Sunday 30th June 2024
‘This, then, is how you should pray…
“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.”‘
Matthew 6:9,11-13 (NIV)
The Lord’s Prayer (Part Two)
Last week we looked at the first three requests of the Lord’s Prayer as they are expanded in the Heidelberg Catechism. This week we turn our attention to the final three requests. Again, these expansions can be used as prayers in their own right:
Give us today our daily bread means: Provide for all our physical needs so that we may recognise that you are the only source of everything good, and that neither our care and work nor your gifts can do us any good without your blessing. Therefore may we withdraw our trust from all creatures and place it in you alone.
Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors* means: Because of Christ’s blood, do not impute to us, poor sinners that we are, any of the transgressions we do or the evil that constantly clings to us. Forgive us just as we are fully determined, as evidence of your grace in us, wholeheartedly to forgive our neighbours.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil* means: We are so weak that we cannot stand on our own for a moment, and our sworn enemies – the devil, the world, and our own flesh – never stop attacking us. And so, Lord, uphold us and make us strong by the power of your Holy Spirit, so that we may not be defeated in this spiritual fight, but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory.
[*Note that there are two versions of the Lord’s Prayer in the Bible (Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4), and there are different ways of translating the various requests].
And finally Amen means: This shall truly and surely be! For it is much more certain that God has heard my prayer than I feel in my heart that I desire such things from him
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)