Daily Reading: (Matthew 6:9-13):
“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
The Lord’s Prayer is not a New Covenant prayer. When Jesus taught this prayer, His disciples lived under the dispensation of the Law. However, the first three petitions of this prayer remain for us today.
Petition #1 “‘Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name”
These first two words would have blown everyone away. In all the personal prayers that we find in the Old Testament, God is addressed in many different ways, but never as ‘our Father’.
Jesus said in John 17:5-6a: “And now, Father, (underline emphasis is mine) glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world existed. I have revealed Your name to those You have given Me out of the world.”
In His prayer, Jesus revealed what would come for us who believe in Him. Through His death, adoption into the family of God, God would be forever known as our Father (Romans 8:15).
What we pray for first and foremost “hallowed be God’s name”. We should render or acknowledge God’s holy and special name as our Father. He is the One we venerate and honor. Before we utter a single word of what we need, we first acknowledge we are talking to our Heavenly Father who knows what we need before we even ask and He delights to give good things to those who ask Him (Matthew 7:11).
Petition Number #2 “Your kingdom come,”
The word “kingdom” here means “reign.”[1] The petition is the expression of a wish that God may “reign” everywhere; that His heavenly laws might take root here on earth; and especially that the Gospel of Christ may be advanced everywhere, until the world shall be filled with His glory.
So, we are recognizing God as our Father who delights to give us good
Petition Number #3 Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven”
If we ask anything according to the purpose of God to bless mankind through Christ or if it is that of what God wishes to be done by us…. the answer will be yes.
So, if the answer that God gives doesn’t make sense within the first part of the definition of His Will, then He must have something better in store for us that He wishes to be done by us. That’s why Paul would write to the Ephesians, “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). We give thanks to God in all things when we realize God’s purpose is to bless us and others in Christ.”[2]
May the King’s reign come down in my household, in my neighborhood, and in my city. May God be glorified in the very things that I am praying for right now.
The first part of the Lord’s prayer which is (verses 9–10) has those three petitions;
- hallowed be your name
- your kingdom come
- your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
These petitions do not change even when we move from Old Covenant to New Covenant that is enacted upon Christ’s death.
The second part of the Lord’s prayer (verses 11–13) has three petitions as well. The last three call attention to our needs and as you probably have guessed our needs changed with the cross.
Petition #4 “Give us today our daily bread”
We still have daily needs and we should daily “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (as this prayer taught us to do first), and all these things (that we need) shall be added to you. Jesus is the only manna or daily bread you need in any and every area of your life. And so we don’t have to ask God to give us His Son every day. God already gave us the bread of life. “For God so loved the world He gave His only Son” (John 3:16).
In John 6:35: Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Receiving our daily bread is done as you study the Bible and you feed on the person of Jesus.
When we partake of Communion, we are partaking of Jesus as the “bread of life.” The holy Communion is our “manna” today.
The holy Communion is God’s ordained way of reversing the curse brought about in the fall of man. Every time you partake of the holy Communion, you receive Jesus’ overcoming life, His royal life, His disease-free life.
Petition #5 “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”
Now, it should really start to be clear about the great divide here between New Covenant and Old Covenant living and why this isn’t a New Covenant prayer that Jesus prayed. In the Old Covenant, this was the standard of the Law. Forgive so you could be forgiven. In the New Covenant, grace instructs us to forgive others because we are already forgiven.
Today all believers are already perfectly forgiven. God has already forgiven us of our sins when Christ sacrificed Himself on the cross. There is no more forgiveness that remains to be given.
“And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). Forgiveness is in the past tense, it has already been done and since it was done for us we can then forgive others. We don’t need to pray for the forgiveness of sins, it is already ours in Jesus.
At this point, the disciples haven’t been taught to pray in Jesus’ name. The Lord’s prayer isn’t a prayer that asks for God’s blessings in Jesus’ name.
“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:23-24 NKJV).
Petition #6 “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one”
In the New Covenant, we have already been delivered from the evil one. Colossians 1:13-14: “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
We walk in victory because the enemy has been defeated in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
[1] Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible. https://www.studylight.org/commentary/matthew/6-10.html
[2] Matthew Webster. Making Disciples Through Sharing the Good News. https://www.amazon.com/Making-Disciples-Through-Sharing-Good/dp/B096TQ4V5F/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= June 10,2021.
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