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servant2.net |
The Lord's Prayer
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Hallowed be thy name;
Here is a breakdown of each verse.
Our Father which art in heaven; The first part of the prayer is where we call Him the Father; a term that only His children should rightly use. Those who start to pray use this name as they look to God as the head of a family, as He is the head of all things. He is also tied to us by His love for us. And heaven is where He lives, and controls all in His command. We need to always acknowledge first and foremost who we are talking to. He (God) is our heavenly Father. We address Him with respect just as we should address our earthly father with respect. He is the only true God who created all things in this universe, including ourselves. He loves us and we need to show our love for Him. Hallowed be thy name; This word Hallowed means Holy, for God is Holy. It tells us to have a reverent attitude to all that God stands for. We need to have a proper humility before God, being ready to honor Him in all of His Holiness. We must see Him as being holy, sanctified, consecrated; worthy of praise, honor and glory! Thy kingdom come; We acknowledge His coming kingdom. We pray that Christ will soon return and establish His earthly kingdom where we will reign with Him for eternity. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven; This tells God that we acknowledge Him as ruler of the world and all that is in it, and will obey His will. Jesus often said that God's power would appear and renew all creation. God would rule over the earth according to a plan that unfolds from the beginning of time. God's kingdom would be marked by peace and justice. Good would be rewarded and evil punished. The kingdom, according to Jesus, is not far off, but already present in our midst, though not yet all unveiled.We need to be praying for His will to be done in our lives, so that we might bring glory to Him here on earth as He is also glorified in heaven. We need to do things His way, instead of selfishly doing our own things to satisfy our own desires. Give us this day our daily bread; In this line we ask for our daily needs, for the present necessities of life; not for tomorrow and the future. Jesus taught a day by day dependence on God. We should ask our Father each day to provide for our needs, just as He promised in His Holy Word. His Word says that we don't have because we don't ask. Of course, we must first know God through His Son, our personal Lord and Savior. If we don't know Christ, God won't acknowledge this request for daily provision. And forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors; When we sin, we become debtors and we ask God to forgive us, but we must also forgive those who sin against us if we want our sins to be forgiven by God. Forgiving others is not easy and we need God's help to do it. It must be done or we won't receive God's mercy of forgiveness. This speaks about forgiveness among our associates, neighbors, friends, family and loved ones. Any and all persons in our lives that we come in contact with in social or business situations are included as well. If we can't forgive others, how can we expect our heavenly Father to forgive us? And lead us not into temptation; Christians know their weakness and readiness to sin, so pray that they may be kept from the temptation to go astray. It is true that God does not tempt people, we ask God to keep us from failing when we are tempted, to help us to know the right thing to do, to deliver us from the evil which awaits us in life. We need to ask our heavenly Father to help us recognize every evil thing, every temptation before us. We need help to stay focused on our Father and see the evil that we might fall into, for what it is really is, a trap set by Satan to bring us down to his level. But deliver us from evil; This means that we do not want to be tempted so that we fall into sin, we are asking to be saved from the power of Satan which awaits us in life. Let us see clearly the path that you want each of us to walk. By the power of the :Holy Spirit that dwells within us, may we never stray from your will and way. For thine is the kingdom and the glory for ever. This is the kind of doxology that is found in prayers of old times, not in mondern times. It is a good reminder to us that all soverignty, power, and glory belongs to God for all eternty. This last phrase simply emphasizes more praise and glory to God the Father.
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