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
Before you begin this article which is a continuation of the Lord’s Prayer practical praying, make sure to read the beginning part. Click >> The Lord’s Prayer practical praying model
4) Give us today our daily bread
This one is easy. In this part we ask God for provisions, blessings, prosperity and food for the day. We also ask God to bless our hand work from which we make a living and to bless our seeds and investments.
Remembering the less privilege, the homeless and the orphans, especially those who are of the household of God, is part of this prayer. We ought to ask God to provide their daily needs.
5) And forgive us our trespasses as we also have forgiven our trespassers
Asking for forgiveness of sins should be the second point of every prayer.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up.
Psalm 24:3-6
There is need for us to make a soulful cry unto God with a contrite heart for sins we may have committed knowingly or unknowingly, by omission or by commission. As we ask for forgiveness, we must also ensure that we have no grudges or malice in us.
Brothers and sisters, people of Jesus Christ. It is important for us to know that holiness is the wheel of prayer. If we continue to sin, believing that God will forgive us when we ask for forgiveness in prayers, we deceive ourselves. I do not say that He will not answer when we ask for forgiveness genuinely; He will. But we ought to know that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much more than an unrighteous church goer according to the bible.
6) And lead us not into temptation
I did not understand this prayer initially until I asked my Sunday School teacher about it and he said: “As you lead us today oh! Lord, do not let us fall into temptation”.
Temptations and trials are part of the journey of a believer. Life without trials is like a boring story that no one loves to listen to.
It is not the will of God for us to fall when we are tempted; It is not the will of God for us to fail when we are tried and tested.
Prayer is one of the ways to defeat temptations. Asking for overcoming power and sufficient grace for troubled and trial times is God’s ideal plan.
Jesus told peter “Watch and pray, that you do not enter into temptation.” Matthew 26:41
7) But deliver us from the evil one
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ephesians 6:12
There are two types of evil;
7a. Physical evil
Physical evil is when we experience physical events that may be described as being profoundly evil. We must ask God to deliver us from them. We must use prayer to avert evil fashioned by enemies and foes. We must use prayer to avert untimely death, sicknesses and attacks from men of the underworld.
The way to pray this prayer is by praying that all the plans of the wicked against you will fail. And then we must cancel the counsels of the wicked world against us, against our families, and against the church.
7b. Spiritual evil
Spiritual evil is ‘the evil’. Most of the times, the enemies we have on the physical side are actually as a result of spiritual enemies of which Satan is the head.
Spiritual battle is an inexhaustible topic. Even if I pen down 100 styles, it will never be enough. This is why believers must seek to be genuinely baptized by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit teaches spiritual warfare more than any man or any prophet can teach.
However, it is recommended that when we pray this kind of prayer we remember who we are and what we stand for.
..For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil –
1 John 3:8b
Now, we are Christ’s representatives and our work is to fight and destroy the powers that cause us evil.
We bind them, we break their bondage on us, we destroy their works, we nullify their plans, we scatter their gatherings, we raise the Holy Ghost fire on them and we command them to exit our affairs. We do all this in the name of Jesus Christ.
Finally notes
One of the most important thing to note in the Lord’s Prayer practical praying is the Lord’s use of the plural pronoun “us”; i.e. Lead ‘us’ not in to temptation and not lead me not into temptations.
The Lord’s prayer does not give room for selfishness and so it has a touch of greatness. God wants us to remember each other as we pray. When we are selfish with our prayers, it works 100 percent. But when we are selfless we purchase greatness in the sight of God.
Read: Greatness in the sight of God
May God bless us with the Spirit of intercessions and supplications in Jesus’ name; Amen!!