Jesus addresses God as Father. So should man address God. Man should learn to think of God as the Father of our spirits, and go to Him with the same simple trust and confidence manifested by a little child {93} when it runs with outstretched arms to its earthly father. Jesus felt and manifested that perfect unity between father and son. [Sidenote: The Lord's prayer analyzed.] "Hallowed be Thy name." In this phrase, Jesus taught that we should recognize the sanctity of the name of Jehovah, and at the same time that we should show our reverence and devotion. This is a personal, individual and profound emotion on the part of him who prays sincerely. Then Jesus prayed, "Thy kingdom come." Perhaps you do not fully realize what this petition means when you repeat it in your prayers. What is the use of praying for the kingdom of God to come to earth if we do not help in its establishment? When we utter this petition, then, we virtually promise that we ourselves will do all in our power to help. Only then can God's will be done, "as in heaven, so in earth." And the doing of the will of God is, throughout the teachings of Jesus, the essential element in the establishment of God's reign. These petitions, you will notice, are of universal interest. Now, Jesus asks for that which will meet and satisfy personal needs. "Give us day by day our daily bread." But even here, the petition is an expression of implicit confidence in God's power to provide, and in His unlimited love, rather than merely a request for some specific gift. Its meaning has been interpreted in these words: "Provide for us each day that which Thou, in Thy Fatherly care and wisdom, seeth is needful for us." The fourth petition is also full of meaning. "Forgive us our sins; for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us." Jesus emphasized time and again in His ministry the necessity of forgiving others, if we would ourselves be {94} forgiven. Only in a spirit of humility and sincere worship can we approach the throne of God. The last petition has been often misunderstood. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Certainly the words as they are here recorded do not clearly represent the meaning of Jesus. Yet, perhaps, even in the days of the apostles some people had failed to understand. For James wrote once, "Let no man, who is being tempted, say, 'my temptation is from God,' for God is not to be tempted Himself by evil and He tempts no man, but each man is tempted with evil when he is drawn away by his own lusts and enticed." The petition in the Lord's prayer is, therefore, a petition for strength to overcome. Its meaning is, "Deliver us from temptations which we can not withstand." Or, as our own Prophet has phrased it, "Leave us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil." [Sidenote: Teach us to pray.]