Luke 11:1-13 (2)

Prayer is the act of emptying ourselves that we might be filled with God.  When we come to God in prayer we may be coming out of fear or worry because of events in our lives.  That is understandable.  But the point is to be God-focused and we do this by submitting these life-situations to God.  (Another great prayer that illustrates this is that of Hezekiah in 2 Kings 19:14-19.)

1.     2. Our prayers are to be concerned with God’s glory and will.

Jesus taught us how to do this in this prayer.  The remainder of the prayer is a series of requests, beginning with hallowed be Your name.  The request is that God would be sanctified, set apart and thus honored in our lives.  This is a better way of saying what we often say, “It’s not about me but about You, Lord.”

Then we follow this with another request that God’s kingdom would come.  This happens when His will is done on earth as in heaven.  We cannot just ask for God’s name to be hallowed as He exists in heaven, surrounded by His angels.  We must ask that He be hallowed in the specific events of my life, and this happens when these earthly episodes reflect heaven itself.

Remember that Jesus is giving us a pattern.  The exact words are valuable and we will find it helpful to come to the place of saying these exact words from our hearts as we bring our fears and worries to the Lord.  We will often find it a struggle to come to the place of uttering these words with our whole heart.  But Jesus is right (of course); we need to come to the place where, in life’s hardest moments, we desires God to be truly glorified and for His will to be done.

2.     3. Our prayers are to be concerned with my dependence on God.

The remaining requests enable us to be God-focused in matters of day-by-day trust.  We may be worried about where our next meal comes from; or we may feel that it is all under control.  Either way the God-focused life depends upon God for meeting that most basic, daily need.

Likewise, we may or may not have a specific struggle with sin in our lives.  But sin is as constant issue and that we need to be honest about it.  Again, it is not simply saying forgive us our sins.  It means we are honest with the Lord, that we are confessing our sins and thus experiencing God’s forgiveness (1 John 1:9).  

The added statement, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us, again is essential to the God-focused life as Jesus made clear in His teaching (Matt. 6:14-15; 18:21-35).  This statement requires us to consider this matter and not allow relationships to wander in the black hole of bitterness.

The final request, do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil, again notes our dependence on God day by day.  We have no idea where our path will lead us but we trust God to lead us in the way that will best enable us to hallow His name.  We do not put our trust in ourselves for daily food or leadership.