Tag Archives: Lord’s Prayer

Understanding “Ask and it will be given”

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Ask and it will be given to you . . . Luke 11:9

 

Too many advocate this as the key to great earthly riches and selfish desires. Just ask for money and it will come to you. Ask for the promotion and you will get it. Ask to be healed and your pain will flee from you. Of course, God invites us to pray and seek His will. He does answer prayer, and sometimes in miraculous ways. But is this the proper intent of this passage? Let’s take a look at the context of His message.

 

The theme of this passage is the importance of prayer. Jesus is teaching his followers how to pray. It is here that he gives us the example of what we now call “The Lord’s Prayer.” Here and elsewhere, he shows us what to ask for in prayer:

The awareness of God’s holiness (hallowed be your name)
Our daily needs (our daily bread)
The coming of His kingdom (Your kingdom come)
Forgiveness (forgive us our sins)
Guidance (lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil)

 

It is in this context that Jesus then says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Ask for these essentials and they will be given to you.

Seek after these riches and you will find your joy.

Knock at my door, my glory will be revealed to you.

 

This is consistent with what Jesus teaches us throughout scripture: Worship is more important than service (See the story of Mary and Martha). Being a teacher means being able to follow. Being a leader requires having a servant heart. We must be humble to draw close to God. We should not fear losing what we can’t keep in order to gain what we cannot lose.

 

He isn’t saying “Ask for whatever fancies you” though He might grant you that too. More than that, He’s inviting us to ask for His kingdom to come on earth, for us to be filled with the awareness of His joy, His power, His peace, and His love.

 

Aim higher today. Ask for God’s best for you. It’s much more than the lesser things we typically ask for!

 

 

Praying “The Lord’s Prayer”

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Do you ever struggle with prayer? Maybe you find yourself confused about what to pray. Or having heard other people pray, perhaps you think you have to find “better words” to pray. (You don’t.) Some people worry about praying out loud. Some worry that their prayers aren’t heard. I think God is pleased to hear us pray in our own words from our humble heart…to the heart of God. What we call “The Lord’s Prayer” is the model Jesus gave for approaching prayer. If you want to pray this prayer, don’t rush through it. Instead, reflect on the words and what you are really saying.

 

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Quiet your heart and mind. Close your eyes or keep them open. Stand, kneel, sit or lie down. It is the posture of your humble heart that our Holy God seeks.  Focus on who God is: Almighty, Faithful, Loving, Merciful, Wise, Just, Holy, All-Knowing, Without End, Fortress, Refuge, Rock of Salvation, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Praising Him who is worthy of all your praise. 


Your kingdom come, 

God’s kingdom is the kingdom of love, peace, and joy, of truth and righteousness.   Ask Him to bring these into your life and the world.

 

your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Your Heavenly Father wants what is truly best for you. Ask Him for His good, pleasing, and perfect will to be revealed and carried out.

 

Give us this day our daily bread,

What do you most need today? Patience, perseverance, courage, wisdom? Ask God for these things He most desires for you.

 

and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Ask God to reveal your wrong thinking and behaving, any persons that you have hurt and those whom you haven’t forgiven for hurts they caused. Not forgiving binds up our heart with cords of bitterness and anger. Give it up to God. Confess and find the freedom of forgiveness.

 

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Our greatest need is to be protected from evil and its temptations. Tell God the specific temptations that bother you. Ask Him to protect you from their crippling lies and to give you strength and courage to be faithful to His truth.

 

For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.

Your prayer is an expression of your trust in God’s power and glory. Thank Him for demonstrating His power and glory throughout history and in your own life. Thank Him for inviting you into His kingdom.

 

Amen. 

Saying Amen is an affirmation that you agree with what has been prayed. These are not just words you’ve memorized. They are the expression of your heart’s desires to God.

 

 

Deliver us from evil

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Deliver us from evil.  Matthew 6:13

 

 

What comes to your mind when I say, “Prayer?” Perhaps you think about all the things you want God to do in your life. Or maybe you think about humbling yourself before Him and just confessing how much you need Him. Prayer might bring you to ask for God’s blessing and protection for others, those you know and some you’ve never met. Prayer might lead you to thank God for who He is and for all He has done.

 

In the middle of what we call ‘The Sermon On The Mount’, Jesus speaks to his followers about living a humble life and of giving to the needy. And then, without any transition, He gives us an example of how to pray, a model we refer to as ‘The Lord’s Prayer.’  In this, He teaches us to acknowledge and worship God, to seek Gods kingdom here on earth, and to ask for our basic needs, including forgiveness, and then concludes with our great need. What is this great need of ours? Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Some scripts say, ‘the evil one.’)

 

I suspect most of us think we have so very many needs. We need to pay our bills, to be healthy, to love and to be loved by others. We need our children to behave and to believe. Our list of needs seems endless. But perhaps one of our greatest needs is to keep from the ways of temptation and to be delivered from evil…not just in terms of our eternal destination, but also in our daily life.  I wonder what would happen if each day we concluded our prayers with this sincere request:

 

God deliver me from evil. Help me to set boundaries around where I go and where I do not go, boundaries in my thinking, in what I choose to look at, and in the words I say. Deliver me from the evil of believing lies and telling them, and from the evil of being both too lazy and too busy to see You and those You love as the mainstay of my day. Deliver me from evil that leads me into the temptation of living for myself, of ‘getting ahead,’ of seeking my pleasure at the indifference of the needs of others, the very thing that prompted you to teach us how to pray! Deliver me from the evil of neglecting the gifts you give to me, including the gift of today. Deliver me from the evil of fearing darkness more than delighting in Your light.

 

Lord, deliver me from evil, for Yours IS the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever! Amen!

 

“And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”  Matthew 6:13