We will finish up what we began last week in expositing the Lord’s Prayer. Last week, we talked those things that concern God specifically: what it means to pray to God as “Our Father in heaven,” to seek that His name be hallowed, His kingdom come, and His will be done. This week we will turn more to our needs.

I believe that the first three petitions, which relate to God and His fame being made known, are placed before the final three for a reason. All too often we rush into our needs and wants, neglecting the fact that we are speaking to God, the Creator of all that is. He deserves our worship, not just our grocery list. Or, if we do pay God some heed before launching into our list, there is most often quite an imbalance. “Thank you Lord. You’re great. Now, I need…” By praying through these petitions and getting oneself into the proper mindset, our prayers for what we need will change. The focus is off of ourselves and on God. With that mindset, let us now examine the final three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.

Fourth Petition

Before we even begin to look at the fourth petition, I want to clarify what “bread” entails. Most people realize that bread is not limited to that which comes in loaf form: it obviously means all food. However, I believe it means much more than even that. I believe that “bread” here means, in the words of Martin Luther, “everything that belongs to our entire life in the world, because on that account alone do we need daily bread.”¹ “Daily bread” encompasses all of our physical existence. Thus, when we pray for our daily bread, we are praying for all that is necessary for our physical maintenance.

Our dependence upon God is not quite as clear to those of us in the US. Most of us have jobs, live in a nice house or apartment, drive a decent car, perhaps have a savings account, and eat quite regularly. To pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” might ring a little hollow to some of us.

However, we should not let our abundance blind us to our dependence: we are, for our bread, our breath, our everything, utterly and completely dependent upon God. That is the essence of this petition. The storehouses in Egypt would not have fed one person for one day without the hand of God upon them, much less millions of people over the course of many years. Without the blessing of God upon them, the five loaves and two fish would not have made one person full, much less 5000 with much left over. As I said, our everything, even our abundance that so often blinds us to our dependence, comes from God.

This highlights the importance of the first three petitions even more, for after having prayed and taken in the first three petitions, we cannot help but be laid low and humbled, realizing that we have nothing without God. So we pray this prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” We are beggars before the throne of God, knowing that only by His grace do we even have food to eat everyday, much less a house, a car, and all the rest.

Therefore, we should be thankful to Him. In praying this prayer, we acknowledge that we are completely dependent upon God for all that we have or ever will. This should lead us not only to pray to Him for that which we need, but also thank Him for what we have. Our ingratitude in the face of so much blessing insults God.

This petition also shows us something that is not a popular thing in our culture. There is a slogan I read once that said, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Never mind the hopelessness found in such a statement, or the fact that it betrays the childishness of most adults. This slogan shows the rampant materialism of our culture. The more stuff you have, the better off you are. This petition goes completely against that.

In this petition you do not pray, “Lord, give me everything I want, and I want a lot of stuff.” No, you pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Now, the Greek in this sentence is sort of weird. The word for “daily” is found only in the Lord’s Prayer. In all of Greek literature, this word is found with 100% certainty only here and in Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer. The translation “daily” probably covers the proper ground in translation, but perhaps a better one would be: “Give us this day our bread for the coming day,” where “coming day” can mean either the present day (if prayed in the morning) or tomorrow (if prayed in the evening). The reason I say that this is a better translation is that it puts more emphasis upon our recurrent need for God to give us our necessities. It also stresses the fact that we are to seek only those things that are necessary. “Bread for the coming day” encapsulates only necessities, not the fanciful wants that we so often misconstrue as our needs.

Therefore, in light of this petition we should do several things, which I will list below. Before that, however, I want to say something regarding our reliance upon God for all things as it relates to our responsibility. We pray that God would give us all of our needs, and we know that when we receive them it is because God has answered our prayer. Does this mean that we have simply sat on our hands and waited? Of course not. We have been working diligently since we prayed. Does that mean that God really did not answer our prayer? Of course not. It simply means “that all good things, even our ability to work and earn our food, come from God’s hand.”² That we pray that God would give us all that we need, and that we know that we have what we have because it has been given to us, in no way relieves us of our responsibility.

Let us now examine what we should do in light of this petition:

1. Seek from the hand of God only that which is necessary. Do not be a glutton in your prayers. Seek only your “bread for the coming day.”
2. If you are unsure of what is necessary in your life, ask God. Do you need such and such a thing? Does it constitute your “bread for the coming day”? Beseech the Lord in this, for He knows far better than you what you need.
3. Realize your unworthiness in asking. We have no right to daily bread from God. God has never owed us anything. Therefore, when we receive our bread for the coming day it is because God has chosen to lavish His grace upon us. I think that sometimes we believe that only salvation is something that comes only by grace. In reality, every second that God lets this world keep on living is a grace-filled moment. Every time we dishonor God’s name and are not destroyed we receive grace. And everyday, when we receive our bread from God, we participate in His grace.
4. Be thankful. Thank Him for His wonderful blessings. It is often stressed that we should love and cherish the blesser and not the blessing. This is true and I will reiterate it here, but loving and cherishing the blesser will most definitely include thanking Him for what He has given. If we neglect our thanksgiving, then we both despise the blessing and insult the blesser.
5. Think about how much you rely upon God. If we rely on Him for our physical well-being, even when we may not realize it, how much more should we and do we rely upon Him for our spiritual well-being? Meditate upon how much you need and rely upon God.

Fifth Petition

After asking for an earthly blessing, we move immediately to a heavenly one. We have asked God to give us our bread for the coming day, and we now ask Him to grant us that sweet, sweet status: forgiven. However, as Christians we know that our sins have already been forgiven (Christ died for all our sins, right?): why, then, do we even need to ask for forgiveness? I have heard it argued from respectable Christians that we do not need to ask for forgiveness once we have been converted: it is like someone asking for their car keys when they already have them in their hand. However, Jesus addresses this prayer to His disciples, those who would have already had their sins forgiven, telling them to ask for forgiveness. Why?

I believe that there are at least three important reasons why Christians must still ask for forgiveness. First, it is commanded. Jesus tells us that part of our prayer life should include asking God for forgiveness. In and of itself, that is reason enough. There are, however, two more.

Second, when we offend or sin against one of our brothers or sisters, what do we do? Or, more pointedly, when we are offended by one of our brothers or sisters, what do we expect? We expect them to ask our forgiveness. Now, before they ask us they are still our brother. Their asking us does not make them more or less of a brother. However, their asking does heal the relationship. They acknowledge their wrong and we extend our forgiveness, fixing the breech. This is similar to our relationship with God. When we offend the honor of God, sinning against Him, He expects us to ask His forgiveness, so that the breech between us might be fixed. It is not to be reconverted, or to go through what we went through at conversion in any way. It is simply to acknowledge that we have failed in our part of the relationship and to ask that the offended party might be gracious enough to forgive. The wonderful part about it is that Scripture promises that He always will forgive. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The verse immediately following sheds even more light on the importance of confession of sins before God, for it says, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us” (v. 10). Seemingly, our silence in confession is an assertion that we have not sinned, which is itself sin.

Third, we should confess our sins as a reminder to ourselves of the great grace of God and our own humble and lowly state. We should ask His forgiveness upon all of our sins because, if we do it in the correct frame of mind, knowing that He will indeed forgive, it forces us to gaze upon the wonderful grace by which we are saved. In confession, we look to ourselves, seeing who we are in all our unworthiness and rottenness, and then we look to God, seeing Him in all His grace and mercy and love. As with all other prayer, the object is to move from ourselves to God. It also keeps us humble because no matter how mature we become as Christians we must always ask forgiveness, for we will always need it.

There is in this petition a qualifier that has caused some people to question the basis of forgiveness. “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” It seems, on first read, that God’s forgiveness of us depends on our forgiveness of others. But we surely know from other parts of the Scripture that God’s forgiveness of us depends upon His grace and His grace alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 proclaims boldly the basis of our salvation, saying, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Our forgiven status has come to us not by way of our works, but by the grace of God.

So, then, what does this verse mean? I believe that there are many passages in Scripture that explain the relationship between our forgiveness and God’s, but perhaps the clearest and shortest is found in Ephesians 4:32, which says, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” If we have not known forgiveness, that will be shown forth in our lack of forgiveness for others. The heart that has been shown its own wickedness and yet has received forgiveness cannot help but be forgiving to others. John Stott once said, “Once our eyes have been opened to see the enormity of our offence against God, the injuries which others have done to us appear by comparison extremely trifling. If, on the other hand, we have an exaggerated view of the offences of others, it proves that we have minimized our own.”³

Our salvation entails certain actions in us. Just as the tree is known by its fruit, so are those who have been forgiven known by their attitude of forgiveness.

Therefore, there are two things that I think we should do and pray in light of this fifth petition:

1. We should search ourselves, that no deceit or sin may be found in us. We should then ask forgiveness from God, knowing His promise to us in 1 John 1:9, that He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The more you know your own sin, the better prepared you are to fight it, and the more you will become acquainted with the grace of God shown in forgiving you.
2. We should be careful to observe our attitude toward others. Has someone offended you? Have you forgiven them? Do you spend more time thinking about the offense of others against you than about your offense against God? Before holding a grudge against someone, think about the great grace shown to you in salvation, and then think about the one who has offended you.

Sixth Petition

The sixth and final petition of the Lord’s Prayer is very much related to the fifth petition, for if the fifth petition is the prayer of a sinner, then this one is the prayer of “a sinner in danger of being a greater sinner still.”⁴ What I want to speak to regarding this petition is temptation. Who tempts us? How do we fight it?

James 1:13 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” God is not a God who tempts His people. Certainly, as Scripture says, He tests His people (Genesis 22:1), which will sometimes come through temptation, but James is plain spoken when he says that God does not tempt anyone.

We know, however, that we are tempted. If there is anyone here who says that they are not tempted to sin, I would like to speak with them to learn how they do it. Who tempts us? Who continually assails our faith and threatens us with violence? I believe that Matthew himself answers that in chapter 4 of his gospel, where Jesus is led out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Elsewhere, Paul speaks of Satan as one who tempts the saints (1 Corinthians 7:5). Thus, I believe that what we are praying in this petition is that God would so lead our lives that we are not given over into the clutches of Satan to be robbed of our blessed assurance.

How, then, should we live in light of this petition? As we have seen in regards to the Lord giving our daily bread, simply because we pray for God to do something does not mean that we simply sit back and do nothing. If we pray for the conversion of all the people of China, we know that that means that God must send missionaries, for God has ordained means as well as ends. So it is when we pray that God would not lead us into temptation but deliver from the evil one: we rise from our knees and proceed in faith to live out what we have prayed. So, then, to ask the question again: How do we fight temptation?

I believe there are at least four significant ways in which we are to fight against temptation.

First, we do it by the grace of God, the victory of the cross, and the power of His Spirit. No sin, large or small, has ever been killed by the flesh. But every sin, both large and small, can be and, in fact, has been defeated by God. Jesus, who has known every temptation that we know, stands at our side and His Spirit works within us so that we might have the victory over sin. If we proceed from here on our own, our defeat is assured. We will rush to the battle only to find that we have no weapons.

Second, we must be watchful of ourselves. I said earlier that this petition is closely related to the fifth petition. To ask for forgiveness from God means that we necessarily have an idea of our own sinfulness. This prayer (“Lead us not into temptation”) springs from the soul of one who has seen the depths of its own depravity. We have prayed for forgiveness in the fifth petition; now we pray for still more grace that we might not sin even more. Therefore, be watchful of yourself. Read the Word, learn about God and His ways, and then look to yourself, let the Word point out your weaknesses. Then, let the Spirit build you up in those areas.

Take heed of your own personal sin. We all have our own weaknesses. We all know we have them, though sometimes we either ignore them or have not been made aware of them. Get to know your own, individual, personal sin, so that you might kill it. Know yourself for who you are. Know your enemy. Otherwise, when you attempt to deal with your sin you will have no idea who or what you are fighting.

Third, know that your case is not the first or only one. Saints, from the highest to the lowest, have dealt with sin. Every person that has ever been truly called by the name Christian has been beset by the wiles of Satan. Do not be as the prophet Elijah, who bemoaned that he alone was left as one who was faithful to the Lord, even when there were, in fact, 7000 left.

Therefore, let us all help one another in our struggle with sin. I know that it is often very difficult to share with others your personal struggles with internal sin, but that, I believe, is something not from God. God seeks unity among His people; Satan seeks members who have little or nothing to do with one another. Share your struggles with others. Enlist them to help you fight. In going up against a strong army, would you go it alone? Would you rush into the fray the lone soldier? Of course not. Enlist your fellow brothers and sisters in your fight. In turn, help them in their battle for holiness even as they help you. The Church will never fall because of Christians struggling together for holiness. It is only when we cease caring for the spiritual welfare of our brothers and sisters that the Church grows weak and fruitless.

Fourth, in your struggle to avoid temptation and sin, it is helpful to think on what sin is. The best way to do that is to get a good idea of who God is. When Satan assails you with temptation, think on God’s infinite glory. When the world has tempted you almost beyond all you can bear, meditate on the grace shown to you in salvation. When you are set upon the brink of blasphemy, let your thoughts fall upon the wonder of the Incarnation. When you think that you can suffer no more, set your soul upon Christ, look upon Him, consider His countenance, let your mind wander through the streets of grace that fill the heavenly city.

Sin then becomes an odious thing in your eyes. When your heart has grasped even the smallest bit of heaven, you are able to see sin as the evil, foolish, polluting, debasing, enslaving, unsavory, painful, disturbing defection that it is. It is then that you will flee from it as one running from a flaming building. It is then that you will be as the character Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, when his wife and children sought to entice him to sin, who “put his fingers in his ears, and ran on crying, ‘Life, life, eternal life.’”⁵

Of course, there are many other ways and means that we should fight sin and temptation, such as the reading of the Word (which is the sword of the Spirit, and the way in which Christ defeated Satan in the wilderness), much prayer (in which we beseech God to fight for us against our enemies), humility (by which we depend fully upon the strength which the Lord supplies), faith (which Paul calls the “shield of faith” and by which we are anchored in Christ Jesus), and many more. God has made available to the Christian many weapons in his fight against sin: we must only make use of them.

As we fight sin, and God gives us victory, we cannot help but grow in holiness. Killing the negativity of sin forces us to positively grow in Christ.

The Final Three Petitions

Let us now consider what these final three petitions mean as a whole. I believe that there are at least three things that they teach us.

First, they teach us that God is concerned with our entire being. He regards our physical needs (bread), our spiritual needs (forgiveness), and our moral needs (temptation). This encompasses the whole of human existence, for all of our needs fit into one or more of these categories. By teaching us to pray this way, Jesus is telling us that God has involved Himself in who we are and our menial existence here on earth. His love is so great that He has condescended to care about what we need in all facets of our lives. How great a God it is that we serve!

Second, we are not to dwell upon our earthly needs to the exclusion of our heavenly ones. While the prayer for bread is said first, our heavenly needs, those needs that exceed the bounds of the natural, take up two-thirds of the final half of this prayer. We should not let the pressing concerns of this world so affect us that we neglect our spiritual concerns. The state of the soul should be one of our main concerns both in prayer specifically and life in general. Prayer should be the time when we take our eyes off of ourselves and gaze upon the riches of heaven and into the face of our Savior. It should not be dominated by our earthly concerns.

Third, they follow the first three petitions in teaching us that, if we are to pray them sincerely, we must commit ourselves, our lives, who we are, to them. When we pray to God, we commit ourselves to His course; when we pray these words, we commit ourselves to them. I believe that there is a reason why we pray for “our daily bread,” “our debts,” and that God would not lead “us into temptation.” We commit ourselves to seeing these things fulfilled among the community of believers. When we see that a brother or sister is in physical need, God invites us to His work of giving them their daily bread. When we know that a brother or sister is in sin and perhaps they do not realize it, we have the privilege of leading them to repentance. And when we all struggle against sin and temptation, we all have the distinct honor to help one another grow in holiness. When we pray these words, we commit ourselves to their course.

The Lord’s Prayer as a Whole

In closing, I want to look at what the Lord’s Prayer means as a whole: what it teaches us about God, about ourselves, and how we both relate. I believe that there are at least a couple of important things we learn here:

1. First, in praying, and in all our lives, we should give first priority to God and His glory, kingdom, and will. There is a reason why the Lord’s Prayer teaches us to pray those things first: they are the most important. While that may seem egotistical for God, we must realize that the only alternative to placing God above all things is idolatry, for to place anything above God (ourselves, our families, jobs, money, housing, etc.) is to engage in the worship of an idol. We also must realize that, in placing God above all other priorities, we are simply imitating what He Himself does, for God places nothing but His own glory at the top of His list. And, the wonderful and glorious thing about that is that it is for our own good that He does so. First, it is good for the simple reason that we do not worship an idolater. God worships the true God, nothing less.

Second, the Scriptures tell us that God has acted on our behalf because of His desire to exalt Himself. Particularly in Isaiah, who could be called the prophet of God’s glory, we see this over and over again. “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25). “For the sake of My name I delay My wrath, and for My praise I restrain it for you, in order not to cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act” (Isaiah 48:9-11). “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you” (Isaiah 30:18). The Scriptures declare that because God is for Himself and no other we have reaped a great blessing. Therefore, let us seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, just as He Himself does.

2. I debated whether or not to put this in last week’s sermon. I actually intended to bring it up last week, but I forgot. But do not let my mental lapse deceive you into thinking that this point is not significant, for it is perhaps the most important thing the Lord’s Prayer teaches us. The point relates to the opening of the prayer, wherein the Christian addresses God as “Our Father.” We must remember that it is only from the lips of the divine Son that the word Father means anything. Only coming from the Incarnate Son of God does “Father” have its very fullest reference. Others may call God Father, but only the Christian, the one who comes to God in the name and because of the finished work of Christ, does it truly and truthfully. Thus, it is very reasonable for us to pray in the name of Jesus, for only in His Name does our praying “Our Father” reach the ears of the divine. So, even in the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer we are drawn near to the cross, for if we are to pray “Our Father” it is only by and because of the work of the Son. If you have not placed your faith in the grace of God shown in the work of Christ, then you can recite this prayer a million times and never have prayed once. As I said earlier, we rely upon God for all things; above all else, we rely upon Him for salvation.

Additionally, the last three petitions are not so far removed from the first three as many may believe (and perhaps as has been shown by my separation of the two). We pray that God would give us our physical needs, our spiritual needs, and our moral needs so that we might be made able to do our part in His kingdom work. If in the first half of the Lord’s Prayer we are asking that God make His name holy, bring in His kingdom, and accomplish His will, then in the second half we are asking Him to make us able to take part in all those things.

As I said last week, the key to a better prayer life is prayer. That is the magical formula. What I have attempted to do here is urge you to consider what it is we do in prayer, what our attitude should be, and the important connection between Christian prayer and Christian living. I hope that by these last two weeks you have been given “more meat to chew on” in your prayers.

Spurgeon called the Lord’s Prayer “a map.” He then went on to say that “a man is not a traveler because he puts his fingers across the map.”⁶ I believe Spurgeon is right. This prayer is a chart for the prayer life of the Christian. Do not let it be a dusty old chart. Travel the roads and byways of this prayer often, they will not wear down from overuse. Let these words guide you as you walk the corridors of heaven. Let them convict you when you fail to commit yourself to them. Let them comfort you when your spirit is broken. Most of all, let them become more than words on the page, but the sighs and desires of your heart and soul. Pray these words.

¹ Martin Luther, Luther’s Larger Catechism.

² D. A. Carson, Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 172.

³ Quoted in Carson, EBC: Matthew, 172-173.

⁴ Charles Spurgeon, “Lead Us Not into Temptation,” 133.

⁵ John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 10.

⁶ Charles Spurgeon, “The Fatherhood of God,” Spurgeon’s Sermons, Vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 97.

THE LORD’S PRAYER: JESUS’ MODEL OF A GODLY PRAYER, PART TWO