Matthew 6:9-13 (NKJV) 9“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us this day our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
The Lord has impressed upon me the necessity of resistance. We must resist the devil as he attempts to make a play to control the flow of our world away from God and Godliness. We have established that the only way we can successfully resist the devil is to fully submit to God. Since we have been called to resist, it follows that the Lord has given us the weapons needed to do so. We are currently looking at the weapon of prayer and specifically the prayer template that is referred to as “The Lords Prayer.”
In our last post we focused on the turn in this template away from establishing the proper posture of prayer to our personal needs. Jesus wants us to know that God does indeed care about what we need on earth and he asks that the Father give us our daily bread. It is important to understand that, although God will give us the desires of our hearts and all that we need for whatever he calls us to, everything begins with our daily bread. When the immediate and continuous needs of life are taken care of, we are free to believe for more without any pressure to compromise or manipulate. Poverty is not a lack of what we want but a lack of what we need. In this statement Jesus focuses us on our daily dependency on God and his faithfulness to provide what we need.
I want to continue to Jesus’ next topic of prayer. He says, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” In Luke’s account of this template from Luke 11, Jesus says, “forgive us our sins as we forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” The Greek word for “debts” simply means something owed. However, morally it implies a fault. The word for “debtors” is the same root but speaks of someone who owes us in the same way. I think it is safe to say that Jesus is not talking about money here. He is talking about the debt we owe to God for the payment of our sins and the free righteousness we received in return.
If we are going to effectively pray in a way that will resist the devil in the earth, we must have two things in place. First, we must walk in repentance. Most people see repentance through the lens of condemnation. Biblical repentance flows from conviction not condemnation. Condemnation always focuses on what is wrong with you and how bad and lacking you are. Legally, condemnation comes after the trial in the form of a sentence. Once sentence is passed and appeals are exhausted, there is no hope. Condemnation produces Shame instead of sorrow, a sense of being rejected or beyond forgiveness. It is made up of vague accusations with no clear path to restoration. It produces a heaviness that drives you away from God and others.
Conviction on the other hand, focuses on specific things that are wrong and points to God as the way out. Legally, conviction comes after the trial but before the sentence. Even a convicted person has hope that the judge may pass down a light sentence or no sentence at all depending on the facts of the case. Conviction from God produces a piercing but hopeful awareness that: “This needs to change.” It leads to a sense of being drawn toward repentance. God gives us clarity about what went wrong and what to do next. Conviction leads us to a desire to be clean, reconciled, and realigned with God.
Conviction also means a strong belief. God’s purpose in bringing conviction into our lives is not to write us off as worthless but to help us come to the understanding that something in our lifestyle or our attitudes is putting us in a place of vulnerability and leading us away from God’s best instead of towards it. True repentance comes from conviction, never from condemnation. This kind of repentance is a call to come home not an “or else” condemnation of how bad we really are.
In Jesus prayer template, he does not indicate any particular sin. He simply says, “Forgive us our debts (sins.)” Some might say if I have no sin, why should I ask forgiveness. Let me point out a scripture.
1 John 1:8 (NKJV) 8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
All of us fall short at times. To say we do not is in itself a lie. We often know where we are failing, but sometimes we do not. I always taught my congregation that if you suspect something might be sin, repent. Nothing bad can happen from repentance that may be unnecessary. A great deal can happen when we do not repent when it is. I believe that Jesus is pointing to something I have heard called a repentant heart. This is not a condemned heart. It is a heart that is sensitive to God and his Word. A repentant heart is on the lookout for anything that could be displeasing to God. When we keep that attitude, we will find that sin has very little opportunity to take hold of us.
Jesus includes this idea in his prayer template so that we will come into God’s presence with nothing hindering us. We will not have any back doors open that the enemy can take advantage of when we resist him in prayer. Paul said something similar in Romans 8.
Romans 8:33-34 (NKJV) 33Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
When we come before God with a repentant heart, the devil cannot condemn us. We have already repented and been forgiven and cleansed. When the accuser of the brethren brings any change against us, we simply plead the blood of Jesus. I always wondered about that phrase until I realized that a plea is a legal term. When the devil accuses us of something that has been confessed and forgiven, I do not plead innocent because I know I am not. I do not plead guilty because I have been cleansed. I invoke a plea that the devil cannot dispute. I plead the blood of Jesus which has cleansed me of my sin.
In verse 12 Jesus points to the second half of the forgiveness equation. He asks God to forgive our debts (sins) but that he do so in light of our forgiveness of those who owe us a debt. In the context of this prayer, the debt must be the sins that have been committed against us. I believe God forgives us based on the price paid by Jesus in redemption. However, we cannot ignore what Jesus says in prayer. Our willingness to forgive others does have an impact on how forgiveness is released in our lives. Forgiveness on our part is one of the most important things we must be willing to do if we want to experience the wholeness Jesus is praying for in this prayer template.
In Matthews account of this prayer, Jesus revisits and expands on this principle. We will look into it in our next post. In the meantime, approach your prayer life with a repentant heart. If you have known sin in your life, bring it to the Father. 1 John 1:8-10 assures us he will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If you do not know of any particular sin, ask him to forgive anything that might be there. This keeps the “back door” closed to the devil and we will be ready to resist him in any way necessary.
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