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The Lord’s Prayer

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From early Christian experience I had been taught that in religion there is no place for independent judgment, that I was not to use my mind, but trust in God and have faith. The advice was well meant and largely true. We are to have faith, and we are saved by faith and not by works. However, the suggestion that we are not to use our minds is entirely untrue. We are to serve God with our mind as well as with other faculties. Hear these words of Christ: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30,31. See also Matthew 22: 37; Luke 10:27. As a fresh breath from heaven come the words, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.” Isaiah 1:18. Is it possible that God invites me to reason with Him? Paul supported the idea when he said, “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.” 2 Timothy 2:7. “Consider” is defined: “To look closely, to examine, to think about, to ponder in order to understand and decide, to observe, comprehend.”  Did Paul mean that I have a right to consider what he said? To think it over? And what did he mean when he said, “I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.” 1 Corinthians 10:15. Perhaps we had expected to hear Paul say, “Swallow what I say.” Instead of this, he appealed to men’s good sense, and told them to consider what he said. He was so sure of his grounds that he was will to leave the decision with the hearers.

God is pleased when we use the mind He has given us and seriously consider a matter before taking action. Such is not an act of disbelief, but of intelligent faith. There must indeed be no doubtful hesitation in obeying God; but ordinarily He gives us time for reflection, that we may see the light in His light and follow on to know the Lord.

Little children should be taught to obey without questioning. However, as the child grows older, the wise parents will use a different method. They will spend time in explaining the reasons for certain requirements. As the child gets the parent’s viewpoint, there will be intelligent co-operation, unless the child is willfully stubborn.

It is thus God deals with us. He wants to reason with us; He wants us to consider, to judge. God treats us as grownups, which appeals to a child. As we think matters through, we see wisdom in what might otherwise seem an arbitrary and unreasonable demand.

God could sit on His throne and issue His sovereign decrees without giving any reason for them. However, He chooses the better way. He reveals His secrets to His servants, the prophets. Amos 3:7. He talked things over with Abraham before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. Genesis 18:20-33. He would never dare give us the right to think, did He not know that when we have time to consider the matter, we would agree with Him. How can any fail to appreciate such a God! He makes us feel that we count. We are not mere automations. Let no one misunderstand. God demands obedience. However, He talks things over with us and leaves to us the final decision.

While, generally speaking, every request that God makes of us is a reasonable request, there are times when He tests us to see what we will do under certain circumstances. He tests us to see if we have learned to trust Him absolutely and if we will obey even without understanding them. Of such was the order to Simon Peter, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draft.” Luke 5:4. Jesus was no fisherman, and Peter was. In addition, Peter had been fishing all night and caught nothing, and in daylight, it was no use to try again. Peter made a weak protest (verse 5), then let down the net, and the result was a greater catch than Peter had ever had before. This was Peter’s first lesson in obedience. Years later when Christ told him to cast the net on the right side, there was no arguing. John 21:6. Peter could have argued that there was no more fish on the right side than on the left. However, he had learned his lesson.

When Abraham was told to take his son Isaac and offer him on the mountain God should show him, he did not hesitate. Genesis 22:2,3. He could not understand, but in previous years, he had learned to trust God. Abraham stood the test for obedience.

These are interesting events, and there are others in the Bible. God likes to talk over with His men, to prepare them for the time when there must be prompt and instant obedience.

God’s Will in Me

It is well to pray that God’s will be done in earth as it is in heaven, for that calls our minds to fields far and near where God’s will is not being done or even known, and where we might be of some help. If we Christians pray this prayer, we cannot be inactive; for we have it in our power to help answer the prayer. When Jesus said, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14), He was depending on us to do our part. He knew that such preaching was necessary if God’s will was to be done. By our work with our neighbors, by our interest in fields’ afar, we may in a very definite way speed the day when God’s will shall be done in the earth.

There is, however, a very personal application of this prayer that is of more importance than anything we can do for others. That is accepting God’s will for ourselves. If we do this and our life becomes a God-directed life, He will be enabled to use us in ways we do not now understand or think possible. In the abstract, it is easy to pray, “Thy will be done.” Are we willing to make it personal?

It must have been a momentous disappointment for Moses when he was put aside and not permitted to enter the Promised Land and Joshua was given his place. He pleaded for permission to go in and see the land, but his prayer was denied. Deuteronomy 3: 23-27.  As for Joshua, God said to Moses, “encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before the people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land.” Verse 28.

Moses bowed to the will of God, and on His behalf “he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, be strong and of good courage: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them: and I will be with thee.” Deuteronomy 31:23. Moses did not enter the earthy Canaan; he died and God raised him from the grave in immortal glory.

Elijah must have been much discouraged when after the great day on Mount Carmel, where he did mighty exploits for God and won a signal victory, God rebuked him for his cowardly flight from Jezebel, and told him to put his mantle on Elisha. However, he did not murmur. When he found Elisha, he “cast his mantle upon him.” 1 Kings 19:19.

However, God had not forsaken Elijah. He and Elisha worked together, until Elisha was fully able to take over the work. Then one day, as they walked along together talking together, “behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” 2 Kings 2:11. Elijah’s work on earth was done; so God took him to heaven.

It must have been hard for Paul, the active and energetic one, to sit still in prison day after day and year after year. In the midst of a busy and useful life he was placed on the sidelines, his work apparently done, though he was still in the strength of manhood and planning a worldwide work. Alternatively, was his work done? No, God was merely changing his work. He had been so busy traveling and preaching that he had not had time to do the writing God wanted done. There was yet a great deal of the New Testament to be written, and Paul was the man to do it. However, he was too busy. He needed quietness and freedom from the care of the churches. Therefore, God arranged for him a time of quietness, and Paul immediately went to work. By writing fourteen of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, he doubtless did more good that he did during his active ministry.

Paul was willing to be set aside, and in his retirement he did a mighty work for God. He had learned in whatever state he was, therewith to be content.

What shall we say of John the Baptist? He had done a valiant work for God in preparing the way for Christ, and now that this work was done, he was consigned to prison and apparently forgotten. Did envy and jealousy fill his heart with discontent as a greater One had taken his place? No, a thousand times No. John said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30. Had Jesus forgotten him? “Among them that are born of woman there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.” Matthew 11:11.

It is not easy to say, “Thy will be done,” when one is set aside. However, the men we have mentioned had learned the lesson. Therefore, Moses and Joshua appeared together, and Moses strengthened and encouraged Joshua. Elijah and Elisha walked and talked together, and the younger man was instructed by the older. Paul willingly changed his work and accomplished more than ever. Moreover, John cheerfully stepped aside when the greater than he appeared. All these accepted God’s way, though it must have cost some of them great sorrow. All of them learned one of life’s greatest lessons, to bow to disappointment, to say, “Thy will be done,” and cheerfully do what God had for them to do. It is not easy to be set aside. However, this is the part of the program of life. He that can bow to the will of God, who can say from the heart, “Thy will be done,” may be set at another task where he can still serve.

There may be those among the readers who have been set aside and resent it. Let us repeat: This is part of life, a lesson that all must learn. There may be wives who have been put aside and are passing through the experience of loneliness and of not being wanted. There may be grandparents who once had a happy home where all were welcome. Now they are given a rocking chair in a corner and are given to understand that they are not to make themselves too prominent when “company” comes.

There are those who have held high office in state or church or institutions. Their counsel, which once was sought eagerly, is not in demand any more; they are outdated. The shock is almost unbearable for some persons.

It is easy enough to say that God’s will be done, when all goes well. However, it is not easy to say this when a loved one is on the deathbed and hope is gone. It is not easy to say it when we are personally involved, when we are incapacitated and feel we are in the way and our usefulness is at an end. It was not easy for Christ to say it in Gethsemane. However, He did say it, and a world was saved.

Frustrations and disappointments are a part of life and an important part. For in the darkness God may be hid. If we relate ourselves rightly to reverses and “dis-appointments,” they may become “His-appointments.” If we accept the disappointments as ordered or permitted by God we may see God’s will being done in our reaction. Therefore let all pray, “Thy will be done in me.”

“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”

This petition does not ask for luxuries, but for bread, the barest necessities of life. The historian Gibbon, in recording one of the many famines in olden times, makes the observation that some of the delicate ladies in Rome learned for the first time how little it took to sustain life.

They had feasted on nightingale’s tongues and other delicacies, and now they were happy to get a crust of bread. This is a good lesson to learn. Paul says, “Having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” 1 Timothy 6:8.

God’s promise does not include palatial homes, rich appointments, and all the latest conveniences. While we would not exclude these under appropriate circumstances, they are not included in Christ’s prayer. In it, we ask for bread.

God does not frown on riches. If we have honestly acquired some of the good things of life, and if we use them rightly, we thank God for them. Job was the richest man in all the East, and God blessed him. Abraham was a rich man, and so were David and Solomon.

God is not against riches, but against their misuse. Men who have riches and look down on others who have not, men who forget that it is God who gives power to obtain wealth and that they are not owners but stewards of their possessions, men forget that a part of what they have God requires of them, men who forget their brother’s need and close their eyes to the cry of the world – such will find it hard to enter heaven. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for them to gain eternal life. Matthew 19:24.

In daily bread we are justified in including not only bread to sustain life, but such things as shelter, clothing, health, and also for the mind and, of course, spiritual needs. Many people of the world need bread, many are undernourished, and children suffer for want of that which we waste. A terrible responsibility rests upon those who have, who store up, who waste while others starve. This holds for nations and individuals. However, great as the need is for temporal food, we must admit that there is a great need for intellectual and spiritual nourishment. In some respects, this need is even greater.

The prayer for bread furnishes an excellent illustration of how God answers prayer. We ask for bread, and then we work in the sweat of our face to provide it ourselves. Even though Christians believe in prayer, no one would think of asking God to furnish food without any effort on the part of the one who prays. Even when God sent manna from heaven, the Israelites had to go out and gather it. God did indeed send ravens with food for Elijah, and God can do the same today; but this is not God’s ordinary way of working.

It is just as consistent to ask God for bread and expect Him to bring it to our door, as to ask God for any other blessing a hand to help ourselves. The fact that we in most instances are to answer our own prayers needs to be impressed upon all. We may ask God to convert the heathen; but if so, we are not to look the other way when the collection plate is passed. God helps those who help themselves – and others. 

To those who are religious but unconcerned about their brother’s temporal needs, God sends a warning. “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. Wherefore have we fasted, they say, and Thou seest not. Wherefore we have afflicted our soul, and Thou takest no knowledge?” Isaiah 58: 1-3.

The people who make the complaint that God takes no notice of them are religious people. They fast and afflict their souls, but God does not hear. They seek God daily and ‘delight in approaching to God.” And still God does not hear their prayers. They think He ought to. They pray daily.

What is wrong with them? In His answer, God tells them wherein they fail. They pray and afflict their souls, they fast and keep the ordinances of God, but God ignores them. They do not keep the right kind of fast. Then God tells them what to do. They fast to be seen of men. They go with bowed heads and spread sackcloth and ashes under them. “Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?” asks God. Verse 5. Is not this the true fast, God said, “to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house [not to the poorhouse or some public institution]? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thy own flesh?” Verse 7. God’s further demands are “to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke.” Verse 6.




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