- 40 Weeks of Prayer and Fasting

WEEK TWENTY: Friday, April 7—Thursday, April 13, 2006

SPECIAL PRAYER FOCUS FOR HOLY WEEK

THE LORD’S PRAYER: Part Two

Last Christmas, during Week Five of our 40 Week fast, we felt to “stand down” from our regular prayer focus in order to give time to quiet meditation. We began a two-part study of the Lord’s Prayer, taken from a book by evangelist E. Stanley Jones, The Way. This week we will briefly review the key points of Part One; then move on to examine four points in Part Two. May this short survey of the Lord’s Prayer serve to help all of us become more closely aligned with the heart of God and to draw close to Him during this Holy Week.

INTRODUCTION: “LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY”

When Jesus was “alone praying, His disciples were with Him.” ()Luke 9:18) “Alone” and they “with him.” Physically they were together but actually they were poles apart. He had a secret they didn’t share, and the secret was prayer. He prayed and He was power; they didn’t pray and they were powerless. He was always well; they were always sick of themselves and others He was masterful as He moved from task to task; they fumbled over the simplest tasks. The afflicted boy “had a better case of demon-possession than the disciples had of God-possession so they couldn’t meet the situation.” They weren’t God-possessed because they weren’t prayer-possessed. So they asked him to share His secret: “Lord, teach us to pray.” And He taught them the Lord’s Prayer, which might be better named “The Disciples’ Prayer.” It is the essence of right prayer.

The prayer breaks up into two parts—the God-side and the man-side: (1) “Our Father, Thy name, Thy kingdom, Thy will.” (2) “Give us, forgive us, lead us, deliver us.” The first side is Realignment and the second side is Result. In the first side we realign our life to our Father, to His name, to His Kingdom, to His will, and in the second we get the result—He gives us, forgives us, leads us, delivers us. These are the alternate beats of the heart of prayer: Realignment—Result, Realignment—Result. And each side of the heartbeat is equal—four things in the Realignment and four things in the Result. In other words, you get as much Result as you have Realignment, and only that much. The more you realign your purposes to God’s purposes, the more results you get.

The emphasis, then, should be on the Realignment, and the Result will take care of itself. If you are always looking at results you’re on the wrong side of things. Look at the means, and the

ends will take care of themselves. ”You have one responsibility, and this is to live in union with me.” When he lived in union with God, then God undertook to look after all the rest. “He has a Christlike indifference to results,” was said of a Christian who looked after the means. The results took care of themselves. Learn the first part of the Disciples’ Prayer, and the second part takes care of itself.

“O Christ, how tenderly wise Thou art. Thou dost always get first things first and therefore results always come out right. I am nervously looking after results and nothing comes out right. Forgive me, and help me. Amen.”

"GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD"
If we get the Kingdom values straight, then we can pray this prayer with some assurance: "Give us this day our daily bread." If we "seek first the Kingdom of God," all these things—food, clothing, all we need, "shall be added ." The coming of the Kingdom of God would be the answer to the economic needs of men. For we would then pray: "Give US." In this individualistic age, we tend to say "Give ME," and we continue to look after none but ourselves. We will return to the way of God only when we pray the prayer, "Give us." For to say "Give us" would mean the following out of the opening words: "Our Father." It would mean a cooperative order instead of a ruthlessly competitive one. Nature would work with us.

"AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES…"
We now come to the second petition on the man-side of the Prayer: "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." I use the word "trespasses" instead of "debts." The word "debts" has now a monetary significance that has narrowed it, while trespasses has the wider significance of anything we have done against another—any trespass we have made upon the rights, upon the soul of another, any hurt inflicted.

But the prayer connects the forgiveness of trespasses with the getting of daily bread by an "and." Are most of the trespasses we need to have forgiven connected with the economic side of life, connected with the getting of our daily bread? We will have to continue to pray that prayer until we come to a co-operative order where when I work for myself, I work for others, and when I work for others, I work for myself. That would be an order in which I love my neighbor as myself. That would be the Way.

We are to ask God to forgive us on condition that we forgive others. If we do not forgive others, then we can never, never be forgiven. We have broken down the bridge over which we must pass. This necessity for giving forgiveness if you are to get it, is the only portion of the prayer upon which Jesus turns and comments. He thus showed the importance He attached to this matter, vital importance. And note that the forgiveness we are to give others is past, not future - as we “ourselves have forgiven.” The basis of expectancy of forgiveness is the fact that we have forgiven others.

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION…
Consider the next item in the Prayer: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The prayer is for leading—“Lead us.” The rest points to where the leading should be—“not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” At first sight the Prayer seems to end on a low note. We would have expected some high exultant note. And yet I wonder if the petition itself is not the highest: “Lead us, so that evil is not a temptation to us any longer.” We are to get to the place where we are beyond temptation. That is victory.

The last portion is actually a prayer for deliverance from evil. Not a deliverance from this, that, or the other evil, but from “evil” itself. To Jesus evil was evil in whatever form it came—whether in the evil of the flesh or the evil of the disposition, whether in the individual will or in the corporate will. Evil was never good and good was never evil.

For Thine Is The Kingdom…
We are to ask God to forgive us on condition that we forgive others. If we do not forgive others, then we can never, never be forgiven. We have broken down the bridge over which we must pass. This necessity for giving forgiveness if you are to get it, is the only portion of the prayer upon which Jesus turns and comments. He thus showed the importance He attached to this matter, vital importance. And note that the forgiveness we are to give others is past, not future—as we “ourselves have forgiven.” The basis of expectancy of forgiveness is the fact that we have forgiven others.

Consider the next item in the Prayer: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The prayer is for leading—“Lead us.” The rest points to where the leading should be—“not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” At first sight the Prayer seems to end on a low note. We would have expected some high exultant note. And yet I wonder if the petition itself is not the highest: “Lead us, so that evil is not a temptation to us any longer.” We are to get to the place where we are beyond temptation. That is victory.

The Prayer ends with an assertion: “Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory.” Note, “Thine is the Kingdom”—now. God has never abdicated. He still rules. The “power” and the “glory” are “Kingdom power” and “Kingdom glory.” This is not the unworthy type of “power” and “glory” that Jesus rejected in the wilderness struggle. The “Kingdom power” and the “Kingdom glory” are the only “Power” and “glory.” All else is decaying power and fading glory. Amen.

Christ, Thou art not only purifying us through prayer, Thou art purifying our very prayers. When our prayers have a bath of Thy mind these rise up how pure, how simple, how real! Purify our prayers. Amen.

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