THE MODEL PRAYER (PART 2)

MODEL PRAYER Part 1 Part 2

"In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily
bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil
one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory
forever. Amen." (Matthew 6:9-13)

In this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus continued to
describe a model for prayer. He included this in the model prayer:
"Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as
we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but
deliver us from the evil one." This means that the right kind of
prayer will freely bring its own needs to God. This will include needs
for daily provision, forgiveness, and strength in the face of
temptation.

When Jesus spoke of bread, He meant real bread, as in the sense
of what we need for food every day. Early theologians allegorized
this, because they couldn't imagine that Jesus spoke about an
everyday thing like bread in such a majestic prayer like this. So
they thought bread referred to communion, the Lord's Supper. Or
some thought it referred to Jesus Himself as the bread of life.
Others thought it spoke of the word of God as our daily bread. Yet
all this misses the point: God does care about everyday things, and
we should pray about them.

Then Jesus told us to pray about our need for forgiveness: "And
forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." The one who
is truly forgiven will show forgiveness to others. Jesus will elaborate
more on this idea in the following verses. Yet it is worth noticing
here that Jesus used the idea of a debt to describe our sin.
Unforgiven sin means that one owes something to God; since in
Jesus Christ the debt of sin can be paid, those who have been
forgiven should forgive.

Next Jesus modeled prayer for strength in the face of temptation:
"And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the
evil one." The word "temptation" literally means a test, not always
an invitation to do evil. God has promised to keep us from any
testing that is greater than what we can handle (1 Corinthians
10:13). In prayer we should always remember our own weakness
and vulnerability, and pray for constant protection in the midst of
every testing.

If we truly pray, "lead us not into temptation," it will be lived out in
several ways. It will mean:

- Never boast in your own strength.
- Never desire trials.
- Never go into temptation.
- Never lead others into temptation.

This great model prayer ends with these words: "For Yours is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever." The right kind of
prayer praises God and credits to Him the kingdom and the
power and the glory.

This kind of statement of praise to God is often called a "doxology."
There is some dispute as to if this doxology is in the original
manuscript Matthew wrote or was added in later by a scribe. Many
modern Biblical scholars believe this line was a later addition. Even
if this is so, the thought is nevertheless wonderful. True prayer
recognizes that it all belongs to God - the kingdom and the power
and the glory. There is a sense in which man can't be trusted with
such things – but they rightly belong to God.

At the end of it all, this model prayer invites us to actually do
something: to pray. Knowing all about prayer matters little if we
don't actually pray. So do it – and do it remembering the model
Jesus gave us.

By David Guzik

PRAISE GOD
BLESSED BE THE ONE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD