THE PRAYER TO BEGIN ALL PRAYERS - Part 2

The Prayer to Begin All Prayer - Part 2



If the first part of the Lord's Prayer ascended the lofty heights of heaven and spoke of grand ideas such as the will of God, the next part brings us down to earth. The entire prayer, of course, is about day-to-day life and faith, but this next part focuses on this aspect more so.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

You can't get any more basic than this: praying for your three squares a day. Praying for food, of course, makes some people nervous. It did me for a long time because it seemed, well, so pedestrian. Praying for God's will, for world peace, for serenitythat's real prayer. But praying about spaghetti and sausage doesn't seem very spiritual.

Baloney. I mean to say, the prayer is about baloney and pasta and hamburgers and even broccoli. Jesus is teaching that there is nothing too basic or too mundane to pray about. Every one of life's gifts is a gift from God ultimately, and it isn't as if he created courage and faith and the desire for peace, and then somehow broccoli just came along. Every giftwhether it be spiritual, moral, or physicalcomes from God's hand ultimately, and Jesus is telling us that it is the Great Giver to whom we should turn about such matters.


But why? This would seem to be one area where prayer has nothing to do with it. I work for my daily bread by taking a job. And a lot of work by others goes into getting bread to my table: planting seeds, irrigating land, harvesting crops, shipping by railway, displaying in a supermarket, and so on. We can pray until the proverbial cows come home, but unless someone takes the trouble to get up at 4:00 a.m. and milk them, no one's going to have anything to put on their cereal. What does prayer have to do with all this?


Everything. This is exactly the point of this prayer: To remind us that the journey of food from planting to dinner table is a complex process that requires the efforts, skills, and faithfulness of countless people. Every time we eat, we receive a gift that comes to us through many hands. It is not merely our efforts that secure our daily bread. This is not the type of thing we ought to take for granted.

Then there's this little unpleasant fact: A few too many days without bread, and we die. Christian prayer is not about ethereal spirituality; it is no mere consciousness raising into airy transcendence. Prayer is about survival. This petition is a stark reminder of how close we are to not being, of how fragile our world really is, of how little it takes (a shipper's strike, a hurricane, a cancer cell) to disrupt everything we take for granted, of how vulnerable we really are. In other words, this is a prayer about dependence, utter dependence upon God for everything.

It is also about daily dependence. Ongoing trust is emphasized by Jesus: "Give us this day our daily bread." It's like he's saying, "Get it?" This is not a once-in-a-lifetime admission or an annual renewal of vows. It is a day-by-day looking to God as the giver of every gift.


It's also about looking to God for gifts sufficient only for the day, not anxiously praying to God to meet an entire lifetime of needs, or praying that we would have so much that we never need worry again. That's called greed, and it's not exactly the type of attitude Jesus approves of. Instead, our prayer should be, ''Give us enough to sustain us today, Lord, to help us meet the challenges this day. And then tomorrow, we'll worry about tomorrow."

This doesn't mean you can't plan or pray about the future, such as for retirement. Planning and putting money aside is something we do today, and as such it is something we can do with this prayerful attitude of daily dependence. We can plan retirement with a sense of anxiety and fear, or with a thankful, dependent heart: "Lord, help me plan my future wisely, to make good decisions this day, and help me to trust in your loving care over all of my life, no matter what happens." We would be negligent if we did not notice one other aspect of this petition: "Give us this day our daily bread." Again, the community makes itself known. This is not merely a prayer about our own needs, but also the needs of others. German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, "It is not God's will that his creation should be despised. The disciples are told to ask for bread not only for themselves but for all men on earth."

We needn't spend much time demonstrating that a lot of people in the world today are not getting their daily bread, and not because there isn't enough food to go around. With inefficient distribution systems, unjust governments, political bureaucracies, greed, and human stupidity, a lot of people are starving as I write this. It nearly goes without saying that those who pray this little petition, "Give us this day our daily bread," are committing themselves in some way, small or large, to help answer this prayer for those who lack bread this day.


And Forgive Us Our Trespasses . . .

If the former petition was about physical survival, then the next three petitions are about spiritual survival.

First, let's make clear what the key word in this petition means. Trespasses is a legal image and refers to those acts by which we cross a boundary that God has set. In fact, a lot of commentators have talked about the Ten Commandments as a fence. We are free to do anything within these 10 boundaries, but once we commit adultery or steal or profane the Sabbath, we step outside the ordered life God intends for us. At this point we trespass into forbidden land.

In the other principle version of the Lord's Prayer, the image used here is economic: "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Here the idea is that the moral law is like a bank account. Every time we break the law, we draw on this moral account and we owe God. It's like drawing upon the good will of a friendlet's say he gives you a ride to the airportand then you saying, "I owe you one."


With God, though, we find that we owe him so much that we can never quite pay him back. There is something about human nature that makes it impossible for us to pay back our moral withdrawals. We just sink deeper and deeper into debt. Anyone who is morally sensitive understands what the apostle Paul is writing about when he says, "I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong. . . . No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't" (Romans 7:1518).

We're talking big dept here: moral bankruptcy. It's like owing the Visa people so much money that the minimum payment you can afford cannot even cover the monthly interest.


Trespasses and debts are metaphors for the more abstract word sin. To put the matter most bluntly: Without forgiveness, we can have no relationship with God. That's not because God gets petty and self-righteous and wants nothing to do with us when we do something bad. To sin is to break the very relationship we have with God. It's like adultery in marriage: This is not a petty little indiscretion; it breaks the bond between husband and wife, and if the betrayed spouse does not forgive, the relationship cannot continue.


Anyone who has thought deeply about who God isperfect in love and goodnessrecognizes that every sin is an act of unfaithfulness, that is, spiritual adultery. (In fact, one book of the Bible, Hosea, says that Israel was acting like a husband lying with a prostitute when it forsook the laws of God.) The very relationship with God is rupturedand without God, life quickly spirals into chaos and death and eternal loneliness. Unless God forgives, that is.


The point of this petition is to assure us that God does, in fact, offer his forgiveness. This is the gospel (that is, "good news") of the New Testament. That God offered forgiveness freely and fully was not completely clear until the coming of Jesus Christ. It is through Christ's death and resurrection that forgivenessessentially, a restored relation with God and, thus, freedom from chaos and death and eternal lonelinessis given.

You can spend your life pretending as if this isn't true, either living in denial about the spiritual bankruptcy of your life or living in constant anxiety and guilt about your moral indebtedness. Or, you can claim the gift of forgiveness that Christ offers. To pray this petition is to claim that gift.

. . .As We Forgive Those Who Trespass against Us

Now comes the hard part. Forgiveness is a package deal. It's not about me getting my sins forgiven so I can feel self-righteous and holy. The phrase is "Forgive us our trespasses." This is about seeking God's forgiveness for the sins of my neighbors, tooand even the sins of my enemies.

Yes, that includes even the sins of the friend who has betrayed you, the boss who overworks you, the neighbor who slanders youall those people who owe you big-time and who have trespassed over you.

In some ways, then, the second part of this petition"as we forgive those who trespass against us"is redundant. We can hardly be praying for their forgiveness unless we have already forgiven them, can we?

Well, not exactly. Resentment and bitterness have a way of planting themselves deeply within our hearts, and it is mighty difficult to uproot them. I still remember an unkind remark of a (former) friend made some 20 years agoand I'm still bothered by it. But prayer goes a long way toward softening such resentment. Praying for one's enemies, in fact, is a tried and true method for beginning to love and forgive even enemies.


When I'm angry with someone, or when I find myself resurrecting a long-standing resentment, I start praying for the person who has offended me. "Lord, please help Steve become successful in what's he doing; keep him and his family safe from disease. . . " and so on. This has a remarkable effect on my heart.


Jesus put it this way, "You have heard that the law of Moses says, 'Love your neighbor' and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your father in heaven" (Matthew 5:4345).

The corporate nature of forgiveness is so crucial that this is the only petition of this prayer that Jesus comments on when he's done teaching it. He told his disciples, "If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6:1415).

This is not a quid pro quo, a deal God makes with us, let alone a threat. It has to do with the internal logic of prayer and forgiveness. As we noted, you can't very well pray, "Forgive us our trespasses" without including your neighbor and enemy in the prayer. Jesus is saying that we shouldn't pretend that this prayer is only concerned about us. Forgiveness is the plea of the community; if you think you can receive it without seeking the forgiveness of others, you just don't get it.

This doesn't mean that you have to feel forgiveness for others before you ever pray this prayer or that you have to be free of all resentment before you can ever hope to go before God. It does mean that when we enter into prayer, we recognize that our resentment and anger toward others needs to be a part of our prayer. In seeking to deepen our relationship with God, we are at the same time seeking to heal our relationship with others.

The promise of Jesus is that prayer is about the most effective way of doing both.


And Lead Us Not into Temptation

You have to wonder about this petition. We've just gotten through praying for forgiveness for succumbing to temptation, and now we're told to pray that God would not lead us into temptation. As if God wanted to do that; as if he tried to make us sin.

Not quite. In fact, the Bible is pretty clear about that: "Remember, no one who wants to do wrong should ever say, 'God is tempting me.' God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else either" (James 1:13).

So if God never tempts, why should we pray that he would not lead us into temptation?

Frankly, the Bible is a little confusing at this point because it uses two termstrials and temptationinterchangeably, though it is clear from its teaching that those are two different things.


Temptation is something that comes from the Evil One (see the next petition) or from within our own dark hearts. To be tempted is to be enticed to do something contrary to God's will, to deny or work against God's love. We are tempted to lie to the government on April 15. We are tempted to act with prejudice against people of color. We are tempted to commit adultery. These are not the kinds of things God is into.

Trials, on the other hand, are ordeals we undergo that, for all their misery and hardship, can actually strengthen our faith: the loss of a job, a child going wayward, the news of cancer. Such events, if lived through with faith, become opportunities to decide what is really important in life, to learn patience and humility, and to become closer to God and others.


One of my coworkers recently got the news that she had breast cancer. Being a human being, she was not just a little anxious about the news. Over the next few days, before she could see the doctor again she researched and wondered and worried and, no doubt, cried. But she also prayed, as did all her friends. As a result, she said, she slowly regained her composure.

One day as she drove, she was listening to a song on a Christian radio station. In the song was a line about God's light shining on us, no matter how cloudy our lives seem. Just then she turned the corner, and ahead was one spectacular sunset; it seemed as if the rich colors of the light were shining down just on her. She could hardly continue driving for the tears that clouded her vision. To make a long story short, she came through her ordeal with a stronger sense of God's presence in her life and a greater courage to face whatever came her way.

This is why the Bible can be pretty upbeat about trials: "Whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything" (James 1:2).

But let's be clear about this: Trials can make us bitter and unloving and faithless. Along with every trial comes the opportunity to sin. If they didn't cut both ways, they wouldn't be real trials and they wouldn't have the possibility of doing any good. The point is not that we're supposed to figure out if we're being tempted or if we're undergoing a trial. Sometimes, from our perspective, both look pretty much the same.

The point to remember is that God can help us whenever we're assaulted. The apostle Paul put it this way: "Remember that the temptations that come into your life arenot different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. Whenyou are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it"(1 Corinthians 10:13).

Lead Us Not into TemptationMore

This phrase also means, "Save us from the time of temptation."


The other meaning is more literal: "God: Don't even let us be tempted." Though God helps us in times of temptation, and though trials can strengthen faith, we should never ask God to give us trials or lead us into temptation. Some Christians want to be heroes for God because they want to prove to him how strong they really are. I've done this myself. In youthful enthusiasm, I've prayed, "Lord, send me a trial so that I can endure it and become even stronger for you." As heroic as that sounds, I've discovered that it's just a form of prideand stupidity.

Once you've been through a few ups and downs of the spiritual life, one thing becomes perfectly clear: We are terrible judges of how strong we are, and we have no business telling God when to put trials in our lives. Those matters are best left in his hands. The wise prayer is always, "Lead us not into temptation." We'll have more than enough opportunities to deal with temptations and trials, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer notes in a nice bit of understatement: "Many and diverse are the temptations that beset the Christian." In other words, there's no need to go looking for trouble.

But Deliver Us from Evil

If you were to read this petition in Greek, the language in which the New Testament was written, you would see that this petition literally means, "Deliver us from the Evil One." This little petition introduces us into the reality of spiritual warfare.

This is a part of the teachings of Jesus that makes us modern souls a tad uncomfortable. The recent fascination with angels is all well and good because it reminds us that there is a spiritual world of goodness and love that parallels and intersects with our own world. It is less comforting, however, to consider a spiritual world with personal beings who work against God's purposes. But this is the clear teaching of the New Testament, and especially of Jesus.

It is easy to mock such a worldview, although it's becoming harder and harder to do so. People all over the spectrum are recognizing the presence of personal, spiritual evil in the world. Scott M. Peck, a respected psychologist and author of the best-selling book The Road Less Traveled, wrote a sequel, People of the Lie,in which he describes his encounters with patients that he finally concluded were possessed by demons.

I don't want to dwell on this issue because that would be a mistake. To paraphrase English scholar C. S. Lewis, there are two mistakes made in regard to the devil: One is to naively refuse to believe in him; the other is to spend too much time thinking about him.

The point of this petition is simple: Prayer is not a way to enjoy warm, spiritual fuzzies. To pray is to step into a spiritual world where good and evil battle for supremacy. Though the outcome is never in doubt, the battle is realand hard. There will be moments in our prayer lives when we will feel assaulted by an unknown power of such evil. It will frighten us, and we'll know at that point why we've been praying "Deliver us from evil."

And we'll also know that God will.


For Thine Is the Kingdom . . .

The phrase at the end of the Lord's Prayer"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen."was probably never spoken by Jesus. As some ancient scribe copied the Lord's Prayer in the Gospel of Matthew, ending with "and deliver us from evil," he may have thought, "What a downer." So he composed this ending.


This ending got copied by other scribes, and over time it became inserted into the Lord's Prayer as it was used in worship. In the nineteenth century, as more and more ancient copies of the New Testament were unearthed, scholars discovered that in the earliest copies of Matthew, this ending doesn't exist. That's why you won't find it in recent translations of the Bible.

But you'll still find it in the church's liturgy. Though it doesn't come from the lips of Jesus, it does sum up quite nicely everything that is going in the Lord's Prayer. It acknowledges that the basis of prayer is the power of God. This simply reminds us once morejust in case we've not gotten it by nowthat it is not our faith or our prayers or our religiosity or our goodness that makes prayer "work."

It is God, as king, who is in charge of everything that goes on in prayer. It is God who has the power in prayer. It is God who deserves the glory for everything that comes out of prayer. And this has been and always will be true, forever and ever. Amen, as they say.