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A Study of the Lord’s Prayer

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 26, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 52.

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A Study of the Lord’s Prayer

By R. A. UNDERWOOD

Prayer — No. 6

A Study of the Lord’s Prayer

R. A. UNDERWOOD
“FORGIVE us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” One has said, “This is a dangerous petition.” Whether we pray this prayer or not, God will act upon this principle in the judgment. Christ says, “When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” Mark 11: 25, 26.
This is the law, “With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful.” Ps. 18: 25. It is a cheerless and sad state of mind that will permit one to go through life holding a grudge; for anger poisons the soul and embitters the life. It closes the audience-chamber of the Almighty against every person that holds hatred in his heart against any. It breeds suffering, crime, and death. No one can have peace of mind who does not forgive, no matter what the provocation has been. In many cases the grievance is greatly magnified. How often we misjudge! If the offended would exercise that charity that “thinketh no evil,” there would be no place for roots of bitterness to grow. God does not hear the prayer of, nor can he forgive, the soul who does not forgive.
“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.” Matt. 7: 1. Satan is ever ready to use with skill his magnifying-glass. This instrument is so manipulated that when it is turned upon a brother we can see his faults greatly magnified, and all his goodness appears like a fading flower. But when used to look upon our own life, much to our gratification we see only our virtues greatly magnified, while our faults are so minimized that we consider them more to be commended than to be condemned. A recipe for all this virus of sin is the Lord’s prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” or “Forgive, if ye have aught against any.” All who pray this prayer in sincerity do forgive, and thereby Satan with his cruel instrument of misrepresentations is rendered powerless.
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” This life is a period of probation, and a school of tests to decide man’s fitness for eternity. “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.” David said, “I know also, my God, that thou triest the heart.” Selfishness unfits man to enjoy life, therefore God has wisely decreed that only those who prove to be capable of enjoying life can live through eternity. Luke 20: 35.
To test the children of Israel the Lord said, “I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: that through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.” Judges 2: 21, 22. God does not remove the objects of temptation, but he offers to man conquering power to meet the tempter, and to overcome him. Rev. 12: 10, 11. “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place.” “Abandon us not, in trial, but deliver us from the evil,” is one translation of the text. In this we hand back to God the promise, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Heb. 13: 5.
“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.” This, the greatest of all prayers, closes with the supreme crowning acknowledgment that all belongs to God,—the kingdom, its power, its glory, its riches, its subjects, are all God’s by creation and by redemption.
When Adam had sold himself and his kingdom for naught, Christ gave himself to redeem the lost. Isa. 52: 3. Christ stepped into Adam’s place, with all of man’s liabilities and disabilities resting upon him. In doing this Christ jeopardized the universe which he upholds. Heb. 1: 8. Man and his lost kingdom have been purchased with a price that can be estimated only by the infinite value of the life and existence of the Son of God and all he upheld; for had the second Adam failed, Christ and all the worlds he upheld would have gone down in the wreckage of failure and death.
Every one that prays, in the spirit as well as in the word, this prayer, will not knowingly withhold from God one iota of what he demands of his holy Sabbath day. Ex. 20: 8-11. Nor will he quibble over returning to God a tithe of his income as a token of his acknowledgment that Christ has paid an infinite price to redeem him and his lost possessions. 1 Cor. 6: 20; Lev. 27: 30; Mal. 3: 6-10. His life and all his talents will be at the service of Christ.
The power and glory all belong to God. David could say, “Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty:for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; . . . and thou art exalted as head above all.” 1 Chron. 29: 11.
There is nothing that mankind so universally covets as power. Man’s insane thirst and passion for power has led him to sacrifice time, money, and honor, and to commit every sin known in the decalogue, as well as every crime known to man, in the vain pursuit of power. In all this, man forgets that there is no power but of God. Christ says, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”
The sons of God are set for the work of revealing God’s power. “Thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.” Ps. 145: 10-12.
Power to subdue sin, power to keep the soul pure, power to vanquish the fear of man, is the power of an endless life, and is awaiting the demand of the remnant church. Acts 1: 8; Luke 10: 19. Wealth can not purchase it; royalty can not inherit it; intellectual culture and position can not secure it. The Holy Spirit alone can bestow the precious gift upon the trusty and trusting sons of God, who will take no glory to themselves.
“Thine is the glory.” This prayer gives no place for egotism, which is the rock that has wrecked the faith of millions. Self-glorification is supreme selfishness gone to seed. It is impossible for the man who worships himself or accepts the worship of others to have faith in God. “How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?” “He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.”
Let man join the loyal angels and the unfallen worlds in acclaiming, “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
Mesopotamia, Ohio.