The Lord's PrayerChikamu

Perspective

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

This final phrase of the Lord’s Prayer does not appear in the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament and although it is almost always said in churches, most modern Bible translations relegate it to a footnote. Personally, I’m hanging onto it. One reason is that Jewish prayers in Jesus’ day generally ended with some sort of blessing on God and it’s probable that early Christians did something similar. Another reason is that the prayer begins with praise and it’s a fitting idea to end it on a similar note. And finally, if this clause is omitted you are left in a very uneasy situation where the last thing you pray refers to ‘the evil one’. I think it’s important to remind ourselves in praying that here, as in history, the devil does not have the last word.

What this final phrase does do is encourage us to step back from our prayers for provision, pardon and protection to see the big picture. It puts our existence in perspective. Let me draw your attention to three things.

The first is that we are reminded that the kingdom should be the priority of our lives. We are all faced with endless choices in life such as what job to take, how to spend our time or our money. These choices are distracting and can easily dominate our thinking. Here God says lift your eyes up from those concerns that are preoccupying you: that big presentation, the state of the car, your ailing bank balance or that pain in your shoulder and look up to God’s kingdom.

The second is that this phrase reminds us that the purpose of our lives is to build God’s kingdom and give him the glory. There’s a famous, indeed notorious, World War I poster in which a little girl, sitting on her father’s lap, asks him, ‘Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?’ The father’s uncomfortable expression suggests that the answer was, ‘Very little.’ But let’s shift that question from a long-past war to our present existence. You see that it’s a question that in various forms haunts many people in retirement or as they come to the end of their lives. ‘What did I do with all the hours God gave me? What did I spend my energy on? What have I achieved of lasting value?’ The reality is that the only goal for human existence that is eternally worthwhile is God’s kingdom.

The third is that we are reminded that we need to take hold of God’s power in our lives. The Lord’s Prayer challenges us and makes demands on our lives. To try to seek to live out this prayer in our own power is a recipe for stress, burnout and failure. Our only hope is to seek the power of the Holy Spirit to aid us.

Finally, let me comment on that tiny little word Amen. To say Amen is to make a commitment to what has been said. It is to say, in effect, let it happen! It is like closing a letter with a signature, raising your hand in agreement over some motion or even pressing the send button on an email. We are saying to God, all that we have prayed, ‘may it happen’! 

Indeed, over all you have prayed in this entire prayer, may you be able to say in confidence at the end, Amen! 

And may God answer you!