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The Sixth Sunday of Trinity is on July 24, 2022.
Readings for Year C can be found here.
The Gospel reading is as follows (emphases mine):
Luke 11:1-13
11:1 He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
11:2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
11:3 Give us each day our daily bread.
11:4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
11:5 And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;
11:6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’
11:7 And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’
11:8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
11:9 “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
11:10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
11:11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?
11:12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?
11:13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur (as indicated below).
This is another long post, so please be prepared with refreshment.
Unlike the Jewish hierarchy who prayed aloud in public, reciting the same prayers several times a day, the ordinary Jew in our Lord’s era had forgotten how to pray in a heartfelt way as exemplified by the Psalms.
Jesus never prayed aloud in public. He said that those who did, i.e. the hierarchy, already had their reward. They prayed so that they would be seen and admired by other Jews. Jesus said that God was having nothing of their showy rituals.
Recall that Luke 9 through to Luke 19 documents how Jesus taught His disciples. Here, by request, He teaches them how to pray.
Now, at this point, Jesus was teaching and preaching in Judea. These were the final months of His life.
We are not sure exactly where He was at this point except that He was likely praying away from the crowds in a private place, as He always did. His disciples might have been praying with Him, using their own prayers. Luke does not tell us.
At this place, one of His disciples requested that He teach them to pray in the manner that John the Baptist taught his followers (verse 1).
Matthew Henry explains the request:
Their plea is, “As John also taught his disciples. He took care to instruct his disciples in this necessary duty, and we would be taught as they were, for we have a better Master than they had.” Dr. Lightfoot’s notion of this is, That whereas the Jews’ prayers were generally adorations, and praises of God, and doxologies, John taught his disciples such prayers as were more filled up with petitions and requests; for it is said of them that they did deeseis poiountai—make prayers, ch. 5 33. The word signifies such prayers as are properly petitionary. “Now, Lord, teach us this, to be added to those benedictions of the name of God which we have been accustomed to from our childhood” … This disciple needed not to have urged John Baptist’s example: Christ was more ready to teach than ever John Baptist was, and particularly taught to pray better than John did, or could, teach his disciples.
Students of the Bible know that Jesus had already laid out the Lord’s Prayer earlier in His ministry at the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew’s account has our Lord’s instructions in his sixth chapter.
Henry lays out the differences between Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts:
There are some differences between the Lord’s prayer in Matthew and Luke, by which it appears that it was not the design of Christ that we should be tied up to these very words, for then there would have been no variation. Here is one difference in the translation only, which ought not to have been, when there is none in the original, and that is in the third petition: As in heaven, so in earth; whereas the words are the very same, and in the same order, as in Matthew. But there is a difference in the fourth petition. In Matthew we pray, “Give us daily bread this day:” here, “Give it us day by day“—kath hemeran. Day by day; that is, “Give us each day the bread which our bodies require, as they call for it:” not, “Give us this day bread for many days to come;” but as the Israelites had manna, “Let us have bread to-day for to-day, and to-morrow for to-morrow;“ for thus we may be kept in a continual dependence upon God, as children upon their parents, and may have our mercies fresh from his hand daily, and may find ourselves under fresh obligations to do the work of every day in the day, according as the duty of the day requires, because we have from God the supplies of every day in the day, according as the necessity of the day requires. Here is likewise some difference in the fifth petition. In Matthew it is, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive: here it is, Forgive us our sins; which proves that our sins are our debts. For we forgive; not that our forgiving those that have offended us can merit pardon from God, or be an inducement to him to forgive us (he forgives for his own name’s sake, and his Son’s sake); but this is a very necessary qualification for forgiveness, and, if God have wrought it in us, we may plead that work of his grace for the enforcing of our petitions for the pardon of our sins: “Lord, forgive us, for thou hast thyself inclined us to forgive others.” There is another addition here; we plead not only in general, We forgive our debtors, but in particular, “We profess to forgive every one that is indebted to us, without exception. We so forgive our debtors as not to bear malice or ill-will to any, but true love to all, without any exception whatsoever.” Here also the doxology in the close is wholly omitted, and the Amen; for Christ would leave them at liberty to use that or any other doxology fetched out of David’s psalms; or, rather, he left a vacuum here, to be filled up by a doxology more peculiar to the Christian institutes, ascribing glory to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Some might wonder why this disciple asked again, if he had heard Jesus teach the prayer before.
It could be that some among them needed reminding of how to pray, as John MacArthur explains:
… they had been raised in a Judaistic environment of apostate religion. They had been raised with heresy. They had been raised under the leadership of rabbis and scribes and priests and Pharisees and Sadducees who didn’t know God. They thought they did but they did not, and so they had invented a false kind of praying; a ritualistic, vainly repetitious kind of praying. It was external, ceremonial that was used for hypocritical purposes to demonstrate one’s supposed self-righteousness publicly. They had been cheated out of the examples of what it really is to pray. And as we saw, listening to Jesus pray here in verse 1, waiting till He was finished they were hearing a kind of prayer that was very different from what they were experiencing in the Judaism in which they were raised. And so one of them says, “Teach us to pray like You pray. Teach us to pray the way John the Baptist taught his followers to pray,” which gives us a wonderful insight. John the Baptist, of course, was a true man of God, a true servant of God, a true saint of God, a true believer in God and so in the midst of apostate Judaism there were those true believers, John being one, who did know how to pray. And John’s disciples had the same problem Jesus’ disciples had, they had been raised in that apostate environment, they had been raised in the environment of false and hypocritical prayers and they also needed to know how to pray the right way. And John the Baptist had instructed them. Even the Pharisees comment on that in Luke 5:33, they say, “John’s disciples always fast and pray.” And so here the disciples of Jesus bring up the question: How are we to pray?
He had already taught His apostles to pray. He had already given this prayer in the Sermon on the Mount so we might conclude that this was a different group of disciples this time. Certainly there were some who had departed from Him and there were others who had been attracted to Him. We don’t know specifically who these people were, but it may well have been as well that the others who knew the prayer when it was given in Galilee needed to hear it again here in Judea many months later. It’s really important to know how to pray the right way. If we have access to all of the supply of heaven, if we have entrance given to us, if the gates to the treasure house of heaven have been kicked wide open and God has invited us to come and put no constraints or limits on our coming, we certainly know then how to access that is critical for us. They understood it and I think they heard the way Jesus prayed and it was different than the way they were used to hearing people pray. And they needed Him to teach them.
Note that the Lord’s Prayer begins first by acknowledging God’s power and glory and ends with personal petitions for sustenance and forgiveness.
Jesus told the disciples to first say, ‘Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come’ (verse 2).
‘Hallowed be your name’ means ‘Holy is your name’.
MacArthur has more on the word ‘hallowed’, which has two meanings:
First, to hallow, to make holy, to set apart as holy, can mean to make an ordinary thing holy by bringing it into contact with something that is holy, to make an ordinary thing holy by bringing it into contact to something that is holy. Now that’s biblical because that’s what happened to us. I’m not holy and you’re not holy but God views us as holy because He’s united us to whom? To Christ. So in our union with Christ, that which is unholy has been made holy. So we are now called holy ones. We are called saints. That’s what the word “saint” is. So we are holy in the sense that we have been made holy by being brought into contact with one who is holy.
That’s not the usage here because God doesn’t need to be made holy by being brought into contact with someone else who is holy. It simply means here to treat as holy, to hold as holy. That is to say, to recognize that God is different, separated, separated, separated, separated, holy, holy, holy, a different sphere, a different quality of being, a different power, a different knowledge, a different wisdom way beyond us. God is supremely separate from us. He absolutely belongs to a different sphere of life and being. And we come acknowledging that. He is vastly beyond us and above us.
MacArthur advises us on how to consider the words ‘Thy kingdom come’:
When you come to Christ and you’re sick of yourself and sick of your sin and your selfish ways and you bow the knee to the lordship of Jesus Christ and receive from Him eternal salvation, from then on the objective is expressed in this praise and prayer, “Thy kingdom come.” Confessing Jesus as Lord and King is to say, “Take over my life, fit me into Your purpose, put me somewhere in Your objectives and agenda and program.” When I say, “Thy kingdom come,” I am affirming that I have relinquished the rule over my own life. And I allow You to do whatever it is that You want to do. It’s very like the next phrase, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Now this petition is based on one great assumption and that is that God is sovereign and Jesus is Lord and at salvation we are submitting to that glorious reality …
“Thy kingdom come.” This puts His interest first. Do whatever advances Your kingdom …
First: the logical flow. You know He cares, He’s your Father, you have access, He has wisdom; He has resources. At the same time you know He’s holy and only does what is right. And then, thirdly, you concern yourself with His kingdom and not your own. There are only really two kingdoms. There is the kingdom of God, and there is the kingdom of Satan. There is the kingdom of darkness, as Paul called it, or the kingdom of God’s dear Son, just those two. And everybody is in one or the other. We are either the children of God in His kingdom, or the children of the devil in his kingdom. We either serve God, or we serve Satan. Jesus said, “You’re either for Me or against Me.” There really is no middle ground. And as believers, it shouldn’t be any stretch for us to understand that all of our desires and longings and hopes would be toward the kingdom of which we are a part and in honor and affirmation of the King whom we love and serve.
Then Jesus prayed, ‘Give us each day our daily bread’ (verse 3).
He used ‘bread’ as an all-encompassing word symbolising what we need to survive this life.
MacArthur says:
Now let’s break this request in verse 3 down into several little features. OK? Just break it down a little bit. Number one, the substance, what is it that we’re praying for? Bread, see it there. “Give us each day our daily bread.” What do we mean by bread? Well we mean more than cooked or baked wheat or flour. Don’t we? What do we mean by bread? Well basically that simply stands for all the temporal issues of life, physical care; food, clothing, housing, basics to survive, to stay alive. Martin Luther wrote that bread was the symbol for everything necessary for the preservation of this life. Luther said, “Like food, health, good weather, a house, a home, wife, children, good government and peace.” It’s a way of saying, “Lord, if I’m to survive physically You have to be the source of my survival. And again, it’s not the necessities of life, it doesn’t talk about what kind of house or what kind of food, or what quality of life. It just says, “Lord, sustain my life because I cannot advance Your kingdom, I cannot do Your will, I cannot honor Your name, I cannot bring You glory unless I am alive.”
Finally, Jesus said to petition God to ‘forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial’ (verse 4).
Henry explains that we cannot expect God to forgive our sins if we do not forgive those who sin against us. We also pray that we are not tempted to sin:
(9.) That we have no reason to expect, nor can with any confidence pray, that God would forgive our sins against him, if we do not sincerely, and from a truly Christian principle of charity, forgive those that have at any time affronted us or been injurious to us. Though the words of our mouth be even this prayer to God, if the meditation of our heart at the same time be, as often it is, malice and revenge to our brethren, we are not accepted, nor can we expect an answer of peace.
(10.) That temptations to sin should be as much dreaded and deprecated by us as ruin by sin; and it should be as much our care and prayer to get the power of sin broken in us as to get the guilt of sin removed from us; and though temptation may be a charming, fawning, flattering thing, we must be as earnest with God that we may not be led into it as that we may not be led by that to sin, and by sin to ruin.
Jesus then illustrates God’s infinite love for them — and us — by giving them a hypothetical situation of a disciple who goes to a friend in the middle of the night to ask for three loaves of bread (verse 5) because he has an unexpected houseguest and nothing to give him to eat (verse 6).
The friend doesn’t want to give him anything because it is the middle of the night, he is drowsy from being awakened and his wife and children are asleep (verse 7).
Yet, persistence, Jesus said, will cause the friend to relent in the end and give the man what he needs, if only to get rid of him and go back to bed (verse 8).
Jesus was saying that God is different to that friend. We have only to ask and if it be His will, He will give us what we request; if we knock, He will open His door to us (verses 9, 10).
MacArthur explains our Lord’s illustration leading into His Father’s response:
What happened here was this guy finally got out of bed and gave the man what he wanted because he was annoyingly persistent. He was overly persistent. He was troublesomely urgent. It’s the word in the Greek anaideian, it’s hapax legomena, that is, once said in the New Testament, the only place it ever appears. And really what it means – and you might see this in your marginal reading in the NAS – is “shamelessness, somebody who just sets aside all sense of shame.” It’s, one lexicon said, “overly bold.” Another one said, “utter shamelessness.” Somebody who is just brash, and bold, somebody who has a lot of nerve. Are we supposed to pray like that?
That’s what Jesus is going to teach us here to pray like that, and thus to participate in the means by which God achieves His ends …
“Lend me three loaves.” Now he doesn’t mean three great big bakery loaves, like we’re used to. A loaf would be basically one piece of flat bread. He wants three pieces of flat bread, which would be a normal meal dipped in perhaps some kind of olive oil, or spread with some kind of fruit, or whatever. This would be sufficient for an evening meal.
Now this is not an emergency. He isn’t saying, “My wife is having a baby. My wife is dying. My kid broke his leg. We’ve got a robber in the house.” He’s in the middle of the night and he says, “I want these three loaves.” And the guy is probably thinking, “What in the world? He is waking me up for a midnight snack. This is ridiculous.” Actually, it’s a very generous and unselfish act on his part because he’s been awakened himself.
Because verse 6 says, “For a friend of mine has come.” I’m just passing on the joy here. “Friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to set before him.” People often traveled at night in that hot part of the world, and his friend came at midnight, and he had to get up and host him. He arrived unexpectedly.
Hospitality, by the way, was expected in the ancient world, very much expected among the Jewish people. They majored on hospitality. It was part of their social duty, more a part of their religious duty. Part of their duty to God to care for the stranger, right? I mean, that’s Old Testament stuff. They knew what they had to do. And so this poor man who had this guest arrive at midnight at his house, he had sort of a difficult dilemma: I can be a poor host or a poor neighbor, right?
Being a poor host was not an option because hospitality was at the high level of priorities in cultural considerations. And he knew his neighbor knew it, as well. So both of then would really be doing what’s right, even though it was a bit inconvenient for both of them. So he says, “It’s really not for me. I don’t want a midnight snack. It’s a friend of mine that’s come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.” He’s obviously hungry, hasn’t had anything to eat, no shops, restaurants, no stockpile of food, nothing. Very different, by the way, from our world, isn’t it? When you just make it every day with the bread you have …
“The door has already been shut.” It wasn’t a door like we have that you shut it easily. Sometimes doors actually dropped through rings, a combination of metal and iron, and removing it was not just a simple thing to do, and opening would make a lot of racket. And there was a whole family there. And he says, “My children and I are in bed.” Usually the same bed. They had a big mat, one-room houses, right? One-room houses. The kitchen in one corner, living space over here, and bedroom in the same place. Just roll out the mat and everybody goes down on the mat with some pillows, or whatever. And the colder it got, the closer they all got together. That’s how they all kept themselves warm.
So if he gets up, everybody’s up, all the kids are up, everybody’s up. And probably by now the people living close next door are up because they’re listening to the conversation, as well. The whole thing seems very presumptuous, very bothersome. It really isn’t a big emergency. I mean, couldn’t he – would he die if he waited till breakfast? Isn’t he – aren’t you a little bit overdoing this hospitality thing? Tell the guy to go to bed. You’ll forget it when you fall asleep. You know, give him a speech. You’ve been on a long journey. You’re probably tired. Just lay down. You’ll fall asleep and you’ll forget. The man says, “I’m not going to get up and give you anything. This is too much trouble.”
And then Jesus, skipping any prolonged narrative, jumps to the point of the story in verse 8. “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence – ” his importunity, his brashness, his boldness “ – he will get up and give him as much as he needs.” There’s really no sense in not getting up because he’s not going away. And you’ve already awakened me, and you’ve already awaken the kids.
I tell you, he’s going to get what he asks for because of his shamelessness. That’s the word, anaideian, because of his shamelessness, his brashness, his gall. The emphasis here is on this boldness. It isn’t so much on persistence and much asking, it’s just the boldness of asking at such an inopportune time, just took a lot of gall to do this.
Well, it’s a perfect illustration. It’s just a perfect illustration of us going to God and saying, “I know it’s inappropriate to interrupt You because You’re running a universe and You’ve got all these things going. But I just need You to sit down and listen to me, and look at this, and don’t be distracted. I’ve got some things I need to – ” That is just – that’s over the top.
But it isn’t. The picture here is of shameless nerve, boldness, importunity, things that seem almost ludicrous to us going into the presence of the God of the universe. But our Lord is teaching us how to be invasive, how to be bold in our prayers. This man responded not for friendship, but for irritation. He is in contrast to God who, by the way, the Old Testament says, “Never sleeps and never – ” what? “ – slumbers.” So you’re not waking Him up. And if this man would give this man what he wanted not for friendship, but just because of his shameless boldness, what will God who loves you perfectly give you when you come into His presence? …
Here’s how you pray. “Father, hallowed be – ” what? “ – Your name, Your kingdom come – ” and then we add, of course, from Matthew 6, “Your will be done.” So it’s always according to God’s name, according to God’s kingdom, and according to God’s will that we ask. It’s not a blank check.
The generosity of the statement in verses 9 and 10 is absolutely amazing. And because verse 9 is so shocking, verse 10 repeats the same thing. It’s not necessary to say the same thing twice, especially when you don’t really change anything. But he does because of the first verse, verse 9, just sort of leaves you stunned. “Come on,” God says, “you can start whispering if you want through the wall, and you can raise your voice and begin to make demands, and you can even bang on the door, if you want, and I’ll tell you this. When you ask, you’ll find; and when you knock you will receive what you desire. I will open the door.” What a great statement …
And what comes out of this? I’ll tell you what comes out of this, an experience of the goodness of God. An experience of communion with God. This is the richness of what we enjoy in this life and in the life to come, the eternal reward for being eager participants in the purposes of God. Next time you pray, be bold. Next time you pray, which should be at all times, praying without ceasing, be shameless. Next time you pray, go into the presence of God eager to pour out your heart. Next time you pray, ask God to listen and to see, and not to turn away, and to hear the cry of your heart. And as you pray and God unfolds His purpose, you will be enjoying the experience of having been a part of what He accomplishes and enjoy His goodness.
This concept, this great truth, this great promise is built on a sort of axiom, an obvious principle, and that is built on a divine foundation.
Then Jesus spoke of a father’s innate goodness.
I realise that with all the horrible news stories we read, some will think that few fathers have innate goodness, but most of them do — and that’s why we do not read about them in the newspapers. They get on with providing well for and loving their children.
Jesus asked the disciples, a number of whom must have been fathers themselves, if their child asks for a fish, will these men give them a snake instead (verse 11).
Or, if their child asks for an egg, would they give them a scorpion (verse 12).
MacArthur says that Jesus was asking them to follow His logic by moving on from friendship to fatherhood:
Friendship is one thing and friendship goes so far. Fatherhood is something else, isn’t it? This again is a typical common Jewish pattern of reasoning from the lesser to the greater. If a friend will respond to your boldness, what will a father do? …
My children certainly didn’t hesitate to ask me for what they wanted. Do yours? They certainly have never hesitated to ask their mother what they wanted. And the expectation is that if it’s something they need and we know they need it, they’re going to receive it, because they understand the relationship that we have is one of love, and care, and responsibility, and affection. And that’s the point here.
So Jesus is then saying this promise. You can ask, and seek, and knock, and you will receive, and you will find, and the door will be opened, is based on the fact that you’re coming to a father. This is the analogy. This is the principle here. And it’s very interesting how he lays it out. He says one of you fathers, one of you of the disciples that are listening to this – it says back in verse 1 that He was speaking to His disciples. “One of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish. Your son’s hungry. He wants a fish. He wants fish.” That was kind of the staple meat.
And so what are you going to give him? You’re going to give him a snake instead of a fish? I mean, if he wants to eat and he’s hungry, you’re not going to mock his hunger and you’re certainly not going to give him a snake. Some suggest that this is also the word for eel, I think it’s best to see it as a snake. You wouldn’t give him an animal that could poison him. When he wants food and he wants to be fed, you’re not going to give him something that could kill him.
And then He gives another simple analogy. “If he asks for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?” Why that comparison? Because scorpions were kind of a yellowy color. There are different breeds that are different kinds of scorpions. But historians tell us the kinds in those days were of a sort of a yellow color, not unlike the color of an egg, and they would curl up, and when they curled up in a little ball, they looked like a small egg. So there was some kind of a similarity there to make the analogy work. He says, “If your son wants an egg because he’s hungry, you’re not going to give him a deadly scorpion.”
Now when Jesus taught this elsewhere in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:9, He added a third analogy. He said, “If your son asks for bread, you’re not going to give him – ” what? “ – a stone.” You’re not going to mock your son’s hunger. You’re not going to mock your son’s need. And you’re not going to give him something that he can’t eat. You’re not going to give him something that will kill him. That’s the principle. The principle is that fathers take care of their children. And when children come and they have needs, the father meets the needs.
And so we see the parable which illustrates that we are to come at any time, no matter how simple the need, and to be overly bold in our asking. The promise that underlies our coming is that whatever it is that we seek, if it’s within the framework of His will, we’ll receive it. That is based upon the principle that God is a father.
Jesus ended by saying that if the disciples, who are evil — inherently sinful — know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will God the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him (verse 13).
MacArthur explains ‘how much more’, a longstanding Jewish comparison used to emphasise the greater of two things:
You, being evil. However, have the residual imago dei, you have left in you the residue of the image of God that was defiled in the fall, but it’s still there, because even though you are at heart evil, “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,” Jeremiah 17:9; “there is none good, no not one,” Romans chapter 3. We are evil. “Yet know how to give good gifts to your children.” That’s the residual of the image of God.
Whenever you see what we call “the milk of human kindness,” whenever you see people who don’t know God parent well, love their children, show kindness, give their children what they need, be philanthropic; you’re seeing the residual of the image of God, so warped and scarred in the fall, but still there. And so He says, “You, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children – ” and here comes the key “ – how much more – ”
This is an old rabbinical way to argue, an old Jewish way to argue, the “how much more” argument, the “how much more” approach. “How much more than you who are evil shall your heavenly Father – ” implied, who is not evil, who is perfectly holy “ – give?” I mean, if you who are at heart evil give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father who is holy give to His children? If you who can only love imperfectly give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father who loves perfectly give to His children? If you who are limited in your wisdom give to your children what you think is best, how much more will your Father who is perfectly wise give the best to His children?
The whole thing sets a huge gulf in our understanding. You can go to God because He’s a loving Father. But He’s a loving Father far beyond the most loving father in this world who is by nature evil and who does his best to give good gifts out of a corrupt and fallen heart. How much more will your heavenly Father love you with a perfect love? How much more with perfect wisdom, and perfect compassion, and perfect mercy and grace, and perfect understanding of your situation, and perfect goodness give to you?
So when you go to God, and you go with boldness, and you go with persistence, and you rush in and you unload what’s on your heart, and first you ask, and then you start pleading, and then you start banging, know this, that God is delighted with that – delighted with that – because He, with His perfect love, and perfect wisdom, and perfect power, and perfect provision is able to give the best to His children. In fact, Psalm 84:11 says, “He withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly,” His children. He holds nothing back. So how much more shall your heavenly Father give than any earthly father?
I must confess that I have been praying boldly for something in the distant future for some time now.
I do end my petition by asking if it be His will. I have no idea if it is His will and, just by praying that, I accept that it might not be.
But I most certainly know one thing: if what I ask for is not His will, then He will grant me something far better than I had ever imagined.
Therefore, I pray boldly.
MacArthur summarises the Lord’s Prayer as follows, which will help put us in the right mind when we recite it. Note that this great prayer ends just as it started with an affirmation of God’s supreme nature:
… as you look back at the prayer, this is a pattern, a framework for praying. It gives us what it is that God expects to be the character of our prayers. It is a marvelously simple, memorable little framework. And as I’ve been saying each week, you learn to pray your way through this framework. It’s sequential. It’s designed that way, and if you blend together the Luke passage with the Matthew passage, you get the full prayer in terms of our Lord’s instruction and we’re doing that, importing what we need to from Matthew to get the whole thing. It sets the record straight once and for all as to how we are to pray, how we are to access the throne of God for the glory of God. You remember our little verse, John 14:13, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” In the end, all our prayers are for the glory of the Father through the Son. And this prayer points that out. When you say, “Father,” you acknowledge God as source. When you say “Hallowed be Thy name,” you acknowledge God as sacred. When you say, “Thy kingdom come,” you acknowledge God as sovereign. When you say, “Thy will be done,” you acknowledge Him as superior. When you say, “Give us this day our daily bread,” you acknowledge Him as supporter. When you say, “Forgive us our sins,” you acknowledge Him as Savior. When you say, “Lead us not into temptation,” you acknowledge Him as shelter. And when you say, “Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, amen,” you acknowledge Him as supreme. It really is praying to the end that God is glorified.
May all reading this have a blessed Sunday.
Churchmouse Campanologist 