“THE LORD’S PRAYER – GOD’S PATH TO HIMSELF – TO LIFE”

 

269387_405073442861373_1557044387_nScripture:   Matthew 6:9-15; Luke 11:2-12

 Sermon for: Rankin Chapel – Peter’s Chapel – Clintonville Grace UMC                                  Sunday   June 19, 2016     Don McDaniel

The Lord’s Prayer was given by Jesus to His disciples and to the gathered crowd (and to us) as part of a time of teaching / instruction that started with the Beatitudes (Matthew 5), the parable of salt and light, instruction on God’s standard about anger / sexual sin / divorce / overall conduct as well as setting a standard for loving others / giving / keeping the Law and promises, worship. His instruction also provided help and instruction w.r.t. worry and the wise use of money.

 

His instruction gave a broad and complete guide to living a Christ like life. Christ instructed by example as well as by word. But His instruction also, by example and by word, showed those present (and us thru scripture) how to effectively pray as well.

His instruction was direct, simple, and easy to remember both to the crowd as well as to us. The Lord’s Prayer is the most profound and meaningful prayer but also the easiest to remember and repeat. Only God could accocmplish that!

 

So let’s both pray and meditate on what this powerful prayer says.   Before sharing this important prayer, Jesus cautions to not pray for purpose of impressing others or for personal gain.   Instead He is encouraging a honest and humble and contrite communion with the One and Only God and Creator of everything.

 

  1. OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN – direct your prayer to God who has complete and eternal authority and power and who is on His throne in heaven. Be mindful you are addressing God Almighty who is above and over everything and everyone – including you and including satan.   Show reverence and respect and humility knowing the One you are talking to is God Himself.
  2. YOUR KINGDOM COME – we need to take time to not only acknowledge but prepare ourselves to both believe and want God’s kingdom to come here on earth and get our wills in line with His.       Preparing ourselves before making requests for our own and other’s needs done first, so stating our desire for God’s will to be done over ours is important.
  3. YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN – we think of heaven being a perfect – eternal place more beautiful and perfect than earth. A place without pain or death or any evil and a place of perfect peace and harmony. A place we dream of. We need to prepare our minds and hearts so we desire that earth reflect God’s Will as much as heaven does already. We are recognizing and desiring Christ to return to earth to set up His kingdom and bind and stop satan’s reign of sin and destruction and death. We also need to conform our wills and actions and thoughts to reflect this goal and plan as well instead of hindering and opposing His Will and Plan. We need to also realize we are as futile as satan in stopping or slowing His Will.
  4. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD – we desperately depend on Him each and every day for the food we eat, the air we breathe. Every beat of our heart and movement of our bodies and thought in our minds and word we speak and image we see with our eyes is a result of His love and mercy and grace each and every day. We would not survive one second, let alone a day without His constant provision. Yet His provision is so complete and constant it is so easy to take it for granted or assume it will continue as it has. Yet He tells us there will be a time of great tribulation and judgment. Recognizing and expressing gratitude for what God does for us is vital to our relationship with Him and our ability to express Joy and Love towards Him, which is so deserves. We also need to recognize how undeserving we are of such faithfulness and love and grace.
  5. FORGIVE US OUR SINS AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO SIN AGAINST US – I think it is no coincidence this comes directly after the request for daily bread. We are told to forgive each other each and every day as He forgives us each and every day. We need to recognize we, as imperfect and sinful creatures, will continue to fall short of His perfect example, which means we need His forgiveness each and every day. That needs to motivate us to show compassion to each other and be ready to forgive others each and every day when they continue to hurt and offend and mistreat us. The parable Jesus told of the servant who was forgiven a huge debt by the king and then didn’t forgive someone who owed him a very small amount reflects Jesus’ revelation. We must forgive daily over and over again if we want God to forgive us over and over again. This is not to give us an impossible task to do and doom us to failure, but to guide us into a more wonderful and richer relationship with each other and with Him. His desire is to give us life, not death. Joy, not misery. Hatred hurts the hater more than the hated. Forgiveness gives more life to the forgiver than the forgiven.       God is the definition of life and loves to forgive more than judge – afterall, He loves us like no other even when we ignore Him and sadden Him with our sins. Mark 11:25 further reinforces this truth “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that you Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.       But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
  6. DO NOT LEAD US INTO TEMPTATION – BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL – This may be the hardest portion of this prayer to comprehend. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. Why would God want to lead us into temptation or desire for us to be tempted? I Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.       God is on our side and uses both good and evil, both His help and even satan’s mischief for our good       (Roman 8:28). Yes, He does allow satan to do evil for a time but within restraints. He also allows us to be tempted with limits based on our ability to resist and maturity. Also based on how closely we are walking with Him.   By stating this, we are verbalizing our desire for Him to help us overcome and spare us from temptation. It also reminds us to flee temptation and not seek temptation out to satisfy our own selfish desires. Resisting temptation becomes impossible when we are seeking the pleasures temptation offers.
  7. FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY FOREVER – This final statement acknowledges to God and reminds us who God is and will ever be. He is God Almighty – All powerful – Eternal – Perfect and Holy in every way – worthy of all our praise and worship. This is something we need to remind ourselves of as well as needing to express such praise and worship to Him because He deserves it and because we are drawn closer to Him by expressing our praise and worship.       Doing so strengthens our faith and gives us strength and enables us to live closer to the example Christ showed us.   John 14:6-11 tells us the only way to eternal life is through Jesus and by knowing and seeing Jesus, we know and see God the Father. As we become closer to Him, He becomes more real to us and we slowly become more like Him. We also desire His Will be fulfilled and for this world to reflect that Will.       Our sinful desire wither and a more Christ-like character begins to blossom and grow. That is what “growing on our faith” and “striving to perfection” and becoming more Christ-like all are describing.       Will you and I achieve perfection in our human bodies this side of the grave? NO. We are not capable of comprehending that level of perfection let alone achieve it. But we can improve greatly and will each day if we are in fellowship with Him daily. That is my goal and my desire and my quest.       How about you?

 

Let’s face it. All other religions are satan’s tricks or man’s foolishness to distract us from the One and True God. That means the gods they worship and promote do not exist.   Satan does exist and is formidable to us but is no match to God or even one of His angels. Satan was Lucifer, the greatest of the Archangels until He thought himself equal to God and was stripped of his authority and removed from heaven along with 1/3 of heaven’s angels who he deceived and convinced to follow him. (Rev. 12) When we think about it, why would anyone ever follow satan?   He, unlike God, can not create anything. All he can do is destroy.   So which is easier and who is more powerful. Someone who kills or someone who creates?   If doubt that, try stepping on an ant and then try to fix it. Today our children’s heros are not those who accomplish great things but those who are powerful enough to destroy and kill. What is mostly on TV and in cartoons? Well, we all do to some degree follow satan’s temptations all too often because we take our eyes off Christ and allow ourselves to be tempted. Another reason for praying “LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL”.

 

So let’s now pray the Lord’s Prayer together:

 

OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN

HALLOWED BE THY NAME

THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

AND FORGIVE US OUR SINS AND WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO SIN AGAINST US.

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY FOREVER. AMEN

 A Good Prayer Circle

THIS SUNDAY, JUNE 19th IS FATHER’S DAY.  MAKE THIS YOUR LEGACY FOR YOU AND FOR YOU CHILDREN

Published by donsdevotions

Unknown's avatar

Don McDaniel - Who am I? Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever. Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me. I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private. However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool. Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry. He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 . I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine. I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward. Don & Arlene McDaniel In His Service, Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951 If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ ) You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials.

One thought on ““THE LORD’S PRAYER – GOD’S PATH TO HIMSELF – TO LIFE””

  1. LOOKING DEPPER INTO THE LORDS’ PRAYER.

    YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

    Papa Don, greetings and how are you today.I was realy touched and encpuraged by the teachings above on the Lord’s prayer. I closed my eyes,to mediate on teh same, and before long i fell into a trance and i was found in a different world.

    Then i heard a voice speak to me about THE WILL OF THE LORD BEING DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN and two examples were given to me as below.

    In the book of Judges chapter 6, we see and read that the Lord’s will over Gideon, was for him to be a valiant warrior.The will in heaven had record of Gideon being a valiant warrior to save Israel from Midianites.
    11 Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under the [f]oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior.” 14 The LORD [g]looked at him and said, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you
    The whole Israel was brought very low because of Midian, which wasn’t the LORD’S WILL .Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in fear of being attacked and trembling which wasn’t the LORD’S WILL .

    On the other hand, David, in 1 Sam 17, we read that his family’s will was for him to forever remain shepherd of family’s sheep. But the LORD’S WILL over David was for him to become the second King of Israel…!

    28 Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger burned against David and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart; for you have come down in order to see the battle.”
    And when the story ends we read 54 Then David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his weapons in his tent.

    Papa Don, the message about the LORD’S PRAYER is very deep reaching, touching all aspects of humanity.

    The world may push to impose their will on you. The ruling government may enact rules and regulations to impose their will on you.

    Your family and friends may their will on you,that you go the way they want you to go.

    Our churches may appoint you to fulfill their will so that the ministry vision and mission is accomplished, but to those who know the power and significance of prayer, when they cry unto the Lord, and pray the Lord’s prayer, then THE LORDS’ WILL WHICH IS IN HEAVEN WILL BE DONE TO THEM ON IN THEIR LIVES ON EARTH .

    Amen and Amen.

    Your loving son Javan

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment