The Lord's Prayer Part 7

"And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."   Matthew 6:13.  NKJV

Our sixth major topic in our prayer outline is:

POWER OVER SATAN: Pray a hedge of protection about yourselves and your loved ones as in Job 1:9-10 and Psalm 91, and verbally put on the armour of God (Ephesians 6:13-18)

The term, 'And do not lead us into temptation,' has been misinterpreted a few times by people who are unaware of what it really means. Let's set the record straight, God will never tempt us or lead us into temptation:

'Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God", for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone". 

God will never lead us into temptation, neither will He tempt us. However, He will allow us to be tested. Trials come our way and God provides every way for us to overcome them. Let us not forget, that Jesus was actually led into the wilderness to be tempted (Read Matthew 4:1-22). Actually, in the New Testament, the word for 'temptation,' was often meant to be 'tested,' However, from the devil's standpoint, this was an enticement to sin. From Jesus' standpoint, it was a challenge from Satan to test God's sovereignty and plan. The devil probably felt that he could excel over Jesus in His weakness. He offered Him things that could well have seemed quite intriguing. However, Jesus passed this test.

It is the same with each one of us, trials will come our way and oftentimes, God will allow this. As Jesus did, we need to overcome these trials or tests with the Word of God - 'It is written', before they turn into temptations, We have great comfort in God's Word at this time, because He will not allow us to be tested or tempted beyond what we can stand:

'No temptation has overtaken you except, such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.'  (1 Corinthians 10:13'

An Amen is called for here, I feel! God is faithful and watches over us, cheering us on to overcome but if things get too tough, He has a rescue plan. Isn't that good? Each and everyday, we need to ask God to protect us and our family and all that we have and will be doing. Psalm 91 is a great place to start. Place a hedge of protection around yourself and your family. Also, remember to put on the armour of God. Some may say there is no need to do this as it is already on. Forget that, and get dressed properly, each day. Read Ephesians 6:13-18 every day and ensure that you are protected. It's no use going out to your day, getting into problems and then realising that you are not protected with the armour. Put it on!

Don't forget that the devil will continue to fire his fiery darts at you, wherever you are and whatever you're doing. Stand up man or woman of God and go out in the power of the Holy Spirit and get the day's job done. 

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

The Lord's Prayer Part 6

"And forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us."   Matthew 6:13.  NLT

Our fifth major topic in our prayer outline is:

GOD'S FORGIVENESS - 'AND FORGIVE US,'  You need God's forgiveness and you need to forgive others. Daily set your will to walk in love and forgiveness.

Think about the worst thing that you have ever said or done to someone. As a Christian, did you ask God to forgive you? If you did, He has. Think back to the worst thing that someone did to you or said to you. Have you forgiven them? If you have, then God will forgive you your sins. If you haven't, then neither will He forgive you yours. It cannot be any clearer. It is set in stone and can't be brushed aside. You may say, ‘Yes but you don't know what happened to me, it was awful.' It probably was. But if you don't forgive the person, no matter how awful it was, you will not be forgiven yourself. We can't pussy-foot around with God. He is true and He means business. Jesus Himself said:

'If you forgive those who sin against you, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.'    Matthew 6:14-15

I suppose that we can all think back to the times when we have been devastated by someone when they hurt us so badly. Some people's lives have been ruined to a degree by the volume of hurt that they have suffered. You may be one of these people. Really, the only way forward is to let the hurt go, by forgiving the person who did this to you. What you do, is release the hold they have on your life - your thought life. It will only lead to bitterness, if it hasn't already. Just a mention of that person's name and it transports you back to that time and you re-live what happened. That is no way to live. God does not want that for you; but you have the answer. You must forgive in order to survive. This is God's law. It's hard to believe, but He loves that person as much as he loves you. That's unthinkable to us but it's true. And because of this, you are keeping yourself in bondage to this memory and the hurt it caused. Also, because God wants forgiveness, He can't bless you the way that He wants to until you release that person by forgiving them.

I know its difficult but, as we forgive the other person, we give God the chance to deal with this situation. Don't worry, He will handle the situation for you, but not in the way you would do. He's more loving and understanding and believe me, the person will not get away with it. But that is none of your business. Your business is to forgive and then move on to a better life free from the anxiety of it all.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

The Lord's Prayer Part 5

"Give us this day our daily bread"                                                 Matthew 6:11.  NKJV

Our fourth major topic in the prayer outline is"

GOD'S PROVISION - 'GIVE US'    Jesus the need meeter, told us to pray daily, asking Him to supply all our needs.

Jesus encourages us, to daily ask for our needs to be met, not our 'greeds'. Therefore, this reinforces the need to pray The Lord's Prayer on a daily basis, but not as a ritualistic prayer but as an offering of worship to Him, an intimate moment in His presence. He will then make sure that we are looked after.

This part of the verse has been misinterpreted in several ways over the years. One of the most common was that it was associated with Holy Communion. There may be a certain truth to this but in general, it is a request where we ask our Lord to supply the food and other such things that we need for the day. This is a prayer that God will answer.

It shows that Jesus is anxious to take care of us in every way. It is a personal thing but covers every believer in general. It shows His heart. Remember how concerned He was when a massive crowd were following both Him and the disciples and He was wanting to ensure that they had enough food so that they would not go hungry: 'And when Jesus went out, He saw a great multitude , and He was moved with compassion for them' Matthew 14:13-21.

His compassion never fails and He is interested in each and every one of us. Let us not forget that He tells us not to worry about what we will eat or wear (Matthew 6:25-34). He takes delight in supplying all we need. He encourages us to put Him in such a place in our lives that we will know, without a shadow of doubt, that what He tells us, He means and He will fulfil His words. 

Get into the daily habit of bringing The Lord's Prayer into your daily routine. Further, get into the habit of trusting Him like you never have before. You can work for 20 hours a day, every day, but never achieve what God wants to give you each and every day. You see, He gives us peace, whether we receive it is up to us, but it's on offer all the same, everyday. He offers us protection. We can't earn peace and protection, Jesus gives it to us freely every day.

The term 'Give us', is not some greedy request. It is our request to Jesus to give us what He has promised. And he loves to do so.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

The Lord's Prayer Part 4

"Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven."
                                                                                                                Matthew 6:10   NKJV

The third major topic in our prayer outline is:

GENERAL PRIORITIES - Your Kingdom come. Declare that His Kingdom priorities shall be
established, in yourself, your loved ones, your church and your nation. 

This part of the prayer asks for the establishment of God's rule in our lives, our situation and in the age to come. God's will on the earth today.
RT Kendall wrote in an email:
'There is no rebellion in Heaven; likewise there will be no rebellion in us when we say, 'Your will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.'

There is much rebellion, hurt bad feeling, abuse and whatever else in this world today. However, as Christians God wants us to establish righteousness wherever we are. A good starting point is in this prayer. If we declare that God's Kingdom priorities are the way forward for us, then this is what will be established. We are declaring that we are living for God. There is no rebellion, hurt, bad feeling, abuse or whatever else in Heaven, so when we say, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, this is our decree.

There is no swearing or cursing in Heaven so there won't be in our life as we say, 'Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven'. It is the same with other things that are in our lives, such as anger, criticising and judging people. Then of course, the things that can so easily trip people up, like porn, adultery, homosexuality and any other things that the Holy Spirit flashes up. Getting into this part of the prayer and deciding that we mean business with God, has got to be a positive step in our walk with Him.

So, let us determine that whatever happens, we will endeavour to establish God's righteousness in all we do, say and think. It's like the old cliché, 'Would Jesus do this or say that?' That used to make us pull up in our tracks. Therefore, as this is totally from the mouth of Jesus, make it count for Him and your walk.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

The Lord's Prayer Part 3

"Hallowed be Your name."                                                                Matthew 6:9.  NKJV

The second major topic of our prayer outline is:

GOD'S PRESENCE - 'HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME'
Enter His presence through praise and call Him Father because of Christ's atoning blood.

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and Bless His name.'   Psalm 100:4-5

We should always enter into God's presence with a sound mind, not with an arrogant intrusion.
Hebrews 10:22, tells us, 'let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.' In other words, we need to continuously draw near to God with a blameless heart and faith.

Hallowed be Your name, is like saying, 'Let Your name be held holy.'  This enables us to give to God the unique place which His nature and character deserve and demand. The Greek word for Hallowed is hagios which is usually translated as holy. But the basic meaning is 'different,' or 'separated'. Something that is hagios is different from other things, Therefore, the petition, 'Hallowed be Your name,' means Let God's name be treated differently from other names. In other words, let God's name be above all other names.

The English word for this is reverence. God deserves to be reverenced. Martin Luther asked, 'How is God's name Hallowed among us?' His answer to this was, 'When both our life and doctrine are truly Christian’. Therefore, this means when our all is submitted to God.  When we pray, 'Hallowed be Your name,' we need to mean it, otherwise it just becomes another ritualistic phrase of repetition, which is based on following others, not Our Father. We need to pray The Lord's Prayer daily if possible and allow it to be a fresh, thoughtful commitment to the Almighty God. After all, this is a sacred devotion of our feelings to God.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

The Lord's Prayer Part 2

"Our Father in Heaven'.                                                                   Matthew 6:9.   NKJV

To emphasise the strong, intimate meaning of the term, 'Our Father,' William Barclay gives a wonderful example set in Roman times:

'There is an old Roman story which tells how a Roman emperor was enjoying a triumph. He had the privilege, which Rome gave to her great victors, of marching his troops through the streets of Rome with all his captured trophies and his prisoners in his train. So the emperor was on the march with his troops. The streets were lined with cheering people. The tall legionaries lined the streets' edges to keep people in their places. At one point on the triumphal route, there was a little platform where the empress and her family were sitting to watch the emperor go by in all the pride of his triumph. On the platform with his mother, was the emperor's youngest son, a little boy. As the emperor came near, the little boy jumped off the platform, burrowed through the crowd and tried to dodge between the legs of a legionnaire and to run out on the road to meet his father's chariot. The legionnaire stooped down and stopped him. He swung him up in his arms, 'You can't do that boy,' he said 'don't you know who that is in the chariot? That's the emperor. You can't run to his chariot.' And the little boy laughed down, 'He may be your emperor,' he said, 'but he's my father.' That's exactly the way the Christian feels towards God.'            Copyright William Barclay.

Instead of, 'My Father,' God made this prayer personal to each one of us. The words, 'I, me or mine,' are not in the prayer. Jesus in life replaced these type of words with, 'We, us and ours'.
Even if we matter to no one else, we matter to God. He has given us back our self-respect. Did you get that? No matter what you have done, or been involved with; no matter how badly you may have messed something up or made a fool of yourself, Our Father in Heaven, has given you back your self-respect. You haven't had to earn it, He's given it to you, freely.

Tomorrow, we'll look a little closer at The Lord's Prayer. Have a great day!

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

The Lord's Prayer Part 1

"Our Father in Heaven,"                                          Matthew 6:9.  NKJV

Note here, that Jesus didn't say, 'My', but 'Our.' The title of Father is much more intimate than the original name of Yahweh or Jehovah, which the Jews recognised God as. The Jews felt that 'Father', was too intimate, but not Jesus. The Apostle Paul wrote:

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying 'Abba Father'.   Galatians 4:6

We have been adopted into God's family and we are His sons and He is Our Father. God provided our son ship through Jesus and assures us of it through the Spirit. Abba is the intimate Aramaic term of Father. Jesus used this Himself. Therefore, we can recognise God - Our Father as Our Daddy.

The Lord's Prayer is recognised as a prayer outline and has seven major topics. The first one is: 

THE PATERNAL NEED - 'OUR FATHER'. 
When we pray this, we can expect all of our needs to be met by the loving kindness of Our Father. 

When we stop and consider this - just who God is, the creator of the universe and yet through His Son Jesus, He is Our Father - Our Daddy. It also shows us the heart of Jesus. He had every right to say, 'My Father', but He chose to share this privilege with each one of us.

And there is no need to feel insecure that Our Father is in Heaven and Jesus, the Son of God is at His right hand. We're not alone because Jesus sent the Comforter, the Helper:

'Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper (the Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.'
                                                                                                           John 16:7.  NKJV

It's never God's intention that we be alone. The Holy Spirit was sent to us, to dwell within us and be our helper; our power and our joy until we go to be with Our Father in Heaven, one day.

Until then, draw on His love, His Power, His joy, His comfort and His direction each and every day.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com