Praying to Our Father in Heaven for Deliverance from Evil

August 11, 2022Posted inLord's Prayer
In the sixth petition we pray for sanctification. Sanctification has two parts. The first is removal of the corruption of our natures, and the second is making our natures holy again. We want more than spiritual neutrality; we want to be positively good, like God himself. Another way to look at it is that we…

Praying for Our Father’s Forgiveness

August 3, 2022Posted inLord's Prayer
In the last three petitions of the Lord’s prayer, the Lord teaches us to ask of God everything that is necessary for us. In the fourth petition he teaches us to ask for everything that we need to maintain the life of the body for service to him in his world. In the other two…

Praying that Our Father’s Will Be Done

July 28, 2022Posted inLord's Prayer
Praying “Thy will be done” is probably the most difficult of all petitions. When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane for the cup to pass from him, he wanted that urgently. His whole being was recoiling in horror from the God-forsakenness of the cross, but he added “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be…

Praying for the Coming of Our Father’s Kingdom

July 21, 2022Posted inLord's Prayer
The Heidelberg Catechims has a very helpful explanation of the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer in Lord’s Day 48. It teaches us that this prayer is very broad in scope because in it we pray for ourselves, for the church, against wickedness, and for the perfection of the kingdom. We pray for ourselves We…

Praying to Our Father in Heaven

July 13, 2022Posted inLord's Prayer
Our Lord taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer on at least two separate occasions. The first was in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 6 he gave the Lord’s Prayer, but also instructions about it. 1) That we should pray in secret, and not as the hypocrites, on the street corners and in the…

Praying for the Hallowing of Our Father’s Name

July 6, 2022Posted inLord's Prayer
One of the important things that Jesus teaches us in the Lord’s Prayer is that we should pray as members of his body. That does not mean that we may never pray as individuals. Many psalms are individual prayers. LORD, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me.…

Praying for Our Daily Bread

June 16, 2022Posted inLord's Prayer
There are two errors we can fall into with regard to the material things we pray about in this fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. The first is that we value them too much and set our hearts on them as if they were the means to a happy and fulfilled life. The apostle Paul…