Praying the Lord's Prayer Backwards

Foundation Scriptures:

Matthew 6:9-13 “Pray this way: “Our Father in heaven, may Your Name be revered as holy. May Your Kingdom come. May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us tomorrow’s bread today, and forgive us our debts, to the same degree we have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into the hour of trial, but deliver us from the evil one.”

Acknowledgement

First my indebtedness to Richard B. Hays the Dean and George Washington Ivey Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. Hays is an ordained minister in the UMC and one of the top-tier New Testament scholars. Hays’ book Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Witness forefronts is the inspiration of a growing number of scholarly works utilizing the ‘read backwards’ approach to recover the intent of the original New Testament Writers. Hayes is the one who turned me on to the importance and the method of praying scripture backwards.

Introduction

A. One of the most commonly known portions of scripture

1. Believers (especially older believers) pray this prayer regularly – often by heart

2. Non-believers know this prayer as well

They say it at funerals

They learned it when growing up – a family thing

At one time, it started the morning off at school

B. But there are a number of strange things about the Lord’s Prayer and how it is used or not used today

1. We don’t follow Jesus’ instructions “pray this way…”

a. A lot of times this prayer is simply repeated word for word without thinking repeating it as the pagans repeat themselves hoping to be heard by their gods (Matthew 6:7)

b. We pray for – major on – the needs we have and the concern we have for others

Please forgive me

Thank You for that financial blessing

Touch those suffering persecution for Your Name’s sake

Heal “fill in the blank”

We fail to follow the order given to us by the Lord

C. The Lord’s Prayer is a list of key topics we are instructed to include in our daily times of prayer

1. The Lord’s Prayer is, most importantly, a list of prayer priorities

2. Most of us start near the end of the list and often really never get back to the beginning

We pray the Lord’s Prayer backwards

We need to learn to pray this prayer in the order Jesus taught it

3. Most times we are praying it backwards – from the bottom of the list of prayer priorities – and often seldom reach the top of the prayer where we should have started according to Jesus’ instructions

4. Think about it like this…

a. The Lord’s Prayer invites us to come inside, as though we were entering a great and splendid mansion, and to make ourselves at home

b. But most of us, I think, come into this building through the wrong entrance

5. Imagine you have been invited to a wonderful house

You drive up a long driveway toward the main building, but having parked your car, you lose your way and find yourself going in through a door around the back.

You creep inside and begin to look around.

You find yourself in a small outer kitchen: there is some food being prepared and several garbage bins

This is not what you expected, though the sight of the food makes you hungry

Then you find your way slowly though to the real kitchen, where a full meal is almost ready

This looks good, but you know it wasn’t the right way to enter the house (of prayer)

So you continue to explore the house and find yourself at last at the main entrance hall

Now you start to see how the whole house works

Finally you come to the front door — and there, with his back to you, is your host

He has been watching out for you

When you greet him, he is puzzled that you seem to have come in the wrong way but delighted you are here at last

Now you can sit down and enjoy his company

And yes, it will very soon be time for the wonderful meal

Of course, as long as you get inside the house, that the main thing, even if you break in by a window

But once you’re in — and once you find you are a welcome guest, not an intruder — then it’s worthwhile trying to figure out how the house actually works and what it might be like to come in properly, by the front door

6. But let’s start where we are, with the things mentioned right at the end of the prayer

Because most of us, I believe, come in at the back door — We begin at the end

note:

The usual ending, by the way — the phrase about “the kingdom, the power and the glory” — was an early Christian addition to the prayer.

We will stick with what Jesus actually said

I. HELP!

A. Most human beings who pray — begin with the most obvious prayer of all - HELP!

Don’t bring us into the great trial — But rescue us from evil

1. Many people who don’t normally pray will, in times of great stress, say some sort of prayer (‘foxhole or ‘jail’ prayer)

2. And like Jesus’ disciples on the boat in the storm, most of us in those circumstances don’t have the time for leisured reflection on what prayer is or what form it should take

3. All we can do is cry out, “Help!”

“Bad things are about to happen, so please stop them!”

“If there’s bad stuff out there, rescue me from it!”

(More traditional) “Deliver us from evil!”

4. This is what I mean by saying that most of us come into the Lord’s Prayer (house) by the back door

That’s fine — if you’re in, you’re in

But might it be perhaps a good thing to work towards the front door?

Perhaps even eventually to figure out what might happen if we begin there instead?

5. Asking for “help” is how most people begin their prayer time – But it is not a great place to stop

6. And, it is really not the way prayer (the house) was designed to be best used

7. At this stage we also hear ourselves praying: “Why are you doing this to me?”

There is a sense that God may somehow be responsible, and that perhaps, just perhaps, this is some kind of test … and that we may be in danger of failing it

8. The grown up version of this prayer looks like this:

“Lead us not into temptation!”

“Do not bring us to the time of trial” (newer translation)

In other words, “Don’t make me face this kind of test!”

9. There are various kinds of testing (temptation) from inside or outside:

Things that pressure us to do things we know are wrong

Stress that we feel

Things that try our patience

Things that test our courage, our faith, our hope, our love

10. This is the same as:

“How can You do this to me?”

“What are You trying to prove?”

“Why am I having to face this stuff?”

“Don’t put me in the position where I might crack under pressure!”

Why are You allowing this to happen to me, God?

11. Most people start prayer at this point – the backdoor and then, maybe, move backwards to the next major petition…

II. FORGIVE US

forgive us our debts, to the same degree we have forgiven our debtors.

And forgive us the things we owe, As we too have forgiven what was owed to us

Or the usual form this takes:

“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”

A. Many (most) Christians conveniently forget the second half – “As we forgive others”

Partly because it’s so difficult

Partly because it is such a remarkable and difficult thing that we actually have to commit to forgiving others or not receive forgiveness ourselves

B. Remember: Our forgiveness is conditional … we are forgiven in the same proportion that we forgive others

C. This is good news – the Gospel tells us that we are forgiven and that God has dealt with all of our sin – past, present, and future

Because my sins are forgiven, I can be at peace with God

Because my sins are forgiven, I can enjoy His presence right now

Because my sins are forgiven, I know that I will not go to hell after all

D. But, this is still a room at the back of the house

We are still working our way in from the back kitchen

We are not even near the main entrance hall yet where we should have entered this experience called prayer

E. At this point many believers work back in the prayer to the point where, as well as asking:

To be rescued

To be spared the present trials

To be forgiven

They realize they need to ask for all sorts of other things that are pressing in their lives

III. DAILY BREAD

“Give us tomorrow’s bread today”

“Give us today the bread we need now”

Or in the more traditional format: “Give us this day our daily bread”

A. Bread here is important in its own right

Unless we eat fairly regularly, nothing much is going to happen

B. It is also a symbol for all the other things we want to request

1. Asking for what we need is appropriate

2. It’s what Children do with parents — and this is precisely the relationship God wants us to have with Him

3. This is the main dining room…

4. There really is a meal being set before us, and we really are welcome — even if we have come through the back door rather than through the front door

5. God really is interested in feeding us – meeting our daily needs (bread)

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” (Matthew 6:8)

Matthew 6:8 “… for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him…”

6. And in the mind of Jesus, “Give us our daily bread” has a much larger Kingdom context we can easily miss because we have such pressing need for the “daily bread”

But that discussion is for another time and place…

IV. So Far Then Working Backwards:

We have:

a prayer for help

a prayer to not be tested to the breaking point

A prayer for forgiveness

A prayer for daily needs (bread)

A. All Well And Good and good …

1. All these are important, even if people too often approach this great house (prayer) through the back door (backwards)

2. What happens when we come through the kitchen and dining room into the main entrance hall?

V. HERE AND NOW

“May Your Kingdom come, May Your will be done, As in heaven, so on earth”

The old way of praying: “Your Kingdom come! Your will be done, on earth as in heaven!”

A. We should recognize at this point that we have turned a corner…

. Up to this point, working back through the prayer, we have focused on our own needs

Now we look up and see a larger plan – the Kingdom and Heaven

It is time for God to become King — here and now

It is time for Heaven to be experienced on earth

Now at last we have come into the entrance hall and glimpse our host for the first time

Here we begin to think “Kingdom” and believe it or not the Kingdom does address all the issues we have already looked at

In His ministry the way Jesus explained the Kingdom — lived the Kingdom — meant that He was telling people to look up beyond their concerns and see the big picture – the Kingdom picture

To look beyond the way they thought everything should work out

“Seek first the Kingdom and all these things will be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33)

B. The challenge of the Kingdom

1. The challenge of the the Kingdom HERE AND NOW is the challenge of seeing that the Living God, as King, has plans for His people and for the world that will translate all our hopes, longings, and desires to another plane — another level — entirely

2. We misunderstand this part of the prayer which reads “On earth as in heaven”

3. Not “in heaven as in heaven – a prayer for God to take us to heaven at last or give us a heavenly spiritual experience here and now

4. This is us praying for the coming together of heaven and earth HERE AND NOW – not their separation

5. The New Testament writers insisted that heaven and earth should be joined together in the end within the eventual new creation

6. The whole point of what Jesus was doing was that this coming together of earth and heaven was starting right then, with His ministry

“Repent for the Kingdom of God is here and now (at hand)” (Mark 1:15)

7. If we approach the Lord’s Prayer backward — as we regularly do — then we are bound to make the mistake of reducing God’s Kingdom to God doing what we want Him to do

It becomes all about us – our needs, our wants, our desires … and not about the King and the Kingdom

8. Jesus, by teaching this prayer, wanted His people to see that everything is about the King and the Kingdom … on earth, HERE AND NOW

C. Kingdom Priorities

1. The issue of “priorities” … and Kingdom must be our first priority as it was with Jesus

“The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)

Jesus wants our focus to be His Kingdom and not our needs for…

“The Father knows what you have need of even before you ask” (Matthew 6:8)

He wanted us to start by focusing on God and His Kingdom and not focusing on ourselves and our needs

Coming in the front door

Greeting our host as we come in the front door

2. We need to understand what the Good News — the Gospel — really is all about

It is about much more than being saved and escaping one day to Heaven

3. The Gospel is that the living God is indeed establishing His Kingdom on earth as in heaven, through the finished work of Jesus, and is inviting people of all sorts to share not only in the benefits of this Kingdom but also in the work through which it will come to its ultimate completion

4. This means turning things inside out … so that our self-centered prayers (for help, for rescue, for forgiveness, and for bread) will turn into the God-centered prayer for God’s Kingdom to come in God’s way HERE AND NOW

Then “all these other things will be added unto us” (Matthew 6:33b)

5. So, we are now ready to greet our host and speak to God face-to-face

6. This brings us to the first petition in the prayer

VI. MAY YOUR NAME BE REVERED AS HOLY

More traditional way: “Hallowed be Thy Name” (May your name be honoured)

This is really the heart of the Lord’s Prayer … and all prayer

This is the heart of the Gospel as well

God’s Name is hallowed, honored, glorified

Usually we use this word to mean “respected” or even “historic”

Such as when people talk about the “hallowed halls” of an old university or college

And yes, we should respect God – His Name

3. After all, God is our Father

He is the stunningly generous Creator

The supreme wise ruler and guide of the nations

He is the Father of Jesus

He is the God who makes promises and keeps them

He is the Lord of the angelic hosts

He is utterly faithful

Utterly loving

Utterly determined to bring Heaven and earth together in a glorious and fruitful way

4. But really “HONOUR AND GLORY TO YOUR NAME” is about worship

1. The starting point for all fully Christian prayer is worship

2. Putting this the other way around:

3. Learning to worship — the word means “celebrating the worth” of someone or something, in this case God Himself — is learning to be a Christian

4. At this point in the prayer we are celebrating the Good News – God is our Heavenly Father and He is at the door waiting to greet His children … and so we glorify His Name because He is an amazing God

5. This God has come to be with us (Jesus) and so we give HONOUR AND GLORY TO HIM … We celebrate His Name and His nature, recognize He came to make all things new as we welcome Him and His Kingdom into our lives – making Him first priority

6. This is the essence of true worship – giving honour and glory to Him, and only Him

VII. OUR HEAVENLY FATHER

A. Now at last we are meeting our host

He does not mind that we came through the back door by mistake

He is glad that we are here now and is welcoming us warmly

And when we learn to call Him Father

Not everyone thinks of God as Father …

Not everyone wants Him to be their Father …

“But to all who receive Him, to all who believe in His Name, to them He gave the right to be called ‘children of God’” (John 1:12)

B. Jesus came to announce a new reality breaking into the world

That there was one true God and in and through believing in Jesus this God became our Father and we became sons and daughters of God – chosen and adopted (Ephesians 1)

C. So, as we stand at the front door we realize that we have been praying backwards …

1. Focusing on our needs and wants instead of glorifying and honouring our Heavenly Father

Making our little personal world our focus instead of His Kingdom being our focus

And missing the opportunity to embrace the Kingdom and Kingdom life

Then to release Kingdom life into the world where it can transform lives, heal and deliver people, and set others free

2. Once we pray in the right order

Knowing and personally experiencing God our Heavenly Father and worshipping Him

Then we can pray and and be involved in the release and expansion of His Kingdom on earth … Heaven on earth

Then, within that context, we can pray for bread, forgiveness, and help to resist temptation and go through whatever trials we may be facing

3. Now God can answer our prayers because we are personally and intimately involved in a relationship with God who is our Father as we stand at the front door of prayer and embrace Him for who He is

Once we have got God’s Fatherhood, His Name, and His Kingdom in the right perspective, everything else follows … Things we need, things we want, forgiveness, release from stress, help with tests and trials

VIII. CONCLUSION:

Jesus did not give us the Lord’s Prayer as a prayer to repeat mindlessly over and over again

He gave us this prayer to show us what His priorities are and thus what our prayer focus should be

He wanted us to start by relating to God as our Heavenly Father who loves us and cares about us … and invites us to be a part of the big picture – His Kingdom

Then within this big picture of heaven and earth becoming one (not heaven out there as a place to go to when we die) … we can see and understand that He knows all that we need

He knows what we need even before we ask – and He is ready, as our Father, to hear us when we ask as we are His children

And we knew that He hears us and will answer our prayers when we pray in line with His will (1 John 5:14-15)

Because of all this, prayer should be a joy and not a chore.