is a problem translating it into modern currency because, with inflation, it would soon be out of date. It was a debt so big that everything he had wouldn't cover it.

Now what happened to the debt when it was forgiven? Did it somehow mysteriously disappear? No - it was debited against the king's account. The king accepted the loss. It was no longer the servant's debt but the king's loss.

An old saying says that "to err is human, to forgive, divine" - as if God is under some sort of obligation to forgive us, since we seem to keep on doing wrong! Our light view of sin and its consequences leads us to a light view of divine forgiveness.

The Christian doctrine of forgiveness focuses on the work of Christ on the Cross. As we consider the Cross we see the Son of God bearing the costly consequences of our sins. Some eight centuries before, the prophet Isaiah had written, "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53.4-6).

The Cross of Christ represents the cost of our forgiveness. Look at the cross - my sin is as serious as that! To accept God's forgiveness of our sins in Christ is to acknowledge that our debt has been paid by the Son of God himself.

Forgiving Others

ut if we take forgiveness seriously, it must be evident in our manner of life. If we have no desire for newness of life, for the fuller expression of the Father's will in our life, if we have no inclination to be separated from sinfulness and to live henceforth for him, we shouldn't expect forgiveness. In particular, the recognition of our own need of forgiveness must express itself in a forgiving spirit towards others.

Jesus taught us to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors."

Notice how important this principle was in the teaching of Jesus. In the Beatitudes - "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy" (Matthew 5.7). After giving the model prayer, Jesus says to them, "For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6.14-15). Those are rather strong words.

Peter's question in today's reading was how many times he had to go on forgiving his brother - seven times seemed suitably generous. I always find it curious to think of rough, abrasive Peter asking this in relation to his gentler approachable brother Andrew! Jesus' answer "seventy times seven" (as NIV margin, or "seventy-seven times" in the text) - was not meant to put an upper limit on our forgiving. Instead, it was to indicate that forgiving is to be a way of life. By four hundred and ninety times (if you want to take it literally) forgiving should be a well-established habit. But why forgive? Because we have been forgiven - forgiven immensely more than we are ever called upon to forgive others.

Again Jesus was giving a figure to make a strong contrast. A denarius was a day's wage for a rural worker. 100 denarii was a significant amount - but it could be repaid.

The story ends with the king very angry and ordering the servant to jail "until he should pay back all he owed." The amount owed was so exaggeratedly large that his final release would be quite out of the question. Now hear the sober conclusion of Jesus - "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart" (v. 35).

When we are unwilling to forgive, we are asserting our own comparative goodness. Yet the cost we bear is so slight in comparison to what God bears when, in response to our petition, he forgives us what we owe him.

We must add a couple of important observations. There are people in authority (like the king in the story) who, for the good of the society, have to exercise authority and discipline. Parents and teachers have important responsibilities here. And there are matters that must be brought to justice in the law courts. In laying on us the necessity for a forgiving spirit, Jesus was not releasing these people from their obligations - though he was saying a great deal about how such responsibilities are to be exercised.

Years ago I spent some time working in a sugar mill. Part of that time was in the costing section helping with a stock take. I recall a discrepancy of two tractor tyres. That, of course, was a serious matter. Appropriate action couldn't be avoided. The truth had to be established. Yet there was something in the attitude of my superior that troubled me as we went to investigate - an assumption of guilt, an arrogant and gleeful desire to "get them", a delight in having this bit of authority to wield over someone else.

In our Praying...

In our praying, be open with God - he already knows all about you. Have the attitude of David In Psalm 139.23-24 - "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Be assured and comforted, The debt has been paid. "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).

Be willing to forgive others. We can't afford to carry hurts and grudges throughout our lives. They will poison us physically, emotionally and spiritually. Do we want to be forgiven? Then forgive!

Lead us not into Temptation

Reading: James 1.12-18

We know that we fail and that we need forgiveness. We know that God is willing to forgive us in Christ. But if we take seriously sin and its consequences and the cost of forgiveness, we know that these things should never be, that sin has no rightful place in our life.

In the previous study I mentioned that old saying, "To err is human, to forgive divine." But we aren't really meant to go on "erring". The question is how to break the cycle of sin in our lives.

Expo '88 was a great experience for those of us who lived in Brisbane. On a season ticket we could go many times without feeling obliged to stay all day. One of our family memories of Expo is the ball machine not far from one of the exits. Ball by ball they were lifted to the top and released to roll down along a track by various pre-determined choices - loops, chimes, spirals, a large dish... - all the way to the bottom. People would stand watching it in fascination. Was the sequence really repeated? How many different possibilities were there? Having seen it once, many people seemed drawn back to it - with its repetition and variety.

A marvellous bit of creative ingenuity! Perhaps its fascination came from its similarity to much of human life. A number of years ago I read an article about the hymns and how we really think them. One example was -

When morning gilds the skies,

My heart awaking cries,

'Oh no, another day!'

We can feel trapped in a cycle from which there seems to be no escape - not creative fulfilment, but the same negatives, the same sins, the same destructive forces. It is comforting to be able to say, "Forgive us..." - but is there no way out to a new way of life?

This is why we go on to pray, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

Temptation

We tend to use our English word "temptation" in a very restricted way - enticement to do the wrong thing. The advertising industry works on the basis of "temptation" too, of course - not always, one would hope, in an "evil" sense!

In the language of the New Testament, however, the word includes that meaning, but has a much wider sense of "testing". So the Good News Bible translates it, "Do not bring us to hard testing..."

But whichever form of words we take, we are faced with significant questions as we seek to understand it clearly. On the one hand, does God tempt us? On the other, aren't we a bit hypocritical if we're afraid to have the genuineness of our Christian faith tested? We need to think about both these questions.

In James 1.13-15, it is clearly stated, "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death" There is no doubt at all that these verses are about temptation to evil. But they don't rule out the possibility that God may test our faith, or that he would allow our faith to be tested.

When we pray for freedom from temptation, we aren't being hypocritical, but admitting our weakness. Temptation may well be for our good, but we shouldn't choose it ourselves or rush headlong into it.

Dr RA Torrey was a noted preacher of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. One day a woman was telling him about her life and the circumstances that had led her into a particular sin. Then she said, "And what would you have done, sir, if you had been in my situation?" He answered, "My dear lady, I wouldn't have been in your situation."

Sometimes we are in situations where we needn't and shouldn't be at all. We could have chosen differently before we felt the pull of temptation. Our faith may be genuine enough, but not ready for that test yet.

eter was writing about the rich blessings God keeps for his people in heaven He says, "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed" (1 Peter 1.6,7).

One writer comments that "this petition seems to contradict life, which inevitably involves choices between good and evil, and so brings us into temptation. We cannot ask God to keep us from life's struggles and decisions. Jesus himself was tempted (Matthew 4.1-11) to the end of his life (26.36-46). The disciples likewise must face temptation, but they must not delight in it or be over-confident in it. They must ask God to spare them from temptation as far as possible, and to deliver them when they must face it."

That expresses well the heart of the matter - "they must not delight in it or be over-confident in it."

The Evil One

The second part of this petition is literally "deliver us from the evil." So the New International Version translates it, "but deliver us from the evil one." God doesn't tempt us to evil. But Satan takes advantage of life's trials and tries to seduce us from loyalty to God. As Peter puts it, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5.8).

John reminds us again and again in his first letter that sin is foreign to a Christian's constitution. It should never be seen as just another fact of life which has to be accepted. Listen to this - "He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God" (1 John 3.8-9). In fact, he wrote his letter "so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One" (2.1).

This shouldn't lead us either to pride or to despair. We need to discover in practice of the victory that God has made possible for us in Christ.

Here is what Paul says, "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it" (1 Corinthians 10.12-13).

So, in praying and in living, we shouldn't be confident in our infallibility - if we do, we will fail! Rather we are confident in the unfailing mercy and protection of our Lord. Our confidence is in him, in his work of redemption and in his keeping power.

Overcoming Temptation

So what are the points at which we fall when tempted, and fail our Lord? Are any of them situations where we should never have been in the first place? We need to be praying, not simply to be forgiven because we have fallen again, but to be kept from that situation of temptation.

If, however, the temptation is inherently and unavoidably part of our life, we need to pray to see and take the "way out" that Paul writes about. We know that "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." We don't have to fall under temptation, but we do need to depend on the grace of Christ and the Spirit of Christ to resist temptation and turn from it.

That is why our Lord taught us to pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."

Kingdom, Power and Glory

Reading: Revelation 5.6-14

The model prayer began with God. In its closing it returns to the praise of God in a concluding doxology - "For yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever."

This doxology isn't found in the earliest Greek manuscripts, and apparently was not part of the original prayer. In some Christian traditions, the doxology isn't used. However, it is a fitting conclusion, and sums up a number of important facets of the prayer.

Why Pray?

The doxology is given as the reason for our praying. The word "for" ties it, not just to the prayer for deliverance, but to the whole model prayer.

Why pray? The answer is here, for if God isn't God, if life doesn't come from him and go to him, if this world is without Creator and moral Ruler who not only hears and answers prayer but to whom we are accountable for our lives... then there's not much use praying at all!

But, specifically, why pray like this? The answer is here. It is because the Kingdom, Power and Glory belong to God that we want his name to be kept holy, his Kingdom to come and his will to be done. This is also the conviction that motivates our petitions for daily bread, for forgiveness, for freedom from temptation and deliverance from evil.

Revelation 5 gives us a little glimpse into the praise of heaven itself. The Lamb who was slain is worthy, not only to open the scroll (v. 9), but "to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!" (v. 12). And "every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them" join in singing, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!" (v.13).

There is a God in heaven!

Though men despise his Word,

he is the world's Creator,

of all of us the Lord!

His Son he sent to save us -

the ransom price was paid

as to the cross we nailed him

and in the grave he lay!

But then he rose victorious,

for sin is overthrown,

to take his station glorious

beside the great white throne.

To you is praise and honour due -

you are the Lord of all!

Before your glorious majesty

all earthly rule shall fall!

The Kingdom

There are other "earthly rules", but the Kingdom belongs to the Lord. The faith that has asked for the coming of the Kingdom affirms that the Father is clearly and absolutely the King.

We see the coming of the Kingdom in the impact of the Gospel on individuals and within the structures of society, but the fact of God's Kingship is not dependent on the success of our evangelism or the prevalence of goodness. The rejection of God's Rule by so many today does not make him any less really the King. This reflects rather on those who reject him.

Think about the parable of the gold coins (Luke 19.11-27). This high ranking man was going into a far country to be made king. His ten servants were each given a gold coin to trade with in his absence. The story records the wise action of two of the servants and the praise (and responsibility) they received on their master's return. But another servant had done nothing except keep his gold coin hidden in his handkerchief. He earned his master's disfavour. But there is another strand to this story. We read that "But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, 'We don't want this man to be our king' " (v. 14). But did that make him any less their king? They came under the king's severe judgment.

esus told that parable on the way up from Jericho. They were almost at Jerusalem and the people were supposing "that the Kingdom of God was going to appear at once" (v. 11). The story is followed by the triumphal entry into Jerusalem - Palm Sunday (vv. 28ff).

Yours is the Kingdom, Lord - no matter what people may do! And we are to pray and to live, acknowledging that we are accountable to you!

The Power

Again and again the Scriptures remind us that "our God is able..." For the most powerful earthly ruler, there are still a great many limitations. He may go to war with a large measure of confidence, yet the outcome is never entirely guaranteed. He has "power" in a relative sense, but only God has "the Power" absolutely.

When God does not grant our requests in prayer because we have not asked according to his will, or when in his wisdom his answer seems delayed, we are inclined to question the value of prayer - can God really hear and answer? But God isn't our message-boy - his Power fulfils his will in his time.

And when God has shown patience and restraint toward a sinful generation, we have interpreted that as weakness and have failed to grasp his love - or to hear his call to serve!

The Lord said through his prophet Isaiah, "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55.10-11).

Yours is the Power, Lord!

The Glory

The goal of our praying and of our living is not our self-satisfaction, but the glory of God. This is what our lives were designed to be. This is what we have failed to reach because of sin (Rom. 3.23).

We see God's Glory in his Rule established and in his Power made visible. But God is glorious in himself - absolute in truth, in beauty, in purity and in love. The immediate response to God is worship.

Yours is the Glory, Lord! Before you, we bow in worship and submission!

The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory are yours for ever! You, Lord, are the focus of true praying and true living now and for ever!

Amen!

Reading: 2 Corinthians 1.12-24

When we watched the contestants in the Olympics last year, we were aware of the vital importance of how they start. Some are so eager to get a good start that they "break" - two false starts and you are out! Others are too slow off the blocks and are chasing the field for the rest of the race. In a sprint, when there may be only hundredths of a second in it, a good start is especially important. In the marathon too you don't want to be at the back of the pack. But there's more time to make up for a poor start. Whatever the distance, the essence of a good race is how you finish.

We have been considering the various phrases of the model prayer. Today we reach the "finish-line" as we move on to consider its final affirmation - "Amen!" But don't get me wrong! Prayer is a way of life - we should never "hang up" on God and, thankfully, he never "hangs up" on us!

Amen

So often we haven't thought much about the meaning of "amen." We have simply used it as a "correct ending" for prayer - a "finishing line."

"Amen" is actually a Hebrew word which is closely related to the words, for "truth", "faithfulness", "trustworthiness"... It was used to acknowledge that an oath had been accepted (as in Numbers 5.22), to welcome a prophecy of good (as in 1 Kings 1.36), to express agreement with a doxology or benediction (as in 1 Chronicles 16.36).

Jesus used the word many times to emphasise that what he was saying is reliable and true. His "truly, truly (or verily, verily), I say to you..." is literally, "amen, amen, I say to you..."

At the end of a prayer, it means "so let it be". We are affirming our faith in the God to whom we pray. We are also affirming our agreement with the prayer and our desire for it to be fulfilled.

In effect, we are saying, "Lord, these are our prayers. We commit them to you, our Father and our Lord. Hear these prayers and answer them in your wisdom and will!"

Praying in Faith

The attitude of Christian praying isn't a vague wishing, but a confident expectation and trust in God our Father. What Jesus taught about this was quite unmistakable. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7.7). "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer" (21.22). "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it " (John 14.13,14).

Those are clear statements and promises. Yet there are many earnest people who have prayed for something, yet there has been no apparent answer. Perhaps that has happened to you. How do we reconcile these statements with this experience?

There are no "cut and dried" answers to this question. Yet the three texts we have quoted do provide some important pointers.

The first text suggests that our prayers are not always answered right away. Sometimes in our praying, we receive simply for the asking. On other occasions, however, we may have to "seek" or "knock". In this tenacity we learn patient trust in God. Our desires are purified and directed to receive God's best. James, for example, wrote that "when you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your own pleasures" (James 4.3). Sometimes, as we persist in prayer, there is a significant shift in what are asking for and in how we ask. We are prepared for receiving God's best.

In the second text we must bear in mind that our faith is to be in God, rather than in our praying. Sometimes people have said to me, "I have great faith in prayer." James wrote, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (5.16). But the mighty potential of believing prayer is the powerful God to whom we pray.

The third verse emphasises that believing prayer is in Jesus' name. We come, not on our own authority or seeking our own will, but his. Some people use "in Jesus' name" as a kind of magic formula - a special guarantee that the prayer will be answered. But this misses the point of what Jesus was saying. What Jesus means is that we are to come in an attitude of continuing dependence on his grace. We are to come as his representatives, his family, his Body, those who are committed to doing his will on earth.

Prayer and Commitment

In the fifth study we noted that the prayer for God's will to be done ought to express commitment, rather than resignation. And this is to be a part of all our praying. It is always within our relationship as children of the Father that we are to come in prayer, and, in our praying, to commit ourselves to action.

Sometimes God answers prayer in what we call "supernatural" ways, but usually his ways of answering prayer are much more ordinary. Even when a Cornelius prayed and the record speaks of an angel and a vision, it was a Peter who was sent (Acts 10). Prayer should produce within us an openness to God's purposes in us and through us - so that he can use us in the answering of our own prayers and the prayers of others.

In our Bible reading, Paul says that "no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God" (2 Corinthians 1.20). For our "Amen" expresses our confidence in the trustworthiness of God and the certainty of his promises.

Yes! Amen! Already, Lord, you have said your "Yes"! Our "Amen" commits us to your "Yes". Lord, lead us into effective prayer and into effective living. Amen!