What have we found?

“Our” and “Father”. Two short words that could be said in less than a second, or instead pondered for many minutes. There is an amazing context to “Our” that can take you from thinking of your family, to those facing trouble or persecution, to those whom we’d love to follow Jesus, or to those where we realise the need to patch things up, get in touch, encourage or support. This is a very connecting, relational prayer.

The Lord’s prayer is so familiar to us that it’s easy to overlook how radical it is and how rich a mine of information about God, our relationship with God and how to talk to him.

Today, Eoin Rollins writes:

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of family, I miss my 3 younger brothers and have realised just how important my family is to me.

Dan Green writes:

‘Oh my gosh Dad, that is so predictable. I must have heard a hundred talks about that already!’

‘Can someone please go and get the sour cream from the fridge?’

‘Why do we call God our father anyway, it’s such a cliché.’

‘Noah, can you please stop kicking me under the table!’

Laura Kerr writes:

Our Father! Isn’t it amazing that we get to call the creator of all things our Father.

Bern Leckie writes:

What does it mean for God to be our Father?

Liz Nixon writes:

Dallas Willard says that the right vision of the kingdom isn’t just about being “theologically accurate”. Having a correct, Jesus centred view of the kingdom “will awaken tremendous desire”. And that’s because the kingdom is just soooooo good! It’s your most imaginative, creative, joy-filled hopes multiplied by several billion!

We discussed how ‘kingdom building’ in games is about looking to build the best kingdom for yourself, and often this means taking territory and resources away from other players. However, God’s kingdom is for everyone’s benefit.

Lizzie Jackson writes:

I always have a very clear image in my head when I say ‘God’s kingdom’. I picture God on his throne and people of all races and cultures gathered around, worshipping him together. But it occurred to me that what we mean by ‘God’s Kingdom’ varies a lot between people. When we pray this line, what are each of us actually praying for? I decided to ask some friends what they picture when they think about God’s Kingdom.

Dan Green writes:

Our discussion about this part of the Lord’s prayer centred on what God’s kingdom is, and on what it would look like for that kingdom to fully come to earth.

Laura Kerr writes:

The mere mention of God’s Kingdom got us talking about the areas of injustice and brokenness that we see in the world. We were immediately reminded of the places where the Kingdom is ’not yet’ visible. But it is the ’not yet’ phrase that we felt was important.

Bern Leckie writes:

So, how to explain the kingdom of God to a 6-year-old? (Or a grown-up Christian who, like me, associated “kingdom come” with the end of the world and thought maybe we were praying for this to come quickly?)

Greg Nixon says:

This reminds me of George Muller, who over his lifetime cared for many thousands of orphans in Bristol during the 1800s. There are many stories of God’s daily provision, and of George’s prayerful and daily reliance on God to provide for their daily bread – at times down to the minute.

In other words, give us what we really need for today, not a weekly shop with luxury extras. We are to depend on God daily to meet our needs. He desires us to live in the kind of relationship where we depend on him and look to him to fulfil our needs.

Lizzie Jackson writes:

To me this is a reminder of God’s provision, something I will never fully grasp but he has definitely spoken to me about recently. To me, believing that God will provide is not just to say so before getting on with your daily life, but to actively prioritise God, knowing that your earthly needs will be accounted for.

Dan Green writes:

Bread is a source of some frustration in our household. No matter how much of it Karen seems to buy, it just seems to keep running out or going mouldy in the bread bin!

Joanna Moss writes:

When reflecting on this verse, it’s tricky to not immediately think about food

Bern Leckie writes:

This one sounded straightforward but was complicated by Ocado.

Greg Nixon writes:

I’ve grown up with the version of this prayer “forgive us our sins”, but increasingly I find “debts” a helpful word, as pretty much everyone can relate to being in debt, or to having lent money to someone else. Debt can cripple, and we may have experienced the freedom, the lifting of great weight from our shoulders when a debt is cancelled or paid off, or when we finish making monthly payments.

Rick says:

We discussed as a family whether forgiveness affects us as well as the person we forgive. When we hold onto past hurts, resentment grows inside us like a poison. When we forgive others, it frees us too.

Shannon Nath writes:

Forgiveness is something easier said than done. In our current distant world, it is very easy to just forget. I know I have been in situations where I have felt wronged and it would be easier to entirely walk away from that relationship than to calm down and forgive for a friend’s mistake.

Dan Green writes:

Forgiveness is a topic that seems to keep popping up in our family (or perhaps more accurately, the ongoing need for it does!) so our discussion about this part of the Lord’s prayer threw up all kinds of questions… Is forgiving the same as forgetting? Can we forgive someone if they don’t apologise or say sorry? And can we forgive if we haven’t experienced forgiveness ourselves?

Joanna Moss writes:

One of my favourite lines from our discussion on this verse came from the motto of previous school Laura had taught at. It was, ‘Every child, every day’ which was supposed to mean that every child was to be treated as if they had a clean slate each day. Every day was a new chance.

Bern Leckie writes:

Have you ever tried explaining “sin” to someone who isn’t churchy? It’s not too hard to explain in terms of breaking God’s rules, but it’s very hard to convince someone who isn’t sure they believe in God that this matters.

Greg Nixon writes:

I quite often pause at “and lead us...”, to ask that my Father would lead me into what is good, to lead me in His ways, in His wisdom; before then continuing “…not into temptation”. Writing this reminds me I should remember to broaden my focus: it’s not just about God leading me, but about Him leading all of us. Our strength and prayers can support others through their trials, and vice-versa.

Jen says:

For me, this is the hardest part of the prayer to understand and seems to contradict everything I think I know about the nature and character of God. Does God deliberately tempt us? Is there some kind of test that we need to pass? The story of Job seems to suggest so.

Mark Wallace writes:

When I read this verse, my mind immediately highlights some flaw or ‘stronghold of temptation’ that I have been wrestling with over the past little bit. This week it would be endless procrastination (as a student knows too well) though from week to week, this varies.

Dan Green writes:

Karen and my girls love watching ‘kids temptation challenge’ videos on Youtube, so for something a bit different today we thought it would be fun to invite you to watch this hilarious video where children try to resist eating a marshmallow when they’ve been told not to!

Andrew Kerr writes:

I'm not great at resisting temptation. Mrs Doyle from Father Ted, with her encouragement to "Go on! Go on! Go on!”, would have me drinking tea and eating sandwiches until I keeled over.

Bern Leckie writes:

Would God lead us into temptation? If not, why pray like this?

Liz Nixon writes:

This verse reminds me that we are in a battle – whilst the war has been won and the victory belongs to Jesus, the devil is still fighting with dirty tactics for every scrap of land he can hold onto. The Bible says the devil is the father of all lies and that he comes to steal, kill and destroy. Asking God to deliver us from the evil one is about the moments of making choices that turn me towards life in all its fullness, or away from God and towards the destruction that is wreaked by the devil.

Rick writes:

We discussed that when we see the word ‘delivery’ we instantly think of grocery or parcel deliveries. It’s true that particularly grocery deliveries have been like gold dust over the past 12 months, but God’s deliverance is so much more than that.

Eoin Rollins writes:

The conclusion of the Lord's Prayer goes along the lines of "deliver us from evil" depending on your translation. However, this fully conveys the great mission of God in our lives. We are asking him to protect us and to lead us away from darkness.

Dan Green writes:

A little insight into the way conversations in our household can go… today it took all of about 30 seconds for us to go from reading this verse, to exploring what the word ‘deliver’ conjured up in our minds, to discussing Deliveroo cyclists and then into a full on rendition of ‘Did somebody say, did somebody say, did somebody say JUST EEEAATTT’!!

Andrew Kerr writes:

Have you ever been somewhere and it just didn't feel right? Not that it smelt funny or you didn't like the curtains but that deep down your "Spidey sense" (perhaps better called your spiritual discernment) was tingling and you just had to leave?

Bern Leckie writes:

Talk of the devil! We don’t do this very often, in our family at least. Is Jesus prompting us to start?