Last month we considered the Lord’s question, “How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations?” (Jer 3:19). The question arose from the Lord’s promise, through Jeremiah, to bring Israel and Judah back from captivity, where they had been sent because of their sins. God answered His own question; He told the people: “Thou shalt call me, My Father”, which would involve a complete change in their thinking. We noticed further that fundamental to this change is the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul of the sinner, so that he is “born again . . . by the word of God” (1 Pet 1:23) and is adopted into God’s family. He is now a child of God.
We might now think, in particular, of the change in the thinking of the child of God that is to be seen in the way he prays. It was said of Saul of Tarsus after his thinking was changed by almighty power: “Behold, he prayeth”. As a Pharisee, he would always have said his prayers. But now, with a new heart, the heart of a child of God, what he said to God was truly prayer; it was sincere. It was now “an offering up of [his] desires unto God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of [his] sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies”.1 He was now conscious of spiritual needs that he did not feel before.
Now he might express himself before God in the terms used in what we call the Lord’s Prayer. He had a right to say, “Our Father which art in heaven” (Mt 6:9). These words teach us “to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father, able and ready to help us” (SC 100). Paul now truly knew God, who had revealed Himself to him through Jesus Christ. With his mind renewed, he knew something of God’s majesty and holiness, and so he would draw near to Him with “all holy reverence”. He also knew God as faithful, as One who could be trusted, realising that for a child of God to trust in Him was most certainly not misplaced confidence. This he knew by experience and, accordingly, he could exhort others to “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16).
Paul as a converted man, with renewed thinking, had living desires going up to God in prayer, in the name of Christ – not because of what he now was (though in the past he may have thought in terms of what he deserved from God) but because of what Christ had done for sinners like him. He could say from his heart: “Hallowed be Thy name”. What was he asking for when he used these words? “That God would enable us and others to glorify Him in all that whereby He maketh Himself known; and that He would dispose all things to His own glory” (SC 101). Paul’s supreme desire now was that God would be glorified in all things. That surely was his desire as he preached the gospel and, indeed, in all that he did; it was his desire that God would take glory to Himself in everything that happened. Let us remember that God is not only glorified through the good deeds of His children, but also in bringing His judgements upon those who rebel against Him.
In common with the other children of God, Paul could also pray sincerely, “Thy kingdom come”. In doing so, they desire “that Satan’s kingdom may be destroyed; and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it; and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened” (SC 102). This sums up what Paul would have desired as he went about preaching the Word, the great instrument through which Satan’s kingdom is to be weakened and sinners brought into the kingdom of grace. He well knew the absolute necessity for the preached Word, and the written Word, to be applied by the Holy Spirit – and therefore the need to pray for the Spirit to be poured out. This is what all God’s children, not only preachers, are to pray for.
Again Paul, as one whose thinking was being moulded by the Word of God, could pray, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven”. In doing so, he was asking, “that God, by His grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to His will in all things, as the angels do in heaven” (SC 103). We cannot know what is in God’s secret will – His purposes – but we can know what He has revealed. The angels know what God has revealed to them; we are to learn what God has revealed to us in Scripture. That is what we are to obey and submit to; and we are to pray that God would so work in us that we would be able and willing to do so.
As a new creature in Christ Jesus, with a sense of dependence upon God, Paul would ask, “Give us this day our daily bread”. This is a request “that of God’s free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy His blessing with them (SC 104). Our food is only one example of the temporal good things that God gives; we are to ask Him for a suitable portion of them to meet our needs, and to make them a blessing to us, and to thank Him for them as the ultimate Giver. We should also ask Him for the wherewithal to procure these good things. Besides, we should remember our duty to seek “first [that is, above everything else] the kingdom of God, and His righteousness” (Mt 6:33).
Paul, holy man though he was, confessed, “The good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Rom 7:19). Thus he would feel his need to plead, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”. Our sins are our debts; so David Dickson, commenting on this petition, says, “Our sins deserve due punishment, even death, which is the natural merit [Dickson uses the word in a negative sense] of sin”. In this petition we are praying “that God, for Christ’s sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because by His grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others” (SC 105). How much we need God to pardon our sins and to give us grace to pardon others!
This brings us to the final petition, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”. Here “we pray, that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted” (SC 106). Again, although Paul was truly holy, he still needed this petition. He may not have felt that need when he was a Pharisee but, with a new way of thinking brought about by the Holy Spirit, he felt his need of God’s protection from, and support in, temptation of all kinds. All God’s children are weak; by His grace they are learning that. They are no match for the devil, and so they must look more and more to the Lord, and the devil is most certainly no match for Him.
The conclusion to this prayer is, “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever, Amen”. This “teacheth us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in our prayers to praise Him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to Him. And, in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen” (SC 107). Further, we add to every prayer such words as, “for Jesus’ sake”, for it is through Him that we are to present our petitions to God, as the one Intercessor between God and men.
These Shorter Catechism answers are brief, but how much teaching is packed into them! The power of the Holy Spirit is altogether necessary for that saving change which involves giving a sinner the heart of a child of God, making him able to feel his need and to begin to pray to God. This same work of the Spirit is necessary to maintain right thinking in the child of God and keep him feeling his need – not least his need of that dependence which keeps him coming to the throne of grace to plead in the light of the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.
1The Shorter Catechism, answer 98. Other such references will be given in the text in the form (SC 98).