Six Books for the Journey – Course 4 week 3

R T KENDALL – THE LORD’S PRAYER – Hodder and Stoughton 2010

 

Kendall has a fairly direct tone

“There are some lessons for us as we approach the Lord’s Prayer. First, there is a kind of praying that does not please God. It is praying that profanes his name and his nature. Second, there is a kind of praying that does more harm than good. This happens when a prayer shows contempt for God’s glory and encourages people to do the same. Third, there is a kind of praying that does not get God’s attention. For example when praying is done to impress others, or when praying focuses on our greed or carnal desires, as warned by James (4.2-3).

We should never want what God is against. After all, as the late Cardinal Basil Hume put it, “God only wants what is best for us”. God did not want Israel to have a king, for example. “ I am the Lord your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King” (Isaiah 43.15). God himself was already Israel’s kings. Samuel warned the people against having a king like other nations, but they persisted. “ p 8-9

 

UNDERSTANDING GOD AS FATHER

“Our Father”

“How do we understand God as Father? He is personal. Theologian Paul Tillich wanted to define God as the ground of all being – which is pantheism. This is simply not compatible with the notion of God’s divine Fatherhood. God is just as personal as we are, only more so. Theologian Joachim Jeremias has shown how exceptional and how stunning Jesus’ use of the term “Father” to address God must have been at first to his Jewish disciples. Jews in ancient times preferred only exalted titles for God. They would address him as Sovereign Lord, or King of the Universe. Jesus even used the Aramaic “Abba”, the word used by children to address their father, “Daddy”. Our adoption in to the family makes us joint heirs with Jesus; hence “We cry “Abba Father” (Romans 8.15). He is the perfect father, a being “than whom no greater can be conceived”, as Anselm (cc 1033-1109) Archbishop of Canterbury put it.” P 37

A Father who chastens us

“Remember this: when God chastens us – and we all need it from time to time – he does not do it to “get even”. He does not play “tit for tat”. God got even at the cross! “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103.12). God never disciplines us to prove anything. The greatest freedom is having nothing to prove and God has nothing to prove. He disciplines us for one reason: he loves us (Hebrews 12.6). He wants us to be partakers of his holiness (Hebrews 12.10)” p 39

 

 

Justification through the cross important for us understanding the Father

“ It is a reminder that when we say “Our Father” we approach a Father whose justice has been satisfied – once for all. He therefore has no swings of mood; he holds no grudges. He is never diverted from listening to us because he is preoccupied with someone else’s problem, or with a problem of his own. He is happy with himself, and is content to listen to each of us. He knows our frame, remembers that we are but dust (Psalm 103.14). The perfect Father calls us to pray – and gives us the perfect prayer. It leaves nothing out that we need.” P 42

 

OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN

We need to remember the majesty of God and extol God for this.

We can become overly familiar with God in an unhealthy way.

“It is when you cross over from respect and awesome reverence to impertinence. It is when you begin to control a relationship and forget another’s personhood. When that happens in a human relationship something is lost; one feels used. Any lasting relationship is based on mutual respect, when neither person becomes manipulative, manipulated or used.

This sometimes happens in one’s relationship with God. It is when you know God so well. It is when you begin to think you have a claim on God – that he is indebted to you, that he owes you something. It is also when you have fully understood him and are closer to him than anybody else is. You begin to feel too special. You begin to feel he needs you. You begin to feel he has told you so much that you have a relationship with him like no one else has.

This kind of thing can begin innocently; no harm by us is intended. For example, it may begin when God draws very near to you; you feel his presence, his power. You feel a definite sense of guidance. You are able to pray with liberty. But before you know it, you imagine he has communicated more than he himself actually told you! You begin to presume; you think you know so much. It is not unlike when  Joseph and Mary thought Jesus was in their company and proceeded without him (Luke 2.43-44). I have done this more times that I would want you to know.

What happens then? Usually a huge disappointment. God may hide his face, withdraw himself, and then you feel suddenly alone and betrayed. You wonder if you really knew God at all. You feel angry. Joseph and Mary actually felt angry with Jesus: “Why have you treated us like this?” Mary said to him (Luke 2.48).

What then is truly going on? The answer is that God hides himself for our good. This hiding is like a cleansing process – ridding ourselves of all thoughts we put there which God did not put there at all. It is not that God really does betray us; he only seems to do so. It is sometimes his way of saving us from ourselves. He must be true to himself; after all, the buck stops with him. He does us no favour to let us manipulate him, to let us think we know him better than we actually do, or to let us see him as though he needed us. We all, unless we are stopped, are in danger of taking ourselves too seriously. I am ashamed to think how often I have done this.”

This has huge implications for Christian ministry and service

 

HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME

“We must learn to praise and adore the name of our Father and Jesus’ Father. By our lips. “Not to us O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness (Psalm 115.1). “Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34.3). We do this when speaking, witnessing, and in times of public prayer as when “those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard”. Not only that “a scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honoured his name (Malachi 3.16)”. We do it when singing “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name” (Psalm 96.1) We do this when we pray, as did the Israelites in Nehemiah’s day when they said, “Blessed be your glorious name and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise” (Nehemiah 9.5). p 72-73

 

YOUR KINGDOM COME

“Focusing on God is in our best interest. Why does Jesus reveal the Father’s heart in this candid way? It is for us. He would do us no favour to let us carry on with a preoccupation of self-interest. When we become full of ourselves and keep putting our personal requests to God all the time, we set ourselves up for more selfishness and self-pity – which gets us nowhere. The best thing our Father could do for us is to require us to meditate on him. Are you depressed at the moment? Are you worried? Has everything suddenly going wrong for you? What if you were thrown into prison like Paul and Silas – for doing the right thing? In the middle of the night they began singing praises and hymns to God.”p .81

 

THE NOW AND NOT YET OF THE KINGDOM

“There is however a paradox in understanding the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God has been established by Jesus, yet we nonetheless pray for it to come. God is sovereign and in complete control. So we do not pray for him to be our sovereign, our monarch, our king. He already is. Jesus now reigns at the right hand of God. And yet we pray for his kingdom to come, that it will become apparent in our hearts – and in the world; that all will know that Jesus Christ is Lord. That is a recurring theme in Ezekiel “And so I will show my greatness and my holiness and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 38.23). p.89

 

YOUR WILL BE DONE

“When you pray “your will be done” it also means that you accept his will. When you say “your will be done” you affirm his revealed will (Scripture) and you also accept what he has willed (the unfolding of his plans). When Paul could not be persuaded to avoid going to Jerusalem they all acquiesced, “The Lord’s will be done” although they were not very happy about it (Acts 21.14). Job said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (Job 1.21).

“When we pray “your will be done” we appealing for God to carry out his will. Whatever God has in mind, we say “Do it!”. The sooner the better, “Your will be done”. It means surrendering to his will, surrendering our so-called rights (which we thought were ours). It means surrendering to his plan and wishes. As the hymn puts it “My ambitions, plans and wishes at His feet in ashes lay”” p 102

 

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

“The purpose of this petition, “Give us today our daily bread” is to warn us against greed. Why? Because it refers to what is immediate. “Today” (or “tomorrow” if prayed at night). Not next week, or next month or next year. It pertains only to what you and I need. It is not a prayer to win the lottery.

I return to this matter of being thankful. The purpose of this petition is to teach us gratitude. God loves gratitude; God hates ingratitude. The psalmist learned gratitude. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good” (Psalm 106.1; 107.1). “Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful” (Hebrews 12.28). Learn to be thankful for the smallest thing. And then…tell him!” p.122

 

THE FORGIVENESS CLAUSE IS CONDITIONAL – we are forgiven as we forgive – but it is not a SALVIFIC CENTRED CLAUSE

“Nobody could be saved if we had to forgive before we could be justified. Forgiving others is a grace of the Holy Spirit. When you bless your enemies you have crossed over into the supernatural. You could only do this by the Holy Spirit, and you do not have the Holy Spirit until you have been converted. Therefore you are not required to forgive those who have sinned against you before you can be a part of the family of God. And even if you take the view that you promise to forgive if you realise you have not, this too is not a condition for being saved; it would mean that you are saved by works. It would also imply that you are kept saved by works. Wrong. We are saved by grace and kept saved by grace. In a word: we are not saved by forgiving others; we are not kept saved by forgiving others” p 131

 

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION BUT DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL ONE

 

“The heart of the Father is revealed in the Lord’s Prayer. And this petition shows that he does not want us to suffer. He also knows the pain we will feel if we fall into sin. This is the essential reason for this petition. Our heavenly Father does not want us to suffer as a result of falling into sexual sin or falling into unbelief. Falling into sexual sin brings pain – sooner or later – falling into unbelief leads to grumbling, which grieves the Holy Spirit. Our Father is looking out for us in this petition.

We live in a wicked world. The Father knows this; Jesus knows this. Our gracious God wants his own people to avoid the misery of a needless pitfall. Therefore he shares with his family what is on his heart – namely that we might avoid temptation. You do not sin without temptation preceding it. The best way to avoid sin is to avoid temptation. That is, I believe, our Lorde’s rationale in giving us this petition.” P 148

“Temptation, particularly sexual temptation, comes from within (as we saw from James 1.13). We cannot blame God for temptation. Temptation does not come from God but from within ourselves. We are responsible for our own temptation. Indeed, temptation is our own responsibility. The immediate thought we often have when we are tempted is to imagine that it is a set-up from God, that God is behind it and will overlook it if we give in. It is true that he allowed it, but it is not true that he is responsible for it. When God allows sexual temptation it is a test – to see whether we will pass or not.” P 150

“All of us must pass the test of sexual temptation. If we fail, God may give us a second chance. Billy Graham said that it seems the devil gets 75 per cent of God’s best servants through sexual sin. Sexual temptation is natural and normal. It is not a sin to be tempted. We are all tempted. Jesus was tempted. It is a sin when we give in to temptation” p 151

“You prove how strong you are not by how you cope when being tempted, but by seeing how far you can get from temptation” p 158

 

DAILY DELIVERANCE

“Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” (Ephesians 6.10-13)

“Do note carefully: these lines show that spiritual warfare is almost entirely defensive. You take your stand. This means you do not go on the attack: you do not go out looking for a chance to pick a fight with Satan. Beware of this. You will get in over your head. Never, ever, initiate a quarrel with the devil. You will fall. But if he attacks you, you will win – when you remember Paul’s words….Do not dignify anything the devil puts before you. Stay utterly on the side of Jesus and never give it to anything that gives pleasure to Satan. Only when God allows you to fall into trials can such trouble be welcomed (James 1.2) p 167-169

Recognise – Refuse - Resist