CT074 - Give Us, Forgive Us, and Deliver Us

Last Thursday's CT examined the first part of the Lord's Prayer, which was all about God — his name, his kingdom, his will. Today it turns toward us, and the order never changes: God first, then us. In Matthew 6:11–15 Jesus gives us three short requests, and every one of them is an honest admission of need.

"Give us today our daily bread." Notice how small that is — not a year's supply, just enough for today. It's the rhythm of the manna in the wilderness, gathered fresh each morning, a dependence that keeps us coming back to the Father's door. "Forgive us our debts" takes us from our stomachs to our souls: a debt we could never repay, canceled not because God felt generous but because Jesus already paid it at the cross. And "deliver us from the evil one" is the prayer of someone who has stopped trusting their own willpower — Lord, don't let me walk into the place where I'd fall; keep me.

But Jesus stops at the middle request and adds something he says about no other petition: if you forgive others, your Father forgives you; if you don't, he won't. Matthew Allen walks carefully between the two ways we mishear that — it's not that forgiving people buys God's mercy (only Christ's blood covers our debt), and it's not that the words don't matter. It's that forgiven people forgive. The mercy we extend is never the purchase price of grace; it's the evidence that grace has reached us. So pray the prayer slowly this morning, and when you reach "as we also have forgiven our debtors," let a name come to mind — and, because you've been forgiven so much, let it go.