Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Every Christian should know by now that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and that He expects us to follow Him and submit to His guidance and receive His provision. It's a beautiful and comforting picture that Jesus paints for us: we are His sheep and He is our Shepherd. Psalm 23 reminds us that “the Lord is my Shepherd, I have all that I need. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.” Jesus wants us to pray everyday, not just for protection from Satan, the evil one, but for the wisdom and grace to not go our own way. We need grace to follow His lead. We are so rebellious and so distracted. God help us to follow the lead of our Good Shepherd. Amen!

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This is the only part of the Lord’s prayer that has a footnote. You can find the footnote in verses 14 and 15. 14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. Anyone with even an elementary knowledge of the Bible knows that no one goes to heaven if God hasn’t forgiven his or her sins. This petition is a daily reminder to keep short accounts with God. If someone has sinned against us, we need to forgive and forget immediately (which means we don’t keep talking to God or others about it!). What will help you forgive others is remembering the thousands of ways that you have sinned against God in big and small ways. If God can forgive you of all your sin, then you should be able to forgive others their sins against you. Jesus says we need to forgive 70X7 times; this is an expression for “with end.” No matter how spiritual you think you are, if you are holding a grudge, your spiritual life is on hold or in serious decline because you’ve given the Devil a foothold in your life! Beware!

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Give us this day our daily bread One of the old hymns of the church actually refers to Jesus as the Bread of Heaven and it is a petition to God that He would feed us until our we are no longer wanting of anything else. The phrase “daily bread” is reminiscent of God’s daily provision of manna for Israel when they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. We are also reminded of the warning that God gave Israel, namely, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” We quickly recognize that Jesus is teaching us to look to God for all of our needs and provision. We are to pray that God will nourish us first with His Word as we read the Bible and we are to ask Him to meet our daily need of food, clothing and shelter. Jesus is instructing us to trust in God and not in money. This is really a daily loyalty check: am I loving and trusting in God or in money? Jesus reminds us that we can only love one and not both God and money.

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Your Kingdom come, your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven. Every Christian understands that Jesus is our King and that our work on this earth is to do God’s will in the same manner that it is done in heaven.

The story of the Bible is about God’s will for, and rule of, those created in His image…that would be us! This divine agenda is played out on earth as it is in heaven. The Kingdom of God is the rule of God.

We are praying that His kingdom rulership will come to us, shape our hearts, and spill out to the whole world! We are conferring with the King every time we go to pray. We’re asking, “King Jesus, what would you have me do? What do you want for my family? For my life? For my Church?” We don’t just want to see God’s Kingdom expand and advance on the earth; we want to be part of that great work. This is the evidence that we are Christians!

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