J.C. Ryle's devotional thoughts on the gospel of Luke section 68 Jesus's teaching on prayer Luke chapter 11 verses 1 through 4 and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place when he ceased one of his disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples and he said unto them When you pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

These verses contain the prayer commonly called the Lord's Prayer. Few passages of Scripture perhaps are so well known as this. The importance of the Lord's Prayer appears in the simple fact that our Lord Jesus Christ delivered it twice with very slight variations. He who never spoke a word without good reason has thought fit to teach us this prayer upon two distinct occasions. Twice the Lord God wrote the Ten Commandments on tables of stone, Deuteronomy 9, 10, 10, 4. Twice the Lord Jesus delivered the Lord's Prayer.

The occasion of the Lord's Prayer being delivered a second time in the verses before us is full of interest. It appears that one of the disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray. The answer to that request was the well-known prayer which we're now considering. Who this disciple was, we do not know. What he did will be remembered as long as the world stands. Happy are those who partake of his feelings and often cry, Lord, teach me to pray.

The substance of the Lord's prayer is a mine of spiritual treasure. To expound it fully in a work like this is manifestly impossible. The prayer, on which volumes have been written, does not admit to being handled properly in a few pages. For the present, it must suffice us to notice its leading divisions, and to mark the leading trains of thought which it should suggest to us for private meditation.

The first division of the Lord's Prayer respects the God whom we worshipped. We are taught to approach him as our Father in Heaven. Our Father, no doubt, is our Creator. but especially our Father reconciled to us in Christ Jesus, our Father whose dwelling is in heaven, and whom no temple on earth can contain. We then make mention of three great things, our Father's name, our Father's kingdom, and our Father's will. We are taught to pray that the name of God may be sanctified. Hallowed be your name. In using these words, we do not mean that God's name admits of degrees of holiness or that any prayers of ours can make it more holy than it is. But we declare our hearty desire that God's character and attributes and perfections may be more known and honored and glorified by all his intelligent creatures. In fact, it is the very petition which the Lord Jesus himself puts up on another occasion. Father, glorify your name. John 12, verse 28.

We are next taught to pray that God's kingdom may come. May your kingdom come. In so saying, we declare our desire that the usurped power of Satan may speedily be cast down, that all mankind may acknowledge God as their lawful king, and that the kingdoms of this world may become, in fact, as they are in promise, the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. The final setting up of this kingdom has long been predicted, even from the day of Adam's fall. The whole creation groans in expectation of it. The last prayer in the Bible points to it. The canon of Scripture almost closes with the words, Come, Lord Jesus.

We're taught thirdly to pray that God's will may be done. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In so saying, we express our longing desire that the number of God's converted and obedient people on earth may greatly increase, that his enemies who hate his laws may be diminished and brought low, and that the time may speedily arrive when all men shall do their willing service to God on earth. even as all the angels do in heaven.

Such is the first division of the Lord's Prayer. Its marvellous fullness and deep importance cannot be overrated. Blessed indeed are those Christians who have learned that God's name is far more honourable than that of any earthly potentate. that God's kingdom is the only kingdom which shall stand forever, and that God's law is the rule to which all laws ought to be conformed. The more these things are understood and believed in a land, the happier that land will be. The days when all acknowledge these things will be the days of heaven upon earth.

The second division of the Lord's Prayer respects our own daily needs. We're taught to make mention of two things which we need every day. One of these two things is temporal, and the other is spiritual. One of them is bread, the other is forgiveness of sins.

We're taught to ask for bread. Give us this day our daily bread. In this word, bread, no doubt, is included everything which our bodies can require. We acknowledge our entire dependence upon God for life and breath and all things. We ask him to take charge of us and provide for us all that concerns this world. It is the prayer of Solomon under another form. Give me neither poverty nor riches but give me only my daily bread. Proverbs 30 verse 8

We're taught to ask, in the next place, for forgiveness. Forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone who sins against us. In so saying, we confess that we are fallen, guilty, and corrupt creatures. And in many things, sin daily. We make no excuse for ourselves. We plead nothing in our own behalf. We simply ask for the free, full, gracious mercy of our Father in Christ Jesus. And we accompany the petition by the only profession which the whole Lord's Prayer contains. We profess that we forgive everyone who sins against us.

The combined simplicity and richness of the second division of the Lord's Prayer can never be sufficiently admired. How soon the words are spoken, and yet how much the words encompass. Daily bread and daily mercy are by far the first and principal things that mortal man needs. He is the rich man who possesses them. He is the wise man who's not ashamed to pray for them every day.

The child of God, no doubt, is fully justified before God and all things are working for his good. But it is the life of true faith to apply daily for fresh supplies of all our needs. Though the promises are all ours, our father desires his children to remind him of them. Though washed, we need daily to wash our feet. John chapter 13, verse 10.

The third division of the Lord's Prayer respects our daily dangers. We're taught to make mention of two things which we ought to fear every day and which we must expect to meet with as long as we are in this world. one of these things is temptation the other is evil we're taught to pray against temptation lead us not into temptation we do not mean by this expression that God is the author of evil or that he tempts man to sin James chapter 1 verse 13 but we entreat him who orders all things in heaven and earth and without whom nothing can happen So, to order the course of our lives, that we may not be tempted above what we can bear. We confess our weakness and readiness to fall. We entreat our Father to preserve us from trials, or else to make a way for us to escape. We are asked that our feet may be kept from temptation and that we may not bring discredit on our profession and misery on our souls.

We're taught lastly to pray against evil. Deliver us from evil. We include under the word evil everything that can hurt us either in body or soul and especially every weapon of that great author of evil, the devil. We confess that ever since the fall that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 1 John chapter 5 verse 19. We confess that evil is in us and around us and near us and on every side and that we have no power to deliver ourselves from it. We apply to the strong for strength. We cast ourselves on him for protection. In short, we ask what our Savior himself asked for us when he said, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world but that you should keep them from the evil one. John chapter 17 verse 15.

Such is the last division of the Lord's Prayer. In real importance, it is not a wit inferior to the other two divisions which we have already considered. It leaves man precisely in the position which he ought to occupy. It puts the language of humility into his mouth. The most dangerous state in which we can be is not to know and feel our spiritual danger.

And now let us use the Lord's Prayer for the trial of our own state before God. Its words have probably passed over our lips thousands of times, but have we really felt it? Do we really desire its petitions to be granted? Is God really our Father? Are we born again and made His children by faith in Christ? Do we care much for His name and will? Do we really wish for the kingdom of God to come? Do we feel our need of daily temporal mercies and of daily pardon of sin? Do we fear falling into temptation? Do we dread evil above all things? These are serious questions. They deserve serious consideration.

Let us strive to make the Lord's Prayer our model and pattern in all our approaches to God. Let it suggest to us the sort of things which we should pray for and pray against. Let it teach us the relative place and proportion which we should give to each subject in our prayers. The more we ponder and examine the Lord's Prayer the more instructive and helpful shall we find it to be. you