THE LORD'S PRAYER
There is nothing that the Lord has given us that has no purpose. Everything that He has created has a purpose, or otherwise He would not have created or given them to us, including the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. "Pray then like this: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.’” (emphasis added). The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus said, this is how you should pray - Matthew 6:9-13. He could have given us a different prayer version for us to recite, but He did not! What did we do? We recite a different prayer than what He had taught us to say in Matthew 6:9-13! And then we say that we are “obedient” to Jesus? Isn't that amazing? Aren't we getting better each day with our lies? Some of us might wonder and ask what is the purpose of teaching us how to pray? What is so difficult about praying? I believe the main reason why Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer is to teach us the basics or essentials of what we should or must include in our prayer to stay out of trouble. When we pray to Jesus we want and hope that He will hear us, respond to our prayer, and keep us out of trouble. However, the Bible says that God will not accept our prayer and offering unless it has met certain conditions (Matthew 5:23-24). And there are other reasons why God would not hear our prayers, such as when we ask for something that He would not approve. And not only that, and this is important, that we must pray according to His direction. When He says pray “like this”, we must pray like "this," and not pray like "that," or pray the way we want to pray. It doesn't work that way! We must, therefore, be thoughtful and careful when we pray, and follow His direction, or His will. “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. Why is this so important? In Luke 22:42, when Jesus was faced with death He said, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Here we see that even Jesus subjected His prayer to the will of the Father - “Your will be done.” Many Christians, however, rarely say “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” when I hear them pray. They just do it, and say it as if it was God’s will, when in reality God may not know what they are talking about, or care what they do or say. We have ignored or abandoned God’s commandments (The 10 Commandments). This God knows. We have replaced His will with our will. And then they claim that the 10 Commandments are dead after Jesus died on the cross. Have they never heard or read Matthew 5:17 where Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." And the apostle Paul wrote, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God [is what matters].” 1 Corinthians 7:19.
So, who changed His laws if Jesus did not authorize the change? I suspect that the idea of changing God’s laws came from foolish Biblical scholars who think that they know the mind of God. They can be scholars of any Christian denomination. These Jesus salesmen’ have to come up with something new and something different daily to attract more people who want to convert to their religion, and to make more money. “Jesus died for our sin” is getting old. If you say to a Muslim that Jesus died to pay for his sin, he cares less. And so, when the apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” that is very true. Have you ever wondered why Paul would issue such a warning? The Catholic Christians may have started and changed the Sabbath worship to Sunday worship, but the Protestant Christians did the rest. I believe that there is no end to what the Protestant Biblical Scholars can and will do to change God’s words. We know that the Catholics are well established financially. They are solid financially throughout the world. They do not need to change God’s words for their survival. But the Protestants, compared to the Catholics, are a group of poor people. They are very dependent on the Biblical Scholars for new ideas to make money. They don’t care whether what they teach is Biblical or not, whether they are true or not as long as they can tickle our ears. That is their strong selling point - tickle our ears!
Finally, I want to say a little bit about “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil'', the latter part of the Lord’s Prayer. I ask myself for a long time, does Jesus lead us into temptations? After some earnest prayer, this is what I believe what that verse says. We often find ourselves in situations, because of our stupidity, where we have to lie, or to cheat, for instance. That’s what stupid people do. And those are some of our weak spots that Satan will use to tempt us. Your weak spots may be different from my weak spots. That’s the reason why Jesus taught us to pray and say, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil''. Jesus taught us to ask Him daily for help so we can avoid falling into our weak spots; “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.''
I ask God every night when I pray to Him to help me avoid situations where I might fall into temptation. You know what? Praise Jesus! He answered my prayer!! It works!
If you like to lie and say, “Once saved, forever saved,” or “Because Jesus had died for our sin we can no longer sin,” I strongly suggest that you repeat the latter part of the Lord’s Prayer, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, and wait! It works! It works! Thanks to God!
The Lord's Prayer is a powerful tool that Jesus gave us to fight Satan! Recite it with confidence, and you can expect miracles; you will see miracles in your life! God bless!
So, who changed His laws if Jesus did not authorize the change? I suspect that the idea of changing God’s laws came from foolish Biblical scholars who think that they know the mind of God. They can be scholars of any Christian denomination. These Jesus salesmen’ have to come up with something new and something different daily to attract more people who want to convert to their religion, and to make more money. “Jesus died for our sin” is getting old. If you say to a Muslim that Jesus died to pay for his sin, he cares less. And so, when the apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” that is very true. Have you ever wondered why Paul would issue such a warning? The Catholic Christians may have started and changed the Sabbath worship to Sunday worship, but the Protestant Christians did the rest. I believe that there is no end to what the Protestant Biblical Scholars can and will do to change God’s words. We know that the Catholics are well established financially. They are solid financially throughout the world. They do not need to change God’s words for their survival. But the Protestants, compared to the Catholics, are a group of poor people. They are very dependent on the Biblical Scholars for new ideas to make money. They don’t care whether what they teach is Biblical or not, whether they are true or not as long as they can tickle our ears. That is their strong selling point - tickle our ears!
Finally, I want to say a little bit about “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil'', the latter part of the Lord’s Prayer. I ask myself for a long time, does Jesus lead us into temptations? After some earnest prayer, this is what I believe what that verse says. We often find ourselves in situations, because of our stupidity, where we have to lie, or to cheat, for instance. That’s what stupid people do. And those are some of our weak spots that Satan will use to tempt us. Your weak spots may be different from my weak spots. That’s the reason why Jesus taught us to pray and say, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil''. Jesus taught us to ask Him daily for help so we can avoid falling into our weak spots; “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.''
I ask God every night when I pray to Him to help me avoid situations where I might fall into temptation. You know what? Praise Jesus! He answered my prayer!! It works!
If you like to lie and say, “Once saved, forever saved,” or “Because Jesus had died for our sin we can no longer sin,” I strongly suggest that you repeat the latter part of the Lord’s Prayer, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, and wait! It works! It works! Thanks to God!
The Lord's Prayer is a powerful tool that Jesus gave us to fight Satan! Recite it with confidence, and you can expect miracles; you will see miracles in your life! God bless!