First, let us discuss verse three in Matthew 6:11, “Give us this day our daily bread.” This verse brings up the argument if the daily bread refers only the food on earth. We’ll view this from the consistency of the Bible. From verses, we can see that God is actually hallowed in heaven from the beginning. We can see eventually that Satan, death and Hell are thrown into the lake of fire. Thirdly, as long as we don’t quench the Holy Spirit, God’s will is on earth. Fourthly, we have to forgive others first just like God forgive us first. But be aware of the teaching that we have to apologize first no matter what. We need to make sure that the act of apologizing came from the Holy Spirit; otherwise, we must repent. Finally, we talk about why the forty day temptations in the wilderness is not the collaboration between the Holy Spirit and Satan since Jesus needs to go through temptations more than us. Through the Lord’s prayer, we must already skip many temptations that were supposed to happen.
Let first us take a look at the third verse in Matthew 6:11, “Give us this day our daily bread.” The reason is that this verse may cause arguments. We would like to ask the question if our daily bread is food on earth, or that from heaven, or both? Regarding this verse in the physical sense in the Lord’s prayer, we observe that the verses before this refer to heavenly things, and those after refer to the things on earth. Is this just a coincidence or an adequate arrangement? To answer this question, we need to view it from the consistency of the Bible.
In Matthew 4:4, “But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'”” Apparently, we need not only the food on earth to survive but also the heavenly food. In John 6:27, it says something similar, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, …” In Matthew 6:7-8, it also says, “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” And it says in Luke 12:28-31, “…You men of little faith! And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.” Some people use this verse to conclude that we don’t need to pray for the food on earth but heavenly food. But we really need both and look at things from the consistency of the Bible.
Let us take a look at Matthew 6:30-33, “…You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” ‘Usually’, a person thinks that he isn’t the one of little faith. Why? It says in 1 Corinthians 4:7, “For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” Is it a boast of the one not of little faith?
We are not saying that one person cannot have great faith. Using Apostle Paul as an example, he says in 2 Timothy 4:8, “in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; …” It is indeed mentioned in Book revelation about this as we talked before. In Revelation 21:14, “And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” The twelve apostles of the Lamb should refer to the twelve ‘chosen by Jesus Himself.’ Apostle Paul was chosen by Jesus Himself after resurrection through a very bright light as described in Acts 22:6, “But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me.” As described in Acts 1:26, “And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.” You can see that Matthias is chosen by the lot and not by Jesus Himself as the other elevens chosen by the Holy Spirit through Jesus praying the whole night as we did talk about before in ‘1020 Examples of Jesus’ prayer.’
Furthermore, these verses emphasize ‘not to worry. ‘ They don’t not say that we cannot pray for the food on earth, but not to pray like gentiles and seek His kingdom first. Let us also take a look at Matthew 25:24, “And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.'” He thought that his master just behaved this way, but not. It is his misunderstanding. Particularly, Jesus doesn’t behave like this way at all.
Next, we’ll look at the first verse in Matthew 6:9, “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.'” God is actually hallowed in heaven as in Revelation 19:4 described, “And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” “In Luke 10:18, it says, “And He (Jesus) said to them (the seventy), “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.”” The verse is consistent with what described in Revelation 20:10, “And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” We also see “…death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.”(Revelation 20:14)
The second verse is “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.”(Matthew 6:10) In 1 Thessalonians 5:19, it says, “Do not quench the Spirit.” This is God’s will on earth, which really means that your kingdom come. John 14:26 says clearly that the Holy Spirit will teach us everything. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” We can only hope that God’s will could be carried out on earth as it is in heaven.
At that time when Jesus preached, the kingdom of heaven was already near as described in Matthew 4:17, “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The same statement can also be found in Matthew 10:5-7, “These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: “Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'” But when will the kingdom of God come? In Luke 17:20-21, it says, “Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is! ‘ or, ‘There it is! ‘ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” In John 14:21, it says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” We must obey God’s will from heart.
The fourth verse is in Matthew 6:12, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Next says in Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” In Mark 11:26, it also says, “[But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”] So, it is very important to forgive others first. But how many times? “Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”(Matthew 18:21-22) In Luke 17:3, it says, “Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.” “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”(Ephesians 4:32) We really want to follow the teaching of the Bible. From the other hand, God knows our feebleness but we have to repent. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”(1 John 1:9)
Please be aware of a teaching that says that no matter what you have to apologize first. Unless you know that you are wrong after your apologizing for wrong doing, you know for sure that this apologizing is not from the Holy Spirit. Why? Because God is faithful and He cannot ask you to lie. If you know for sure afterward that you are not wrong but you apologized for wrong doing, isn’t it a lie? The Holy Spirit would not ask you to lie.
The last verse is “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. (In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,) Amen.’]” (Matthew 6:13) Let first look at the verses in Mark 1:12-13, “Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.” Thus, there are people who ask the question: “Isn’t the Holy Spirit cooperating with Satan?” Of course not! We know that Jesus went through many temptations and passed all of them as described in Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Why started right away? Do you see that the angels were ministering to Him similar to but more than what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane? “Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.”(Luke 22:43)
I believe that the prayer, “do not lead us into temptation”, has already help us to avoid many supposed to come temptations similar what said in Amos 7:5-6, “Then I said, “Lord God, please stop! How can Jacob stand, for he is small?” The Lord changed His mind about this. “This too shall not be,” said the Lord God.”
We can see from the following verse the origin of temptation and one of its purposes. “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32) You must be know, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”(1 Corinthians 10:13) Therefore, it is said in 2 Corinthians 1:4, “who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
Lastly, we mention 1 Timothy 1:17, from which we found a similar verse, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Here, “Amen” should mean “so be it.” [1]
In the Lord’s prayer we include “(In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ)” since the Bible says clearly, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13)
Reference
[1] For various usage of this word ‘Amen’ in verses, you can find it on web such as “https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/amen/.”
(Verses refer to those in NASB unless otherwise specified.)
(You can get all articles in “https://a-christian-voice.com/” under “On spiritual understanding about life.”)
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