AMEN AND AMEN

Matthew 6:9-13 (NKJV) - “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. ¹For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

We will conclude our study of the Model Prayer of Jesus today. We have spent a number of days taking a closer look at the 9 points that Jesus gives us. His disciples saw the power He had from the time He spent praying. So, they asked Him to teach them how to have this. We saw the points so far:

1.     Faith

2.     Worship

3.     Expectation

4.     Submission

5.     Petition

6.     Confession

7.     Compassion, and

8.     Dependence.

That brings us to the final point, #9 – Acknowledgment – (6:13b) “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.^”  As you have seen the footnote each day, many of the earlier manuscripts of the book of Matthew does not have this in them. It may be that a scribe at some point added it as a praise for what he had seen. But, many of the documents do contain it. And, for many, many years people have been memorizing it with this addition. So, I am going to include it in our devotion.

This could mirror an early song of praise to God. It fits with the prayer of David in the Old Testament book of 1 Chronicles (29:11). It is a fitting closing to the teaching of this Model. He ascribes what is being taught to the Holy God. We started with an understanding of Who we are praying to, and how we should view Him. This comes full circle as we close. The Kingdom is the territory subject to the rule of a king, in this case, it is the Kingdom of God – the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. The passage ascribes “power” to God. The Greek word   – dýnamis – and means strength, power, and ability. I have often heard that we get our word Dynamite from this. We also get our word Dynamo form it. A dynamo is a machine that produces power – continuously. Our God is a dynamo, He is continuous power and strength.

The passage also ascribes glory to God. This is from the Greek word – dóxa – and means splendor, majesty, an exalted state. This is the root word for the hymn the Doxology. Doxology means a study of Glory. And all Glory belongs to God and God alone.

We must include the aspects of adoration, submission, petition, repentance, and praise to God in our prayers.

We end with the word Amen. When used at the end of a statement it means so it is, so be it,  and may it be fulfilled. It was a custom, which passed over from the synagogues to the Christian assemblies, that when he who had read or discoursed, had offered up solemn prayer to God, the others responded Amen, and thus made the substance of what was uttered their own. May we end this short study on the Model Prayer echoing this word.

Amen and Amen.

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¹ Many of the older manuscripts  omit this last phrase of the prayer. I am including it because of the popularity of the way we say the prayer.