September 21, 2023 • Meg Rice
At this point in this famous prayer, we have acknowledged that God is our Father. We have a loving and subjugating relationship with him. He is also ruler of the universe, all-powerful in the heavenly realms. His name is holy, and we are to honor and revere his name and person. We acknowledge his sovereign rule in our lives and eventually throughout the entire earth. These words mean we sign up for a struggle and a battle. We are assured victory because God is our provider of all things that we need to survive. He is the one who protects us and defends us from ourselves, the world, and the devil. The model prayer has everything we need as kingdom dwellers on this earth. What else can we do but give God glory for all he is to us.
Evil takes form in three different areas of our lives. The fallen world we live in with its evil standards is one we must fight continually. Another is our flesh. In other words, the humanity that we are born into has evil desires that can trip us up. Lastly, evil lurks in the form of Satan and his minions.
There is a concept in the world, that once you come to faith in Jesus Christ, your world is perfect. Life is good and without conflict. This is not what the Bible teaches. When we profess the Lord’s prayer and acknowledge God as our Father and bow to his sovereignty, we sign up for a battle. Part of that battle is temptation. The root of the word “temptation” is from the Middle English word temptation which means “testing or enticement to sin”. The Latin root temptare means “to feel, test, attempt, make an assault on, attack”. Our humanity exposes us to a life of temptation to sin, but grasping the hand of our loving Father helps us to overcome temptation.
