“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” (Matthew 6:13).
When Howard Rutledge was shot down over Vietnam, he said he prayed for the first time in 20 years, but believe me, it didn’t take another 20 years for Rutledge to try prayer. He started praying and prayed hard. “When one is dying from starvation,” he later wrote of his ordeal, “a bowl of sewer greens is a gift from God. Before every meal during my captivity,” he said, “I offered a prayer of thanks.”
When Jesus responded to the request of the disciples, to teach them to pray, one of the things which Jesus said we should pray for is: “Our daily bread.”
Question: Is God really concerned with such mundane things as your daily needs? Nothing is more basic to survival to most people in the world than bread or rice. The vast majority of people in the world today are just one meal away from hunger, and that buffer is “our daily bread,” or “the bowl of rice” which drives away the gnawing pain of an empty stomach. Our daily bread is a powerful need, and when you pray for your daily bread, God is coming into direct proximity with the fundamental need of your life—food, shelter, clothing.
In teaching the disciples to pray this way, we are made to understand that the basic necessities of life are not a matter of indifference to our Heavenly Father. Rather, they are a matter of gravest concern. If God is so concerned, why doesn’t He just automatically give us everything we need? Good question! But part of the reason is that you can know that the answer has come from His hand. Immediately before Jesus gave the disciples this prayer, He said, “… for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8), yet Jesus also said, “Ask and you will receive, that your joy will be complete” (John 16:24).
Then Jesus taught us that we are to address the issue of seeking and giving forgiveness. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” The English Book of Common Prayer uses the word trespasses, but a comparison with the rendering of the same prayer in Luke makes it clear that we are asking for God’s forgiveness because we have transgressed His law. And that means we are asking forgiveness for sins that we have committed.
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” or put another way, we can pray, “Lead us not into deep trial, but deliver us from the Evil One.” Here Jesus is saying that you are to pray that you will not be overwhelmed by trials that would destroy you.
And finally, we have the words, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever, Amen!” Many Bibles, however, find those words in the margin. There’s a little footnote saying that these words are not found in the best manuscripts.
Well, should we include those beautiful words which seem to spiral upward into the very presence of the throne room of God? Did Jesus say them? Probably not. Did He expect the disciples to pray them? Probably so. “How is that,” you may be thinking? The final phrase, beginning with the words, “For thine is the kingdom …” was the doxology or the ending of all Jewish prayers, and I, for one, have always felt that Jesus understood the disciples would add those as devout sons of Abraham.
“Thine is the kingdom … thine is the power … thine is the glory, forever and ever.” What a prayer. Don’t wait until you find yourself in trouble to learn to pray. Begin with those simple words, “Our Father in heaven,” and pour out your heart. That is what prayer is about.
Resource reading: Matthew 18.
