AN AUTHENTIC CHRISTIAN spiritual life derives its deepest meaning from whole-hearted communication with God through prayer. Our Lord Jesus not only gives us the most thorough instruction on the how, what, when, where, and why of prayer, he is also our primary example in respect to an informed and sincere life of prayer. Perhaps the best place for us to start with prayer is the same request his disciples made. They had frequently observed his spiritual prayer disciplines, and desired to know more. “One of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’” (Luke 11:1)
Jesus responds, this in the shorter Luke version, with six points of prayer. The first, “Father, hallowed be your name” (Luke 11:2a), is highest in priority. In acknowledging that God is father, all disciples would begin to understand the difference between a transcendent God that only the priests could access, and an immanent and intimate God who had the identity of ‘Father.’ By and through this recognition, a remarkable sense of family begins. In stating that the Father’s name is sanctified, that his is a holy name, not only is there a sense of family, but also that this family has a patriarch that is to be honored and praised for perfection of being in all possible ways—moral and ethical perfection, purity of motivation, and penultimate wisdom as the mere starting place from which all things exist. “Your kingdom come” (Luke 11:2b), is best understood as ‘May’ or ‘Let’ this event come to pass. This is an ongoing recognition of a paradigm shift in perceptual reality. This changes their, and our, thinking of the cosmos—the observable world of matter, space, and time that we all inhabit. There is a different and better realm, one we were previously only dimly aware of, but which now beckons with an allure of the highest order of being. The seeds of infinity and eternity begin to take root in the deepest part of us. We see new and far better possibilities and, and are made aware of a destiny that is far different than our earlier expectations. We see this with new eyes, and we desire what we behold.
Jesus shifts the emphasis from praising God to petitioning our new-found father, much as a child would ask a loving parent for a pressing need, but with the mind of an adult that understands the insecurity of the surrounding culture. “Give us each day our daily bread” (Luke 11:3), he says. This surfaces and emphasizes not only an adult perception of time, but also addresses the underlying insecurity of the fragile reality of supply and demand. Our first-world modern technology has coddled us into an unexamined trust in the supply chain that the disciples did not enjoy, even as many of the impoverished third-world nations today sadly fully understand these things and live with the daily dangers of drought, war, famine, plague, and all the other sudden disrupters of safety and security. Yesterday had its needs, as will tomorrow, but the reality of need is its existence in the day we are in. Jesus reminds us of the precious nature of time and the providential nature of God, a father who can rightfully, if not righteously, be asked to take care of us because of his care for us.
Having taught his disciples to praise God and trust in his loving providence, Jesus turns from the immediacies of bodily concerns to the major spiritual issue that each person that comes to God must face squarely. “Forgive us our sins” (Luke 11:4a), he says. This is something we cannot do for ourselves. There is no way to pay the required amount for sin—it is beyond our capabilities; it far outweighs any moral or ethical positive attributes and actions we may have built up throughout our lifetime. Sin is the most expensive debt that can be incurred, and here we enter into a theological conundrum. Our confusing part in this begins with a sense that we are being asked to redress a wrong that is something don’t feel we did. But scripture makes it clear that we are afflicted with the sin of the first Adam at conception, before we ever break a proscriptive command or fail to carry out a prescriptive one.
We come into this world already consigned to hell, and our first reaction to this theological truth may be to bitterly assert our innocence. It is not until we understand the nature of evil and carefully look at the story of the Fall from Grace in our faintly glimpsed ancestral Garden that we even begin to understand theodicy and our culpability inherent in our DNA. Only once we get past our initial shock at the concept of universal human sin nature and see this from God’s perspective can we begin to examine our own sin actions.
Only once we understand the sin problem of this creation can we understand the enormity of the grace freely offered to us that has the power to make us a new creation, free from condemnation. Only then do we see ourselves and our guilt clearly. Only then can we ask, honestly and humbly, for forgiveness. Our hearts hungry and eager, we begin to open our mouths towards this request, but we are held in stasis from that by Jesus. He is adamant that there is a covenant responsibility that legally burdens us when we ask for forgiveness. Inherent in the “if you, then I” relationship of absolute honesty and integrity that God expects of us, we are held in this moral accountability: “For we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” (Luke 11:4b) Human error is our lot; forgiveness is divine. The same power that God exerts in us through Christ to forgive our sin nature and our individual sins is defeated in us if it does not extend through us. We are offered forgiveness; we are called to forgive, not only friends and loved ones, but even our enemies who persecute us.
Following Jesus is not easy, nor has it ever been. His demands are high, but the outcomes lie in the arena of a new-found freedom. We have been purchased out of damnation eternally, and that is a truth that we receive even in this life. This freedom must be guarded, something that we cannot always do for ourselves, despite our level of spiritual maturity or our force of will. Age and injury, disease and the devil—all are humiliators of spirit, soul, and body. So Jesus adds this final sobering aspect to his counsel. “And lead us not into temptation.” (Luke 11:4c) Jesus is teaching us that God’s ever-present strength is available to us, and is even made greater, in our weakness. It is another conundrum we must struggle with, but the answer becomes understandable when we see that the difficult circumstances we often face can be viewed as a temptation, in which case it is from Satan, or a trial, which God permits. And, if we train ourselves to always see trials, and never temptations, then God himself is our way out, and he will provide the means.
In its entirety then: “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.” (Luke 11:2-4)
Let us pray…
Q. How healthy is my prayer life?
Leave a Reply