Luke 11:1-4
The LORD's Prayer and Forgiveness
1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."
2 He said to them, "When you pray, say:
" 'Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.' "
Mark 12:28-34
The Two Greatest Commandments
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
One day one of the Disciples ask Jesus a very interesting and important question...The Disciple ask, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."...Jesus answered His Disciple...Jesus could have said any number of things...And as we read what Jesus said and we see that He is also giving us a lesson on forgiving our neighbors...In this Disciple's question, I bet the Disciples would have never guessed that Jesus would be teaching them about the importance of being a good (and better) and loving neighbor, while in prayer...Jesus said to them, "When you pray, say: " 'Father, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come...Give us each day our daily bread...Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us...And lead us not into temptation.' "...So Jesus taught forgiveness in His Prayer, the LORD's Prayer...
Prayer is a very important subject to Jesus...And in His teaching prayer, we see and read what is very important to Him...In the LORD's prayer, it is a prayer about asking God to give us our daily needs to sustain us, but also it includes words on forgiving of our neighbors...Jesus taught His Disciples what He believed in, and believed in deeply...He taught them about loving God, and loving your neighbor...The LORD's Prayer is therefore, what Jesus most believed in deeply, and we can see that needing God and a love for our neighbor is at the top of His list in things that He believed in and thought was righteous and good...And it is something we should pray for...What we learn and is great to know, that this prayer being so important to Jesus, and His Disciples...And we also learn that it includes some of Jesus' most important beliefs and they would be given to us the day the Disciple ask to teach them about praying...
This prayer has now been around for two thousand years...It is constantly prayed...And a large part of this regularly prayed prayer is to ask God to forgive us our sins, and that we also will forgive everyone who sins against us....And then we pray we are not led into different types of temptation...And as we study this we see in the middle of this prayer is a forgiveness message, a teaching message and command that we must forgive our neighbors...
We are forever united to our neighbors by Jesus in different ways...Jesus often links God and neighbor...We are constantly invited to imagine and constantly and daily invited to pray for our neighbors who have sinned against us...Each time we pray the LORD's Prayer, we are praying for our neighbors...Let us remember, how important forgiving others is to our Teacher and Master...It should be important for us, as well...