THE LORD’S PRAYER – YOURS IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY

“For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6: Footnote)

Hebrew people always thought in circles. A thought would begin with God, for example, be developed and then go back to God, closing the circle where it began. Paul uses this construction in his wonderful doxology in Romans 11:33- 36, especially verse 36, “…for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen. “

Although this is not part of the original text, this same literary construction summarises and takes us back to the first thought in this prayer. Jesus began with “Our Father who is in heaven” … focussing our attention on God as our Originator and Source. We become aware of the presence of the One to whom we pray and acknowledge that He is as near to us as our breath. He teaches us that prayer is much more about God than about us. We must fix our gaze on Him and recognise that He wants us to experience His life within the bigger picture of His kingdom and His will for the whole earth and not just for us.

As we feed on His word through our daily “gathering of manna” and through the weekly ministry of our spiritual head, we will be fortified with the knowledge of the truth. In turn, the truth will guard our minds against the devil’s deception and design to lure us back into the belief that real life is about looking after ourselves as number one.

The way to keep the lines of communication open between ourselves and God is to keep short accounts with those who hurt or offend us. God cannot forgive us if we refuse to forgive the debts of others, He will not be merciful to those who refuse to show mercy.

We need His grace and His Spirit to keep our attention on Him first and not on our own needs and wants. Our biggest enemy is the evil eye in ourselves and not the devil who can tempt us but not make us do what we do not choose to do. Hence, we are dependent on God’s strength to keep us from yielding to our own lusts.

As we allow His light to shine through us, putting others before ourselves, and sharing our abundance with those in need, we will experience God’s ever-increasing glory in our lives, by revealing God’s love to others by what we say and do.

It’s all about awareness of and dependence on Him first.  He will take care of our needs as we place our attention on what He cares about and values first – the display of His splendour to the world that does not know Him. He desires that His rule be extended across the whole earth for the sake of His name and for the good of His creation. Imagine how the world would change if we prayed like this!