Lord's Prayer Summary

February 6, 2011
Matthew 6:9-15
Review of the Lord's Prayer

David provided a handout on the Lord's prayer. We went through the handout, and we added a few more thoughts. The sections and numbers below refer to those pages.

Introductory Thoughts

1. The Lord's prayer is not a good-luck medallion.

3. Praise and adoration are often overlooked in our prayers. We also tend to omit any acknowledgement of God's authority. It is hard to mean, "Whatever you do will be okay," but that is the thrust of "Thy will be done." We may also skim over confession; if we harbor resentment then we haven't truly understood forgiveness. We don't need to fear confession; because of Jesus, we are welcome in God's presence. Pride and self-sufficiency may keep us from God.

From the Prayer

1. The promise inherent in "Father" is hugely helpful to many with troubled pasts. Intimacy issues that people have tend to be mirrored in our relationship with God (and vice-versa).

3. The goal is to move into a trust relationship.

5. God can forget. Continual remorse (over the same offence) may be false guilt. We may have continuing consequences from our past. Not forgiving ourselves is arrogant.

6. The point of forgiving others is to release us as well. "How can God forgive that person?" does occur to us sometimes; is that righteous anger? We may be called to hate what the person did, but we must allow God to forgive and then join Him in that forgiveness. Avoid sitting in judgment on people We need God's guidance, the Spirit of truth, to reach that point. It is challenging to love onew who is doing or who has done wrong. Matthew 18 may indicate that there are different procedures for Christians and non-Christians, though the goal of forgiveness is for both.