A Review of "A Reasonable Response" by William Lane Craig

“A Reasonable Response” is a very intriguing, insightful, and instructional book on apologetics. Those who are already familiar with Dr. Craig’s work—and especially his website reasonablefaith.org—may have already encountered some of these topics and Dr. Craig’s responses to them, but this book is not meant to simply give you Dr. Craig’s answers to the questions presented—it is also designed to teach you how he answers questions, which is perhaps the most useful aspect of the book. In some of Dr. Craig’s responses, a highlighted box can be found that pulls back the curtain on Dr. Craig’s strategy for answering that particular question. That feature alone makes this a valuable book, even if one is already familiar with the answers that Dr. Craig offers.

The book is in a similar format to Lee Strobel’s “Case for…” series in that it is organized around specific questions and answers. The content of “Response” tends to be on a higher philosophical plane than the “Case for…” books, and thus it will likely appeal to a slightly different audience. Anyone who is brand new to the study of apologetics may find this book to be tough sledding in some places, particularly since the questioners may refer to arguments made by others without any further explanation of those arguments. Those who are more familiar with the subject, however, will find this book to be a very welcome and valuable addition to their library.

Though the subject matter is challenging, the book itself is very user-friendly. A long introductory section discusses such matters as the usefulness of questions in spiritual growth and practical matters regarding how to derive the most benefit from the book. Each major division in the book contains its own brief introduction that functions like an abstract in a scholarly paper—it allows you to get the gist of what you’re about to read before you read it.

The book covers a wide range of philosophical and theological topics, all of which Dr. Craig is well-equipped to address. But lest one think that the discussions are all theoretical with little practical application, the book also includes questions on such imminently practical concerns as protecting oneself from spiritual failure, facing rejection as a follower of Christ, preparing for marriage, and maintaining physical stamina (Dr. Craig writes from personal experience as one who suffers from a chronic disease which affects his muscles).  Those who are interested in questions about God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility will be particularly interested in the questions addressing Molinism and its concept of middle knowledge.

All in all, this book is a valuable resource for those who are actively engaged in Christian apologetics or those who are seeking philosophically rigorous answers to intellectual doubts about Christianity. Whether one agrees with Dr. Craig’s answers or not, he will leave an impression with you like that of C. S. Lewis—“he makes you sure, whatever you believe, that religion accepted or rejected means something extremely serious, demanding the entire energy of mind (Harper’s, quoted on the cover of “The Problem of Pain,” HarperCollins edition 2001.)

This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.

Not So Fast--Sermon on the Mount Series

            Today, on this Sunday after Thanksgiving, we’re going to talk about something that we all might feel like doing right about now—fasting. Our study of the Sermon on the Mount has brought us to Jesus’ words about fasting at a rather ironic time since this is also a First Sunday, and we normally eat pretty well on these days, but I’ll give the Lord credit for this timing, and we’ll just “dig in” to this subject of fasting.

            I think its pretty interesting to look at the variety of opinions among Christians today on the subject of fasting. We can see a very diverse range of opinions on this subject. On the one hand, some Christians promote fasting as a virtual “cure-all” for the spiritual life. At christianbook.com, you’ll find books with titles like, “Fasting: Opening the Door to a Deeper, More Intimate, More Powerful Relationship with God,” and “The Power of Prayer and Fasting: God’s Gateway to Spiritual Breakthroughs.” Its also very interesting that you can’t “pigeonhole” this enthusiasm for fasting to any particular denomination or theological background.

            On the other side of the spectrum, there are Christians who only think about fasting on the day before a colonoscopy. Whether this is intentional or not, they just never really talk about fasting and don’t assign any particular value to it.

            So what should we think about fasting? Today, we’re going to begin with this passage from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:16-18, and then we’ll branch out to a more general discussion of fasting—because as we’ll see, the Lord’s warning about fasting here is the same warning that He has already given us about giving to the needy and prayer. Let’s read His words here in Matthew 6:16-18 [READ 6:16-18].

The Warning: Don’t use fasting as a tool to seek praise from others.

            As with giving and praying, Jesus warns his audience not to follow the example of those whom He calls “the hypocrites”—in other words, the actors or pretenders. We know from the context of this sermon that Jesus is talking about the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the Jewish people at that time. As part of their system of worship, the Pharisees fasted twice a week—on Mondays and Thursdays. That was not commanded by God, but apparently the Pharisees did it as a show of their great piety—and apparently they put on quite a show! Jesus said that they would disfigure their faces so that it would be obvious to everyone that they were fasting.

            And again, as with giving and praying, Jesus stated that any praise they received from others would be all the reward that they would receive. He then encouraged His audience to choose a different route when they fasted.

The Solution: Do your fasting privately.

            Jesus told the people that when they fasted, they should take all the normal steps of personal hygiene for that day so as to conceal the fact that they were fasting. Such actions would reveal that they weren’t trying to impress other people—they truly were fasting as an act of devotion to God. And for their sincere act of worship, God would reward them. And so we have another illustration of the Lord’s words in Matthew 6:1—“Beware of practicing your righteousness before others people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

            Jesus mentioned fasting here—along with giving and praying—because it was a common part of Jewish religion at that time. It is not so common among Christians today, and that should cause us to ask some questions. Are we neglecting something that God wants us to do? Does Jesus expect His disciples to fast—perhaps even command us to in some way, shape, or form? I’d like to spend the rest of our time talking about these questions and discussing some potential dangers and potential benefits of fasting.

Does the Bible ever command us to fast?

            In the Old Testament law, God commanded the people of Israel to fast once a year on the day known as the Day of Atonement. That day was a very solemn and somber holiday on the Jewish calendar, a day in which special animal sacrifices were offered for the sins of the nation. The Lord told them in Leviticus 16:29 to “afflict themselves” on that day, and they—apparently correctly—interpreted that statement as a command to fast.

            And so they did, but that was the only commanded fast that the people had to observe. Over time, however, it became common for the people to fast more often—in fact, some of the prophets called the people to fast as a sign of repentance for certain sins. Fasting also became a common way to grieve the death of a loved one or to prepare for a particularly difficult or important task.

            Slowly, then, fasting became a part of Jewish worship, so much so that the Pharisees (as I mentioned earlier) fasted twice a week during the time of Christ. But in the New Testament, we do not find any commands to fast. Since we are no longer required to follow the Old Testament legal code, we don’t have to observe the annual fast that was mentioned there. In fact, fasting isn’t even mentioned in the New Testament after the Book of Acts. That would certainly explain why fasting is not a universal practice among Christians today.

So the Bible doesn’t contain a command for Christians to fast today. However, we should wrestle with the question…

Does Jesus simply assume that we will fast, so that we are violating His will for us if we don’t?

            As many Bible teachers have pointed out, Jesus does say “when you fast” in vv. 16-17 rather than “if you fast.” He used the same words earlier when He talked about giving and praying, so it seems that Jesus does assume that those who heard Him on that day would do all three of these activities—giving, praying, and fasting.

            But we are not the people who heard Jesus on that day, so we still have to sort this out a little bit. The people in Jesus’ audience that day already had regular habits of fasting as part of their culture, so it makes sense that He would speak to them with the assumption that they would continue to fast. But does Jesus still have that expectation of us today?

            I don’t think God has any expectation or requirement for us to fast today. We know that He wants us to continue giving to the needy and praying, but we know that because we have clear commands throughout the New Testament that tell us to keep doing that. We just don’t have a clear command or a clear expectation that Christians today should continue to fast.

However, that certainly does not mean that we cannot choose to fast as a spiritual exercise, and there could be some very real benefits to doing so.

What are some possible benefits of fasting?

            As we consider this question, I’m going to expand the concept of fasting just a bit beyond the thought of merely going without food. I think other forms of self-denial can work in much the same way as going without food, and thus can have very similar benefits.

1. It may foster humility

            Humility is the character trait that is most closely associated with fasting in the Bible. When we choose to fast out of proper motivations, it is a way to express humility before God and foster greater humility in our lives. It becomes a very tangible reminder of what Jesus said in Matthew 4:4—“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

            But how can an act like denying yourself food build a spiritual trait like humility? Its because of the connection between body and soul. We all know that spiritual issues can take a toll on our physical health. If a person deals with extreme guilt, stress, or anxiety for instance, those spiritual issues can create physical problems like ulcers or high blood pressure.

            That same connection between body and soul can work the other way as well. What we do with and to our bodies can shape our soul. Just think about all the things we do at times to our environment to change our frame of mind. Perhaps we put on some quiet music when we want to relax—or we put on some loud, upbeat music when we’re getting ready for a game. Maybe we turn on some mood lighting or light a particular candle to have a certain fragrance in the house. Perhaps we dress up for a special occasion. All of these actions can put us in a certain frame of mind and express or reinforce certain attitudes.

            Likewise, when we choose to go without something like food, we’re quickly reminded of our physical weakness. We remember again how frail we truly are, which drives us back to God as the source of our strength in all things—even our physical energy for the day at hand.

2. It may build self-discipline

            Choosing to say “no” for a time to a physical craving like eating can help you learn the self-control that you need to properly handle all of your physical urges. For example, sometimes our emotions may feel uncontrollable. We can get into such a rage from anger that we feel like we just have to scream or throw something. But self-discipline in one area tends to spread into other areas. Fasting can then become like something of a practice session for dealing with all of your physical urges and keeping them under control.

            Self-control is certainly a virtue in God’s eyes. In 1 Corinthians 9, the Apostle Paul wrote about the way that he sought to control himself so as not to cause offense to anyone else or to fall into sin against God [READ 1 Cor. 9:24-27]. It is quite possible that Paul’s efforts to maintain self-control included fasting; he was formerly a Pharisee after all, so fasting certainly had been a common part of life for him, and he may have continued that habit to some degree after he became a Christian. So for this benefit, fasting could be a worthwhile practice for us to consider as well.

3. It may help us avoid or battle addictions

            As we go over and over through the daily routine, its not always obvious to us when we’ve actually become addicted to something—whether it’s a certain food, a medication, a hobby, or some form of entertainment. So if we take a step such as fasting from these things to intentionally change up our routine, it can alert us to something that has actually become an unhealthy addiction.

            We’ve probably all had the experience of discovering an addiction after something that we didn’t anticipate threw our schedule out of whack. Perhaps something prevents us from having a favorite food or drink or we’re kept from pursuing our hobby for a while and we start to feel that irrational attraction to that object or activity. When that happens, we find ourselves thinking, “Wow! I didn’t realize how bad this was,” and then we choose to make some positive changes.

            Well, why don’t we just choose to mix things up from time to time? Why not intentionally fast from certain foods, or fast from the TV or the Internet or all kinds of other things? Such changes may alert us to a problem we didn’t know we had.

And following closely with this benefit is another benefit…

4. It may help us re-gain perspective in our lives

            Denying ourselves various things can help us truly sort out needs from wants. We’ve probably all had that experience where circumstances have deprived us of something, and we’ve come to think, “You know, that wasn’t so bad! I thought it would be terrible to go without that certain thing, but it turns out that I really don’t miss it.”

            Unexpected events can teach us those kinds of lessons, but once again, why do we have to wait for unexpected events? We can choose to go without all kinds of things almost any time we want, so why not do that every so often and see what you discover?

So there are some definite benefits that we might gain from the practice of fasting. We should also be aware, however, of some potential dangers that we must avoid.

What are some possible dangers of fasting?

1. The physical danger of going without food

            Before you might choose to fast, you should have a good understanding of your own health to ensure that you’re not making a decision that could actually be dangerous for you. Certain health conditions can be aggravated if you don’t eat regularly, and that could lead to complications, so you want to make sure that fasting would be okay for you.

2. Using the practice as a tool to manipulate God

            It is so easy for us to fall into that pagan mindset of thinking that certain rituals we perform or certain words we say will influence God to answer our prayers, and we can slip into that mindset when we think about fasting. Fasting feels like a rather extreme step to us, so we might think that by fasting, we’ll show God how serious we are about something and He’ll be more inclined to answer our prayers. When we think along those lines, we’ve simply turned fasting into a tool to manipulate God, which is improper.

            But as we learned today from Matthew 6:16-18, we can fast with proper motives, and that kind of fasting will be rewarded by God. I think we embrace the proper motives when we fast in order to devote ourselves to God, not to manipulate Him. If we are fasting to devote extra time to prayer or to cultivate humility and self-control or a renewed perspective, I believe those are desires that God will honor and which will thus receive His reward.

Pray Then Like This (Part 3)--Sermon on the Mount Series

            Last Sunday, the members of the music team and I got to talking briefly about the old party-line telephone systems that used to exist. If you’re not familiar with a party line, it was an arrangement in which you and your neighbors literally shared one phone line, so that if they were on the phone, you couldn’t make a phone call until they were done (or, if you wanted a little entertainment, you could just listen in on their conversation without them knowing about it!). That kind of arrangement seems completely foreign to us today with technology like cell phones, but it was fairly common not that long ago, especially in rural areas.

            Now, we are going to finish our study of The Lord’s Prayer today, and when we think about prayer, I suspect we normally think of it as a private conversation between us and the Lord—we feel like other people really have nothing to do with it. But as we will learn today, prayer is really more like a party line—not in the sense that other people can listen in on our prayers, but in the fact that the way we treat other people may “clog up the line,” so to speak. Our behavior toward others may cause interference for the prayers that we pray to God.

            Let’s quickly review the lessons that we have drawn from The Lord’s Prayer over the last two weeks, and then we will move on to consider two final lessons from this model prayer. So far, we have seen that we should pray in…

1. A manner that is personal

2. A manner that is respectful

3. A manner that is worshipful

4. A manner that is confident

5. A manner that is submissive

6. A manner that is petitionary

7. A manner that is repentant

            Now before we touch on our final two lessons, let me answer a question that you may have—what has happened to the words that we recite at the end of The Lord’s Prayer: “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” If you are following along in our pew Bible, you’ll notice that the words aren’t there. No matter what kind of Bible you’re using, you’ll probably find that those words are either omitted or included with a footnote that says something like, “these words are not found in early manuscripts.” What’s going on here?

            You may remember that a few months ago, when we looked at Matthew 5:22, we talked about the history of how the Bible was copied. Well, when we look at the ancient copies of Matthew 6, we find some copies that contain the words “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” and some copies that don’t contain those words. Our English translations are left to sort that out, which is why some translations omit those words and others include them with some kind of footnote.

            In my opinion, Jesus most likely did not speak those words on that occasion. Its hard to imagine why any copyist—let alone many copyists—would have omitted those words if they were in the original Gospel of Matthew. Here’s what seems to have happened—The Lord’s Prayer was apparently recited in church services from a very early date in church history (just as it is still recited in many church services today). In the earliest days of the church, Christians all shared a Jewish background, and at that point in history it was common for Jewish people to end their prayers with a statement like, “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen,” in the same way that we end most of our prayers with a statement like, “in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.” So its likely that The Lord’s Prayer was recited in church services with those additional words from an early date, and over time some copyists added them into their copies of the Gospel of Matthew.

            This discussion has more sentimental value than anything else, because it doesn’t affect anything that we believe as Christians and shouldn’t shake our confidence in the text of Scripture at all. But many of us have recited The Lord’s Prayer with those words since we were kids, so there is a sentimental connection there. Honestly, I don’t think there’s any problem with reciting those words when we recite The Lord’s Prayer; we can simply understand that we’re doing it as part of a long-standing Christian tradition rather than something that comes specifically from the text.

But let’s move along to our final two lessons from this model prayer.

8. A manner that is circumspect

            This statement simply means that we should pray with an eye toward our surroundings—not our physical surroundings, but our relationships with other people. This is why I said that prayer is more like a party line than a private line.

            Last week, we learned that is appropriate for us to ask for forgiveness when we pray, but there is a specific way in which we must show that we understand our need to be forgiven. In v. 12, the Lord teaches us to say, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” That’s very interesting—Jesus ties our request to be forgiven together with our obedience to God in forgiving others. The idea is that by forgiving others, we have shown our understanding of our own need to be forgiven.

            Since the Bible commands us to forgive others, we are sinning if we fail to do so, and that means that if we ask God to forgive us, yet we fail to forgive others, we are sinning at the same time that we’re asking for forgiveness! That doesn’t make any sense. That would be like asking someone to forgive you for being a bully while you’re punching them in the gut!

            When we fail to forgive other people, that reveals that we haven’t fully come to terms with the depths of our own sins, and that is a requirement for being forgiven by God. The biblical term “confess” literally means “to say the same thing as another,” so when the Bible speaks of confessing our sins—as in 1 John 1:9—it means that we must say the same thing about our sins that God says about them—that they are vile and despicable and a great insult to Him.

            But if we fail to forgive others, that is a sure sign that we are downplaying the severity of our own sins. Jesus tells a great parable to illustrate this idea in Matthew 18 [READ Matt 18:21-35]. That’s what its like when we fail to forgive others—it reveals that we have minimized the severity of our own sins.

            That’s why Jesus elaborates on this thought in Matthew 6:14-15—“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” When we forgive others, we are displaying a truly repentant heart, which is what God requires of us for our sins to be forgiven.

            Now let us not read vv. 14-15 as a requirement to either gain or keep our salvation. Notice that Jesus calls God “your heavenly Father”—He is speaking to those people in His audience who were already believers, those who could already call God their Father. We’re talking about the “family” forgiveness that we discussed last week—the kind that wipes away not any sort of legal charges, but the barriers that may hinder the fullness of joy and intimacy and inheritance from a father to his children.

            So we must understand that the way we treat others can cause “static on the line” when we pray to God; it may cause our “call” to be dropped, like when you drive through a dead spot in your cell phone network. Psalm 66:16-19 sums up the same idea: “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul. I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.”

9. A manner that is trusting

            We draw this lesson from the final two phrases of the prayer: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Our English word “temptation” really does not do justice to the Greek word that it is attempting to translate. When we talk about “temptation,” we think of some enticement that is designed to make us sin, and its very confusing to think that we would need to ask God not to put us in a situation that is designed to make us sin. As a matter of fact, James 1:13 tells us that God cannot even do such a thing: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”

            What we have to understand about this Greek word in Matthew 6:13 is that it can refer to all kinds of difficult situations. It can refer to temptation if the one doing the tempting is Satan or simply our own sinful desires, but it can also refer to times of persecution or even the hardship that comes from dealing with a physical illness. So we might do well to translate this term in a more general way—something like “lead us not into difficult times.”

            In my opinion, even the words “lead us” kind of obscure a beautiful word picture that comes through in Greek. This Greek verb translated “lead us” is the same verb used to describe the actions of the men who carried their paralyzed friend to Jesus and lowered him down through the roof. Here in this phrase, it creates the picture of God literally carrying us through life, and our request then is that He would not carry us into difficult times.

            When I think of this request, then, I think back to times when my family used to go for walks when I was very young. I had a hard time keeping up, of course, so when I got tired and we still had a long ways to go to get home, I would say, “Dad, its shoulder time for Timmy,” and he would put me on his shoulders and carry me the rest of the way home. I think with this request to God we’re basically saying, “Lord, could we just always make it shoulder time? I’m so weak, Lord, and I know that my strength might give out, so would you carry me out of these hard times?”

            But as every parent knows, our children must learn to walk on their own and to keep going even when they’re tired. God knows and has even told us about all the good that can come out of hard times, so sometimes He does carry us into difficult moments—even moments when we face attacks and temptations from Satan, who of course is “the evil one” mentioned in v. 13. We need only to think about Job, or the Lord Jesus Himself, who was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, or the Apostle Paul, who said in 2 Corinthians 12:7 that he was given “a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.”

            The book of James tells us that we should actually rejoice when we face hard times because of the good that such moments can produce within us: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials [the same Greek word as “temptations” in Matthew 6:13] of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

            But this encouragement from James sets up an odd situation—if James tells us to rejoice when we face hard times because they can do us good, why does Jesus teach us to ask God not to carry us into those times? I think the Lord is teaching us two lessons. First, that it is okay for us to bring our requests to God. Even though we know that hard times can be good for us, it is okay for us to ask God to do things a different way. Jesus prayed this very way in the Garden of Gethsemane when He said, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” He made His request for God to do things a certain way, but of course He ended that prayer with the words, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

            Second, I think Jesus is teaching us that its healthy for us to pray in this way. Whenever we pray for God to do something about our circumstances, we are acknowledging our belief—our conviction—that God really can do something about our circumstances. In the same way that it is healthy to tell your spouse “I love you” over and over throughout your marriage, it is healthy for us to continue to acknowledge the truths we believe about God. When we pray about a certain need, we are again affirming our belief in God as provider. When we ask God again and again to forgive us for the sins we commit, we are reaffirming our belief in God as Savior and Redeemer. And when we ask Him not to carry us into difficult times, we acknowledge again that He is in control—our lives are in His hands, and we pray to Him because we know that He can intervene in our lives and because we know that He loves us enough to consider our requests.

            And though Jesus may not have spoken these words on that day, it is not a bad way to express our praise to God by saying, “thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

Pray Then Like This (Part 2)--Sermon on the Mount Series

            Today, we’re going to pick up where we left off last week in our discussion of prayer, and in a way, I think that’s a fitting way to discuss this subject. Its similar to the way that we might actually think of our own prayer lives—one extended conversation that’s interrupted every so often but that we just take up again with a statement like, “now as I was saying.” We might not actually begin our prayers with a statement like, “now as I was saying,” but that can be a helpful way to think about our habit of prayer. Our prayer lives should be like one ongoing conversation that we just keep coming back to time and time again.

            And we don’t necessarily have to pray for a long time every time we pray. One thing that many people have pointed out about this model prayer that we call The Lord’s Prayer is that its very short—it doesn’t take much more than about 30 seconds to recite it out loud. Now on one level, that makes sense, because this passage is part of a larger sermon, and the sermon overall isn’t really about prayer. So its understandable that Jesus didn’t spend too much time talking about prayer on that particular occasion, but I think we can draw the lesson that we don’t always have to pray for long stretches of time.

            Last week, we drew four lessons from The Lord’s Prayer. We learned that pray should be offered in…

1. A manner that is personal

2. A manner that is respectful

3. A manner that is worshipful

4. A manner that is confident

We’ll continue today with three more lessons.

5. A manner that is submissive

            We learn this lesson from v. 10—“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This verse presents us with a reminder that prayer is not about an attempt to get God to do our will. We can certainly bring our requests to Him, but the bottom line is that we are to align ourselves with God’s will, not the other way around.

            Its like the old joke about the sea captain who noticed a light directly in the path of his ship. So he got on the radio and said, “This is Captain Jones of the US Navy. Our boats are on a collision course. Please change your course by 10 degrees.” The person on the other end said, “This is Ensign Smith of the US Navy. Please change your course by 10 degrees.” But the Captain said, “I am a captain and you are a ensign. You change your course by 10 degrees.” But Ensign Smith replied, “You change your course by 10 degrees.” Finally, Captain Jones said, “Smith! I am the captain of a US Navy destroyer! You change your course by 10 degrees!” And Ensign Smith replied, “I am a radio operator in a lighthouse. You change your course by 10 degrees.” God is not the one who needs to change course—we need to get our course in line with His.

            As I mentioned last week, this request for God’s kingdom to come is a reference to the many prophecies in the Old Testament in which God said He was planning to establish a kingdom in this world. When Jesus taught His audience to express this desire, He was building on the fact that they were familiar with these prophecies about the kingdom. In other words, they were knowledgeable about the Bible they had at that time, which was the Old Testament.

            This observation should teach us that knowledge of the Bible and effective praying go hand in hand. After all, if we’re going to pray for God’s will to be done, we need to be familiar with His will, and the place to gain that knowledge is the Bible. As we learn more about the way that God wants us to live, we gain an almost limitless source of inspiration for prayer. We learn, for example, that God wants us to be humble, so we can pray for God to help us become humble. That may bring to mind certain situations that really tempt us to be proud, so we can pray more specifically by praying about those particular situations.

            Bible study and prayer form a cycle of communication that belong together and feed off of each other. If you often feel like you just don’t know what to say in prayer, it could be that you just need to become more familiar with God’s desires for you as He’s expressed them in the Bible. You can’t knowingly submit to a plan that you’re not familiar with; likewise, we can only pray for God’s will to be done as we become more familiar with His will.

            As in basically all matters, the Lord Jesus is our best example for what it looks like to pray submissively. You may remember that in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus was about to be arrested and crucified, He made a very clear request of God the Father. He said, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me (which was a reference to the suffering He was about to endure).” He certainly made a request, but He ended His prayer by saying, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” We can certainly bring our requests to God, but it must always be in a submissive manner.

6. A manner that is petitionary

            This simply means that we come to God as people who are in need and asking for help. We learn this lesson in vv. 11-13, where Jesus teaches us to make specific requests about our various needs. Notice that He mentions both physical needs—like daily bread—and spiritual needs—like forgiveness and protection from temptation. As Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Thus, as we pray so often about our physical needs, let’s not forget that we have many spiritual needs as well.

            But let’s do focus for a moment on our physical needs as Jesus expressed them in v. 11—“Give us this day our daily bread.” When Jesus told us back in v. 6 that God knows what we need before we ask Him, He wasn’t telling us not to pray about our needs. In fact, I think He was encouraging us to pray about them with even more confidence in God’s faithfulness to meet our needs. After all, we must have confidence in God’s faithfulness to pray such a modest request as we find in v. 11. Notice how modest it really is—if I may paraphrase, the request is, “Give us the food we need for today.” That’s a very modest request.

            Now if you’re like me, you feel more like praying, “Lord, give me what I need for the next ten years, then I’ll handle it from here.” After all, I listen to Dave Ramsey! I’ll just make an envelope for each year over the next ten years, and I’ll have it taken care of! That’s what I feel like praying for—a big, lump-sum payment that I can manage myself.

            But that’s not the request of v. 11—the request is, “Give us the food we need for today.” I think its very likely that Jesus meant for us to think back to the story of God providing manna for the children of Israel in the wilderness. When the people of Israel left their slavery in Egypt, they were a family of at least 1 million people (perhaps more like 2 million depending on how many children they had). That would be a logistical nightmare to feed that many people every day, but God fed them every day with what Exodus 16 calls a “flake-like” substance that was left behind on the ground every morning after the dew had evaporated. The people were able to gather these flakes and make them into flour that they would then bake into bread. Exodus 16:31 says it was like coriander seed and tasted like it was sweetened with honey. The first time the people saw it, they asked each other, “What is it?” which in Hebrew is simply man. Before long they simply decided to call it man, so its name means “what is this stuff?”

            Now God gave the people a regulation about the manna—each day, they were only supposed to gather the amount they needed for that day and no more. God actually caused it to spoil overnight if the people tried to store more than they needed. The only exception was on the day before the weekly day of rest. On that day, the people were supposed to gather enough for two days, and the Lord kept it from spoiling overnight.

            So each day, the people received enough for that day but no more. Talk about a faith-building experience! Every day, you would wake up with no food, but God’s rations for you were there for you to gather so that you would be fed. It is this kind of daily, moment-by-moment dependence on God that Jesus calls us to have when we pray about our needs. In light of such a humble request, many of us have more thanking to do than requesting, because we already have our daily needs met for many days to come. Perhaps an appropriate challenge for us, then, is to consider how we should be generous with our excess and how we need to cultivate contentment rather than placing an ever-growing number of things into the category of “needs.”

            But let us do remember this lesson that Jesus teaches us to pray to God about our needs. And as we see in this model prayer, our needs extend beyond merely our physical needs. We have spiritual needs as well, such as the need for forgiveness. And so we are also taught to pray in…

7. A manner that is repentant

            We find this lesson in v. 12 with the phrase, “forgive us our debts.” Some of you may have memorized The Lord’s Prayer with the word “trespasses,” which simply comes from the other record of The Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11. Jesus offered The Lord’s Prayer as a model prayer on another occasion as well, and on that occasion He used the word “trespasses,” but on this occasion in Matthew 6 He used the word “debts” to create a metaphor that compares our sins to financial debts that we might incur.

            The meaning of the phrase is clear—it is a request for God to cancel those debts; to forgive our sins so that they are no longer held against us. Some people have taught that once we are saved, once we become Christians, it is no longer necessary for us to ask God for forgiveness. In fact, they would say that it is inappropriate and wrong for us to ask God for forgiveness. To them, such a request dishonors and disregards the forgiveness that we have already received.

            But I think the context of this statement teaches us that it is fully appropriate for Christians to ask God for forgiveness. Just think again about what Jesus has already taught us to pray—He has taught us to call God “our Father,” to express a desire that God’s reputation be honored and that His will would be perfectly accomplished. These are statements that can only be genuinely expressed by Christians. Only Christians may call God “Father;” only Christians would even want God’s will to be perfectly accomplished. So when we get to v. 12, why would we think that Jesus would mention something that is only appropriate for non-Christians to pray? The Lord’s Prayer is given as a model prayer for those who are already saved; thus, everything in it is appropriate for a Christian to pray.

            To understand our continued need to ask for forgiveness, we simply need to understand how our relationship to God changed when we were saved. Before we repented of our sins and accepted Christ, we related to God as our Creator and Judge. We had broken God’s laws, and we deserved to pay the penalty for our law-breaking. But when Jesus died, He paid that penalty for us, so that when we repent of our sins and accept Christ, the payment He made is applied to us, and on that basis God declares that our case is closed. The penalty has been paid in full and our legal troubles in God’s court of law are settled.

            According to Scripture, God then adopts us into His own spiritual family, so that now we relate to God as our Savior and Father. Now in our biological families, when we disobeyed our parents, it was appropriate for us to ask for their forgiveness—not from any sort of legal penalty, as though they were pressing charges against us, but from the hurt and pain we had caused them, from the damage we had done to our relationship.

            That is the sense in which we as Christians come before God to ask for forgiveness. We’re not asking Him to once again forgive the legal penalty of our sins, because that case has been closed. Instead, we’re asking Him to forgive us for the damage we’ve caused to our relationship, in the same way that we should ask our parents for forgiveness.

            We’ll continue with a few more lessons next week, but let’s briefly review what we’ve learned today. We should pray in a manner that is submissive. Our attitude should reflect a willingness to adjust our lives to God’s will, rather than thinking that prayer is a way to get God to adjust to our will. I think we encouraged to have this kind of attitude when we remember the great many needs that we have, and that God alone is able to meet those needs. We thus humbly come before him with our requests, and one of those requests that we should make is to be forgiven of the sins that we’ve committed, so that our intimacy with God will be all that it can be.