IN our meditations in this wonderful prayer we come now to the last part of the prayer which consists of the remaining petitions, and a closing comment. In the NIV the closing doxology is not printed because it does not appear in many of the best ancient manuscripts. Nonetheless we are right to use it, and it is a fitting ascription to the prayer, of praise and adoration.

The first thing that we notice as we come to these last petitions is the unexpected order. Jesus teaches us to prayer for our bodily needs before our spiritual needs. I think most of us would say that the spiritual needs are more important and so should come first. I believe that Jesus puts our bodily needs first because he knows better than we do that in this world, if our body is not comfortable, then we find it difficult to give proper attention to our spiritual needs. Whatever the reason for this order it shows that Jesus knows we have needs for our temporal living, and he is teaching us that it is not wrong to bring these to our heavenly Father. He is also teaching us that it is the will and joy of God to supply these needs.

Coming to the petition �Give us this day our daily bread� there are some obvious things we can learn from this petition. The first is that Jesus tells us to pray for bread. Bread is the basic food and so represents what we need, the necessities of life. So we learn that Jesus is telling us it is right to pray for our needs, and he is telling us God will supply these. What we are not promised is that God will supply beyond what we need. I believe it is not wrong to pray concerning extras in life, but we have no right to expect that such extras will be supplied, though in love God may well supply them. The second thing we learn is that bread represents all our basic needs, and not just food. We need shelter, we need warmth, we need health, we need wisdom and guidance in temporal things. The list is endless, and as we have needs for life in this world, Jesus teaches by this petition that God welcomes us to bring them to him. The third thing we learn is that it is not unspiritual to ask for our temporal needs. Some people think that we should not ask for our bodily needs because this is somehow selfish and self centred, but Jesus plainly indicates in this petition that this not so. The fourth thing we learn from this petition is the rightness of praying for these needs. Some feel that there is no need to pray because God knows all our needs, and will give us as he sees is for our best, and so we have no need to pray. However Jesus tells us to ask God for these needs and this is enough. In any event a Father looks to his child to come and tell him of the things that are important and needful, and this is what we are doing. We are coming to our heavenly Father. We learn also that as we pray for our own bodily needs we ought also to pray for the bodily needs of others, both friends and any in need in the world.

Then after our bodily needs Jesus tells us to pray for our spiritual needs. In this way Jesus covers all our needs, and so the Lord�s prayer is a complete framework for prayer, which if we use it, we shall cover all the things we need to pray for.

The first spiritual need Jesus teaches us to pray for is for forgiveness. This petition causes problems for some people in two ways. The first is that some feel we have been forgiven all our sins through Christ when we believed so we are already forgiven, and so don�t need to ask to be forgiven. But this is not so. Jesus dealt with this in John 13 in the washing feet incident. Peter was told he did not need a bath, the washing of his whole body because that is what we receive when we first believe; but he was told he needed the washing of his feet daily, which represented the defilement we all pick up by our continual failure to live perfectly holy lives. The fact is that we feel the need for daily forgiveness, and this need is bound up with the daily repentance we are led to by the Spirit. When a believer loses this sense of need for forgiveness it means that he or she is in a low spiritual condition, and pulling away from the Lord in some way and for some reason which is not right. All who are healthy spiritually will feel the need to seek for forgiveness, and John tells us that this is right and will be granted for Christ�s sake. 1 John 1:8 - 2:2.

The other problem is that the way Jesus speaks of forgiveness. It seems to some that this is contrary to the Gospel because it seems to be saying that God�s forgiveness is dependent our forgiving of others. So people who have this difficulty feel that this is salvation by our own efforts and depends on our meriting forgiveness by our action in forgiving others. This is a real concern, and seems to be re-emphasised by the words of Jesus in verses 14 and 15. However we should not be troubled by this. The parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:21-35 explains what Jesus means. We are forgiven people as Christians. God has forgiven us the huge debt of our sins. This debt we could never pay. Christ paid it for us by the gift of God. Because of this we have a deep sense of our sins which means we can�t be judging of others, and secondly having been forgiven so much we can�t help but forgive others. If this is not so then it can only mean that we have not experienced God�s forgiveness through Christ, or haven�t appreciated God�s grace to us or our need of his grace, and so we have not really been saved at all. Our forgiveness springs out of God�s gracious forgiveness of our huge accumulation of sins.

From seeking forgiveness comes the need to be kept in holiness, and to be kept from the power of the evil one. Jesus leads us to pray that God may keep us from temptation and keep us from running into temptation. He also is teaching us to pray that we may not be tested above our ability and strength. 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Jesus also teaches us to pray that we may be kept from the evil one. This is so needful for the true believer will be the special target of Satan. He tempted Jesus and afflicted Jesus, and Jesus warned us in John 15 that we can�t expect to receive different treatment from Satan and the world than he experienced. We have been delivered from Satan�s kingdom and authority, and he has no more dominion, that is authority or claim, upon us, but this does not mean he will not seek to harm us or bring us down, or destroy our peace in Christ. So we need to pray that we may be delivered from Satan and all his wiles.