Focus: The Lord's Prayer

Text: Mt.6:9-13

"… For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

For the cruciality of prayer in our walk with God, our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray and pray aright.

The prayer traditionally known as the Lord's Prayer is divided into two. The first part deals with the glory of God; the last part deals with the needs of the believer in Christ.

The first part: God's glory

Right from the beginning of this prayer we find ourselves talking to God as our Father. That means that those praying are members of God's family. Those praying know God not only as creator, but as the Father. They have been born into the family of God by the process of spiritual rebirth or regeneration. James declares, "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures" (Jam.1:18). Believers in Christ are begotten of God through faith in Christ. We are of the household of faith. God is our Father and the Source of our new life. God's house is the home for us all. In Jesus Christ we are all connected and related.

He is our Father in heaven. Heaven speaks of a place where God preeminently resides and presides. He is our supreme and sovereign Father - God who is totally transcendent and at the same time utterly immanent.

In this first part of our prayer we encounter:

*God's Heavenly Fatherhood

*God's Holy Name

*God's Coming Kingdom

*God's Doable Will

The first part is about God's glory. According to Stephen in Act.7, it is as "the God of glory" that Abraham encountered the Lord. Paul speaks of Him as "the Father of glory." The name of the Lord is glorious. The kingdom of our God is glorious. From every angle we look at God we see the manifestation of His glory. Everything about God emits glory. It is in doing His will that we bring glory to God.

In the last part of this prayer we find ourselves presenting to God our human needs. 

We are in need of:

*Divine provision of daily bread

*Divine pardon for sin

*Divine guidance away from temptation

*Divine deliverance from evil

God is concerned about our needs and committed to meeting them. Our needs involve provision, pardon and protection. They range from the physical and material to the psychological, moral, and spiritual. God is glorified in us and by us every time He meets our need.

This prayer reveals to us the greatness of God and the neediness of man, the sufficiency of God and the inadequacy of man, the power of God and the weakness of man. The prayer closes with the bold declaration that the kingdom, the power and the glory are God's forever. 

What the believer lacks God supplies. What the believer fears God delivers him from.

Our Father in heaven ensures that no harm befalls us on earth. His Spirit not only lives in us, but He is also with us, providing, protecting, and guiding us at all times and in every situation.

God is our creator, and we are His creation. God is our Father, and we are His children and members of His household. God is our King, and we are His citizens. God is our Sovereign, and we are His loyal and royal subjects. God has the abundant supply for all our supplications. We lack nothing that He can't supply.

Let us acknowledge and be conscious of the fact that He is our heavenly Father! Let us commit ourselves to doing His will and honoring His name! Let us reflect the glory of His kingdom on earth, the kingdom in which we conduct ourselves as citizens and serve as subjects!

This prayer is meant to guide us in all our prayers. We pray with total confidence, knowing that God is our all-sufficient Father who delights in meeting our needs and empowering us to advance His purposes. This prayer takes care of our today and our tomorrow. It addresses the needs of our body, soul and spirit, and influences our choices and actions. The scope of this prayer is for time and eternity, for His kingdom, power and glory are eternal, not transient.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter