Healing and waiting
Today on Choosing Peace, you’ll read about a movie, an injury and a missing ending. We’ll begin our focus on The Lord’s Prayer and we’ll dig for the answers to this question: How can we look at other parts of The Lord’s Prayer from a forgiving perspective?* Join us as we look at a fresh version of this famous prayer—plus a great quote, my new favorite song and much more.
*This post was originally written as part of the Forgiving series. It was moved later to the Christian Living series.
This way
We call the prayer in Matthew 6:9b-13 The Lord’s Prayer or The Model Prayer because Jesus introduced it with these words: “Therefore, you should pray this way.” Therefore refers to what Jesus said right before that: “…for your Father knows what things you need, before you ask him” (verse 8b, NHEB). We’re praying to our heavenly Father, who knows everything about us and who knows everything we need. Because he’s our Father, he cares about what we need, so we can approach him without fear and without secrets.
Remember, Jesus taught us to pray this way.
The Lord’s prayer
‘Our Father in heaven, holy be your name.
Let your Kingdom come.
Let 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 forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’
Matthew 6:9b-13, New Heart English Bible
Translations and versions
Why am I using the New Heart English Bible translation for The Lord’s Prayer? Good question. (1) It’s in the public domain, unlike most translations; (2) it’s a good translation; and (3) it differs from the version of The Lord’s Prayer that we all memorized and recited growing up—which stretches me. I need to look at The Lord’s Prayer in a fresh way, not in a rote, this-is-the-right-version way.
Like I said in The Fruit of the Spirit, part 2, “You might want to take a seat—and get a piece of chocolate. This next part really surprised me.”
The standard
Speaking of the “right” version, while I was growing up, we recited The Lord’s Prayer like this: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name… forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us….” That standard version comes from The Book of Common Prayer, written in 1549 for The Church of England—now known as the Anglican church.
The “standard” version of The Lord’s Prayer isn’t from the old standard—the King James Version. Stop the press. We were absolutely, positively sure that we were reciting scripture from the King James Version of the Bible since The-Approved-and-Memorized-Version of The Lord’s Prayer contained words like thy and thine.
Nope. Wrong, yet again.
The BCP
Unbeknownst to us, we were reciting words out of The Book of Common Prayer, affectionately called The BCP by peeps-in-the-know. Golly.
We thought we were doing the old-fashioned King James Version thing. (And I believed that until I wrote this post.) In reality, we were doing the old-fashioned Church of England (or Anglican church) thing. Who knew? Say it with me, Peaceful Readers, with that great Southern twang like Gomer Pyle: “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”
I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church. So, how in the world would I—Frankie Ann, yours truly—know anything about The Book of Common Prayer? Well, strangely enough, I’ve been hanging around in The BCP every week for almost seven years—ever since I started working at St. Matt’s, a small Anglican church across town. Interesting, huh? I love the pieces of my Life Puzzle. I really do. God is so good.
The missing ending
You may have noticed that the translation of The Lord’s Prayer shown above is missing the “standard” ending: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” What’s up with that. You’ll find that ending in the King James Version. Similarly, the BCP says “…for ever and ever. Amen.” But most translations—including the English Standard Version, the New International Version and the New Living Translation—don’t include that ending. They even skip the Amen. How come?
Here’s an article if you’d like to dig into the whys and why-nots of that ending—or missing ending, as the case may be.
A short reminder
Why is praying so important?
Remember from part 1:
“Talking to God—praying—connects me to God,
builds my faith, and activates the power of God.”
Part 1 also includes seven powerhouse examples of the power of prayer from the Bible, plus many examples from my life. If you need encouragement today, check those out.
Our greatest need
Before Jesus taught us The Lord’s Prayer, he told us that God knows what we need (Matthew 6:8). The first two words of The Lord’s Prayer are Our Father. So, what is our greatest need?
The message from our holy God when we’re far from him is this: “Repent, believe in Jesus and receive him. Come to me. Lay down your burdens. Lay down your chains—your sin. Lay down the devil’s lies. I have what you need. I am what you need. I have rest for your soul.” And that message never gets old.
Drink in this stellar quote:
There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.
— Blaise Pascal
French mathematician, physicist, inventor, theologian, philosopher, writer
1623-1662
Our greatest need is to be reconciled to God—made right with God—brought into a relationship with God. That happens through faith in Jesus Christ, the son of God, who paid the price for our sins when he died on the cross. Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, conquering death, and was seen by many witnesses.
A recommended movie
My favorite movie depicting how the risen Jesus changes people is Risen, made in 2016. I saw it for the first time at my pal Charlene’s house years ago. It’s really powerful. Brandon and I watched it the other night. I’d forgotten that Risen includes The Lord’s Prayer. That made me smile. If you haven’t seen this movie lately, I highly recommend it.
Forgiven and free
Why should we trust God? Because God made us, sees us, knows everything about us, loves us perfectly, and has plans for us. Only he can tell us who we are and why we’re here. And Jesus, the son of God, came to show us what God is like. He came to set us free.
“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
John 8:32, New Heart English Bible
When Jesus is ours and we’re his, we’re forgiven. We’re free. We can approach our Father, our holy God, in prayer—with confidence—because we’re forgiven.
We’re reconciled to God.
A fresh reading
Before we dig into each concept in The Lord’s Prayer individually, let’s read it from the NHEB one more time. One more, fresh time.
‘Our Father in heaven, holy be your name.
Let your Kingdom come.
Let 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 forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’
Matthew 6:9b-13, New Heart English Bible
Acknowledging, relating, bowing
We begin The Lord’s Prayer with Our Father in heaven, holy be your name (Matthew 6:9b, NHEB).
Order and relationship
God comes first. He’s preeminent. But there’s more than that. He comes first—in relation to us. We’re in a relationship. God is our Father. And we are his children. God came to us.
The Lord’s Prayer begins with an acknowledgement of the one we’re speaking to and relating to—our true Father, our heavenly Father, our Creator.
True nature
We acknowledge that our heavenly Father is holy. He is pure. He is without error. He is without sin. He is perfection. His name and his character are holy. He deserves our utmost reverence, awe and humility.
We begin The Model Prayer in a position of humility. You are God. You are holy. I bow before you.
The forgiving perspective
How can we view this acknowledgement of God and his holiness from a forgiving perspective? Hmmm.
In this post, we explored The Parable of The Unforgiving Servant, a very important parable told by Jesus. When we attempt to view the generosity and vastness of God’s forgiveness of us, that helps us come humbly to God. And that’s the way we need to come to him.
Humble. Grateful. Amazed.
The song
Peaceful Readers, it’s time to shake things up. I found my new favorite song right after I finished writing this post and it belongs right here. I listened to it probably 20 times in a row at work today. That’s the way I roll.
Be blessed by “I Want To (Holy)” by 406 United & The Worship Coalition, released last month.
God’s way
After we acknowledge God and his holiness, we say this: Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10, NHEB).
We’re acknowledging that God’s way is the best way. God’s Kingdom includes our triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit; his angels—servants, warriors and messengers of the Most High God; and us, his children. We’re asking for the Kingdom of God to be seen on earth, to grow on earth, to impact the earth. God’s will means what he chooses, what he desires.
What we’re saying
In verse 10 of The Lord’s Prayer, we’re saying, “I want what you want.” That shows both our humility and our priorities. The Kingdom of God matters. The truth of Jesus Christ matters. Spiritual flourishing matters.
The forgiving perspective
How can we view this verse—“I want what you want”—from a forgiving perspective? (I prayed and asked God to show me the answer. Thank you, Lord.)
Think back to yourself before you were saved. (Read my story here.) What was going on in your life? What lies did you believe? What voices were you listening to? What were your habits? How did you spend your time? Who was in your life? How would you describe their character?
When we’re saved, we’re forgiven. We can lay down the weight of guilt, shame and regret that we’ve been carrying. Sometimes we need help with that. You’ll find helpful support groups in this post from the Grieving series. Also, see the post called Forgiving Yourself if you or someone you know is having trouble in that area.
Carrying extra emotional and mental baggage makes for a heavy burden. As we do the work of grieving our traumas and losses—and we experience healing—we’re more free to devote ourselves to verse 10 of The Lord’s Prayer: “I want what you want.” And that sure feels good. (See this post about The Healing Journey.)
Physical needs
In the third verse of The Lord’s Prayer, we ask: Give us today our daily bread (Matthew 6:11, NHEB).
Asking God to meet our basic physical needs acknowledges that God is the one who provides every physical thing that we need—air, water, food, clothing, shelter, protection, healing. Remember—if it’s good, it’s from God.
Healing and waiting
Speaking of healing, late last month as we were about to head home from a wonderful out-of-town wedding, my husband Brandon slammed our car’s hatch on my left hand. That was seriously painful. We had to delay our departure for a little while because I felt like I was going to throw up. Ugh. Thankfully, nothing was broken. But I had to rest my hand for a good while to let God heal it.
As I look down at my left pointer finger, there’s a small purple line at the edge of my finger nail. No one else would notice it. Here I am, three weeks after the injury, 90+-percent healed, typing 90+ words a minute, rocking on the keyboard. God continues to heal my hand. That is truly amazing. Thanks be to God! But I had to cooperate with him and not fight against his healing. I had to do my part: Rest, wait, use my hand differently, use my other hand more, be mindful—careful. And I had to delay writing this post. During the delay, Brandon and I watched “Risen.” Lord, thank you for this writing delay. It was important.
Is there an area of your life where God desires to heal you, but you’re fighting against him? Are you sabotaging what he can do for you? Are you afraid? Are you unsure of what to do? Pray and ask him to show you what you need to lay down and what you need to do next. (See the Grieving series here on Choosing Peace. Start with the Time for Grieving posts, then Intrusive Thoughts, The Trauma of Perfection, Peaceful Closure and more.)
Focusing on today
Another important aspect of verse 11 is the word today. “Give us today our daily bread.” We aren’t fretting about tomorrow. We aren’t angry about yesterday. We’re focusing on today. We’re trusting God to meet our most basic needs today—and each day. Without fear. Without gorging ourselves or hoarding. Without stealing. We trust God. And we ask him to meet today’s needs.
We also pray for wisdom and discernment.
The forgiving perspective
How can we view verse 11—“Give us today our daily bread”—from a forgiving perspective?
Let’s answer these important questions. Have we taken God’s provision for granted? His generous provision for our most basic needs? Air. Water. Food. Clothing. Shelter. Protection. Healing. I certainly have. Let’s pray to him and ask his forgiveness for our lack of gratitude. And let’s thank him, beginning today. It feels so good to thank him.
To dig into gratitude, contentment and more, read the Thanksgiving posts from the first series.
Seen and unseen
This section applies to all of our needs, not just our physical needs.
Earlier this week, Brandon was driving into our neighborhood after a dentist appointment and I was driving out of our neighborhood to go to work. He waved and I waved back. Later, he mentioned that he wasn’t sure if I saw him. That surprised me. He told me that the sun was behind me, so he couldn’t see me. At all. He didn’t see me. He didn’t see me wave at him. That strange reality got me thinking about some things.
Reflecting and seeking truth
Take out your journal so you can write and reflect on your answers to these questions. Have you experienced a season or a relationship where you weren’t seen? Was there a person who didn’t see your needs? Was there a person who didn’t hear you? Was there a time when one or more of your most basic needs weren’t met? Air. Water. Food. Clothing. Shelter. Protection. Healing.
When you were growing up, was something missing? If so, describe it.
In your primary adult relationships, was/is something missing? If so, write about it.
Pray and ask God to show you the truth and what he wants you to do. Then pray for the courage to do it.
Asking and answering hard questions
Did you feel unloved by one or both of your parents (or caretakers)? I’m not asking what your parents said or what you thought or believed. Did you feel unloved by one or both of your parents (or caretakers)? If your answer is Maybe or Yes, read this post about my life. It includes links to many other key posts that can help you.
Forgiving
As you take The Healing Journey—one step, one relationship at a time—you may also realize that there are people you need to forgive.
The Forgiving series is for you.
Coming next: Today we took a look at physical needs and healing. Next time, we’ll consider other types of healing—as we explore the last two verses of The Lord’s Prayer. We’ll definitely check out trespass vs. debt. I’m looking forward to some very good surprises along the way. Until then, thanks for reading and for Choosing Peace.
Healing through truth and music
Peaceful Readers, I’ve found great healing in my life through the beauty and truth of God’s word and through music. I hope the truths and songs that I share at the end of each post will bless you too.
Truth from The Word: Matthew 11:28-30
Song for Healing: “Breathe” by Maverick City Music, featuring Chandler Moore, Jonathan McReynolds and DOE