The Lord's Prayer

Thoughts from my reading in Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp. Devotional is indented.


Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Psalm 51:4

I don't think you could say more dangerous words than those found in the Lord's Prayer. I don't think you could pray a more radical prayer. I don't think you could wish for something that will turn your life more upside down than this. I think that most of the people who say these words would probably hesitate if they really understood what they were saying.

It’s interesting to have this devotional referencing the Lord’s Prayer come at this time. I have been thinking about a section in this prayer for the past few weeks and have some thoughts that are percolating up that I will write about at a later time. I have had my own thoughts on what a deep prayer it is.

Here are the radical words I have been alluding to: "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). I must admit that I don't always greet God's kingdom with delight. There are things that I want in my life, and I not only want them, but I know how, when, and where I want them! I want my life to be comfortable. I want my schedule to be unobstructed and predictable. I want the people around me to esteem and appreciate me. I want control over the situations and relationships in my life. What I am saying is that I want my kingdom to come and my will to be done.

I think that when I have prayed the Lord’s Prayer in the past I didn’t take it so personal. In thinking about these lines I took them in a general sense. I wanted to see God’s kingdom on earth. I didn’t see how the prayer was for a shakeup in my own life.

In this way I stand with David. In David's kingdom, Bathsheba would be his wife. In David's kingdom, Bathsheba would have had no husband. In David's kingdom he could have Bathsheba and the blessing of the Lord on his reign at the same time. So, David acted out of zeal for his own kingdom, forgetting that he was sent as the ambassador of a greater King.

Maybe this is the kingdom of our imagination. We have our dreams of what would make life good and pleasurable. It’s not bad to dream as long as we put God’s kingdom first so our own thoughts don’t lead us into sin.

"Thy kingdom come" is a dangerous prayer, for it means the death of your own sovereignty. It means your life will be shaped by the will of another. It means that you will experience the messiness, discomfort, and difficulty of God's refining grace.

You see, the prayer that Christ taught us to pray is the antidote to sin. Since sin starts with the heart, it's only when my heart desires God's will more than it desires my will, that I'll live within the moral boundaries that God has set for me. And it is only God's grace that can produce this kind of heart.

I think I will always pray the Lord’s Prayer differently after these thoughts. It’s about me and what God wants to do in me and not just about a generic prayer for generic people.

A question from the meditation:

Do you find joy and hope in knowing that as God calls you to live for his kingdom he frees you from being in bondage to your own little kingdom of one?

That is the good news. I don’t have to change myself. The amazing grace of God is available to do the work in me. Yes, it brings hope.

Philip
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