Whether you grew up in church or simply heard it recited every meal by your traditional grandparents, you have had the Lord’s Prayer engraved into your memory. If you are like me, you have recited this prayer dozens or even hundreds of times without actually realizing the meaning behind the words you are saying. It wasn’t until a year after I became a Christian did I begin to realize how radical these words truly are. From the progressive forgiveness of those who directly and indirectly wrong us, to daily provision by the Creator of the known and unknown. This prayer absolutely blew my mind once I started looking further into it. While there is a lot to unpack, I would like to solely focus on one line that I believe to be especially challenging and which Jesus personally lives out in His life on Earth.
“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today 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 the evil one.'” (Matthew 6:9-13 NIV)
That specific phrase in Matthew 6:10 might just be the hardest thing a person could ever hope for in certain circumstances. How does that verse sound when the interview for your dream job doesn’t seem to go your way, when the seemingly worst option to you is favored by the collective, or when a family member is dying? When faced to endure something unbearable, He expects us to have hope in Him through the pain and sorrow?
WWJD – Before Jesus is arrested, He goes to the garden to pray, but before He enters He says something that I see as great value to those of us in present suffering. He turned to the disciples with Him and says “‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.'” (Matthew 26:38) A little dramatic Jesus, don’t ya think? You were so troubled you were literally going to die? But, doesn’t it feel like that sometimes? When the bills are piling up while you have a family to feed and no one is hiring, when you are about to lose a mother or father, when you are close to losing a spouse of 20, 30, 40, 50, or more years of marriage isn’t that the deep pit feeling in your chest? That is the feeling that Jesus is describing. As He is moments away from His destiny of being betrayed, arrested, beaten, mocked, ridiculed, tortured, and then killed. All the while, the men following and learning from Him all these years are bickering of their status among Jesus and each other. That is like a a friend taking the fall for a robbery, that he was not apart of, while the other men plan their next heist in front of him. A little trouble seeing how Jesus is laying down His life for this.
The next verse, Jesus goes to pray to the Father and we see what the Son of Man chooses to be hopeful for, “‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.'” (Matthew 26:39) Jesus’ cup was the brutal sacrifice of His life for us all; what is your cup? Jesus would go back two more times to pray this same type of prayer. That the Father’s will, the hope found in Him, would be worth the cost that the cup had to bear. The loss of hope itself was to be endured in order for the salvation of the world! Yet, that does not take away the fact that the pain is real and the call is extremely difficult. That is why I will finish this with a quick story on the recent path my grandma has been forced to travel down.
A couple weeks ago my mom and grandma sat with each other for a few days as they awaited the call that my grandfather had passed. The cup, the despair and sincere sorrow, would not be lifted from my grandmother as she has been forced to endure the loss of her husband of 40+ years. Before that call came, my grandma recounted the most difficult sincere prayer in her life. Her prayer was that my grandfather would receive miraculous healing, but her sincere faith and hope was that the Lord’s will be done above all else. Not ready to let him go, but to give him to God. That did not make the pain any less real when the call came, but the hope remains in Jesus alone!
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18)
*If you would like a great study and informational tool on the Lord’s Prayer, I highly recommend the book The Prayer That Turns The World Upside Down” by R. Albert Mohler Jr.*
