As we end the Lord’s prayer, our modern versions remind us that God is in charge of everything in His creation. We start with “Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name” and end with “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever and ever.!” God is […]
In this line of the Lord’s prayer, we are admitting that we alone cannot withstand the pressures of this world. We need God’s help in steering us towards His kingdom, for we are surrounded and overwhelmed by the pulls and desires of the world. We ask because we are committing ourselves to living in […]
We pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors [in the NIV, NSRV, KJV versions of the Bible]. It is not just debts, but, as other translations suggest, it’s our trespasses or sins, any way in which we disregard the person before us for our own gain. We may owe money to […]
Our Father, give us this day our daily bread. Feed us. Nourish us. Provide what we need for sustenance every day. Our bodies and brains can’t exist long without the nourishment they need. So, this part of the Lord’s Prayer is our asking for what we need today, this day, so that we can […]
The Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount [Matthew 6] begins: “Our Father who art in heaven/Hallowed be your name.” Isn’t it interesting that it starts with ‘Our,’ not my Father, but our? Harking back to Genesis, when God created Adam in His image, God put something of himself […]
The answers to our prayers don’t always give us what we asked for; they can seem like a denial to us; they can take a long time coming; or sometimes, they give us just what we asked for. How we deal with the answers to our prayers says a great deal about how much […]
Recently, I was drawn to reread Neil Douglas-Klotz’s book, Prayers of the Cosmos: Reflections on the Original Meaning of Jesus’s Words. In it he focuses on the Aramaic meaning of Jesus’s words in the Lord’s Prayer, the Beatitudes and more. We take for granted that the meaning of these passages is from our perspective today, […]
Over the last three weeks I’ve written about the three petitions in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer, “give us today our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Today I want to talk about the beginning and the […]
The third petition in the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one,” [Matt 6:13 NIV] asks God to keep us safe from harm, challenge, distraction and the devil. The first part of the petition in the NSRV reads: “And do not bring us to the time of trial.” […]
The second petition in the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:12, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” has two main interpretations in our churches today: 1) as I just quoted and 2)” forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” There is another version of Jesus’ teaching in […]