“Our”, Not “My”

Daily Gospel: Matthew 6:7–15

The Set-Up

(Sorry for missing you all yesterday, it was my birthday and I was away for the day celebrating with family. Back at it!)

“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words... for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Jesus destroys the idea that prayer is a transaction. God knows exactly what we need before we fall to our knees or open our mouths.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Notice the very first word: Our. Not My. Jesus abolishes an individualistic religion. You cannot pray this prayer alone; it is written for the collective human family. The goal of the Christian movement is to ask God to pull the reality of heaven—where there is no poverty, no war, and no exploitation—down into the dirt of our neighborhoods, communities, workplaces…and, yes, churches.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

Jesus tells us to pray for today's bread. Nothing more. This is radical dependency. Ignore the scarcity mindset and take exactly what you need for today, and you leave the rest so your neighbor doesn't starve.

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

In the first century, people were being crushed by Roman taxes and religious tithes. Praying for the cancellation of debts was a massive economic threat to the establishment. But it’s also deeply spiritual:

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Grace is a flowing river: If you close your fist to your enemy, your hand is incapable of receiving the forgiveness God is trying to hand you. To experience grace, you have to first forgive.

“And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.”

Again, in the first century, "the evil one" was the very much visible Roman Empire and the toxic hypocrisy of the religious elite. Jesus is teaching His followers to pray for rescue from the systems designed to crush humanity.

The Takeaways

• Stop the Filibuster. God doesn’t want a deep theological vocabulary or high word count…just be honest.

• It’s "Our," Not "My." You cannot pray the Lord's Prayer while ignoring your neighbor. Period

• Heaven is an Invasion. This isn’t a prayer about escaping the world: We are praying for the radical, loving justice of God to be here, right now.

• Trust for Today. Praying for "daily bread" is a rebellion against a scarcity mindset. It is the beautiful, if terrifying, practice of trusting that God will show up again tomorrow.

• Grace is a Flowing River. Forgiveness must first flow horizontally to the people who have hurt you, or it will stop flowing vertically to you.

The Good News…

The Good News is that we don't have to construct the perfect, eloquent, prose to get God's attention. Jesus says that God already knows exactly what worries us, what terrifies us, and what we need before we even start to pray.

The Good News is that the prayer Jesus gave us puts us all on the exact same dirt, and teaches those in power to look up and say "Our." It reminds us that we are deeply loved, fiercely protected, and fully provided for—one single day at a time.