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What the Bible says about Jesus Christ's Model Prayer
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Deuteronomy 29:29

God's will can be known through revelation, which is the supernatural disclosure of God's purposes and instructions through various means such as direct communication, inspiration, visions, dreams, and signs. As mentioned earlier, God has assembled these revelations in the sixty-six canonical books of the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments.

Isaiah 8:16 prophesies that God's testimony—the fullness of His revelation, which Paul calls “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27)—would be bound and sealed among Christ's disciples, establishing the biblical canon for all time. If this is the proper interpretation of this verse, it precludes any “new revelation.” We have in God's Word all we need for salvation.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Model Prayer (Part Five): Your Will Be Done

Matthew 6:8

This verse leads into the model prayer, indicating that we should not pray with the idea that we are bringing something new to God. It also introduces the thought that the purpose of prayer is not to overcome God's reluctance to answer and give but rather to lay hold of His willingness to help us toward His perspective, the fulfillment of His purpose and into His Kingdom. The overall emphasis in our requests, then, must be inclined toward His purpose and will.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Sovereignty of God: Part Eight

Matthew 6:9

In our culture, one's name means little, most often merely as a way of identifying and distinguishing people. We can glimpse how significant it was to people in biblical times when we realize that we link reputation or prestige to a person's name. We use phrases like “he ruined the family name” or “his name is mud” to express that someone is of low repute or character.

An individual's name meant far more than that in ancient times. Then, a person and his or her name were bound together, the name representing the person's essence. In the Old Testament, certain persons' names defined them. For example, Jacob means “heel-catcher,” characterizing his underhanded, deceptive nature, but God renames him Israel, “one who prevails with God,” after his conversion. Christ Himself is named Jesus, “Savior.” God's names likewise identify His character traits: He is Eternal, Creator, Almighty, our Banner, our Healer, our Sanctifier, our Peace, our Righteousness, our Shepherd, our Master, etc.

Thus, the request in Matthew 6:9—and God's command in the third commandment (Exodus 20:7)—means more than just how we use or pronounce God's names. It implies that we revere what God's names stand for. He desires that we regard His names and thus Him and His character reverently, taking the pursuit of Him and His way of life seriously as a matter of profound aspiration.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Model Prayer (Part Three): Hallowed Be Your Name

Matthew 6:9-10

In the salutation to His Model Prayer, Jesus draws immediate attention to the Father's divine nature and holiness (Matthew 6:9). His intention is to fix the petitioner's mind on the preeminence and purity of Almighty God so that the individual realizes his place within the relationship. The person who prays to the Father is a lowly supplicant seeking favor and help from the most high and holy God.

Jesus' words in Matthew 6:10 continue this theme of God's superiority. In English, “Your kingdom come” sounds like a request or desire for a future, divine government to establish righteous rule over this world. While this prophetic interpretation is a correct view—and probably the most common one—it points to far more: God's ultimate sovereignty. His rule is not limited to the future Kingdom that Jesus Christ will bring with Him at His return but is a present reality, especially for those He has called into it in this age.

When added to the traits of divinity and holiness, God's sovereignty completes a powerful triad that both humbles and assures a petitioner before His throne. He has brought his requests before One who has the right, the character, and the authority to grant them, which sparks and sustains confidence—faith—that God will decide in his favor. Every prayer reminds the child of God that he can trust his divine Sovereign to act in his best interests.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Model Prayer (Part Four): Your Kingdom Come

Matthew 6:11

This is apparently the only material request in the entire model prayer; all the other requests are for spiritual aid such as forgiveness, protection, and guidance. With this in mind, is Jesus telling us to ask for physical food every day? A literal meaning is often the most likely understanding, yet the continuing context of the chapter suggests He had more spiritual matters on His mind. Just a few verses later, in Matthew 6:25-26, 31, He teaches:

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? . . . Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or, "What shall we wear?"

The close proximity of these instructions makes it clear that, in telling us to ask God for our daily bread, Jesus does not have physical food foremost in His mind. What, then, is this "bread" that we are to ask for? John 6:35 provides an answer: "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.'"

The Bible uses the word bread to mean "that which is taken into the body and provides nourishment." Scripture presents two basic types of bread, leavened and unleavened. Leavening consistently symbolizes the corruption of sin (for instance, I Corinthians 5:8, "the leaven of malice and wickedness"). Thus, a Christian has a choice of spiritual nourishment that he can take into himself: He can choose sinless, healthful bread or sinful, corrupting bread. This latter bread comes in a range of varieties from sinful and unhealthy to evil and downright poisonous bread.

The manna with which God fed the Israelites while they journeyed through the wilderness was symbolic of Christ, the Bread of Life (John 6:49-51). The account of the giving of the manna in Exodus 16:4, 14-21, 26 shows that the Israelites had a part to play in receiving nourishment from it. They were required to rise early and gather their daily amount before the sun "became hot" and melted it away, or they would go hungry for that day—and perhaps for the next day, if it were a Preparation Day for the Sabbath.

In "the Lord's Prayer," Jesus is instructing His followers to rise early every day and ask God to send the unleavened, sinless Bread of Life to dwell in them. Without the indwelling of Christ through God's Spirit, there is no spiritual life in us (John 6:53, 55-58).

Why is it important that we ask each and every day for this? It is important because God, in His concern to preserve our free-moral agency, will not enter in and live in us uninvited. God is not like an evil demon that will possess us and take control of our lives against our will. He wants us to choose willingly to believe and obey Him and to seek a relationship with Him.

Like a boat trying to dock against the tide, if we do not actively pursue God, then we will slowly drift away from Him (Hebrews 2:1). The cares and pulls of the world seem to distract us easily, and we lose our focus on God. If we are ignoring Him, God may soon become unsure whether we are still choosing to walk with Him. He will try to get our attention back where it should be—on Him and His righteousness—through trials or other circumstances.

Yet ultimately, in order not to override our choice in the matter, God will allow us to slip away unless we repent and actively seek Him and ask for His Spirit. Without God's Spirit in us, we are trying to live and overcome on our own. If Jesus Himself says, "I can of Myself do nothing" (John 5:30), what chance does an individual have to overcome without Christ in him?

Staff
Ask and It Will Be Given

1 Corinthians 2:9-16

While the words of God's revealed will have been read by millions or billions of people in the pages of the Bible, they cannot be understood except in the most basic way without the engagement of God's Holy Spirit. As Paul writes, “Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (I Corinthians 2:11; see John 14:16-17, 26; 16:13-15). Without the anointing of the Holy Spirit given through the laying on of hands (Acts 8:17; 9:17; II Timothy 1:6), Scripture's revelations are veiled in mystery. Yet, with it, an individual can “have the mind of Christ” (verse 16).

In the context of His parables, Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew 13:11, 16, “[I]t has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [the great multitudes] it has not been given. . . . But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.” This remarkable, unique gift of His Spirit puts all of God's people under the obligation to seek His will in everything and practice it with understanding and diligence. In this way, the saints put on the new man day by day and make a proper witness of God's grace and righteous way of life.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Model Prayer (Part Five): Your Will Be Done


 




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