The Lord’s Prayer

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today 

April 30, 2025

The Lord’s Prayer

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Matthew 6:11-12 

One aspect of my worship experience in the Anglican Church that has been especially comforting to me is how the Lord’s Prayer is incorporated in the ebb and flow of our church life. The congregation says the Lord’s prayer before the Prayer of Humble Access as we prepare to come to the Lord’s Table for Holy Communion. And at the end of our pastor’s teaching in Sunday School, and Wednesday evening Bible Study, he will say, “The Lord be with you.” The congregation responds, “And with thy spirit.” Then we all say the Lord’s Prayer. We end Sunday School and Wednesday Bible Study this way, every week.

I’ve taught studies on the Lord’s Prayer where we looked at each phrase and came to understand how this seemingly simple prayer can order every aspect of our lives for the Kingdom of God. The two verses above reveal this truth. We want to stay in the grace for today, so we realize our daily sustenance comes from God, daily! And daily I need, I so very much need, to seek God’s forgiveness of my sins.

The forgiveness line in this prayer always reminds me of Henri Nouwen’s teaching on The Return of the Prodigal Son:

I am the son of my compassionate Father. I am an heir, as son and heir I am to become successor. I am destined to step into my Father's place and offer to others the same compassion that he has offered me. The return to the Father is ultimately the challenge to become the Father. But do I really want to be son and heir with all that that implies?

My Takeaway: “Being in the Father's house requires that I make the Father's life my own and become transformed in his image." I am learning the only way to become transformed in his image, is to remain in the grace for today. 

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.