Psalm 82, Luke 11:1-4

Psalm 82
God is the true judge. He condemns the earthly judges for their failure to give justice to the poor and helpless. When the justice system is corrupt, the foundations of the society are unstable. v. 5 This psalm was written about Israel, but it seems that this truth would apply to all societies including our own. In v. 6, Asaph calls the earthly judges "gods" because they have great power on earth, but they, like all people, will eventually die, and they will face the true Judge. God alone knows how to judge the earth, for all nations belong to Him.

Luke 11:1-4
Jesus, John the Baptist, and the disciples all believed it was important to pray. So I guess we haven't much argument with that!
"Our Father in heaven"   None of us has or had a perfect earthly father. But think about the characteristics of a Perfect Father. I'm sure you can add to my list.
1.  Loving--God IS love.
2.  Wise--He has all the information about us and about any questions at hand.
3.  Gracious--He gives us what we don't deserve.
4.  Merciful--He doesn't give us what we do deserve.
5.  Wealthy! He has the means to give us what we need.
6.  Powerful--Actually He is all powerful. Our earthly fathers often lack the power to protect us or whatever, but our Heavenly Father lacks nothing.

"Hallowed be Your name." We are to reverence and honor God and praise Him.

"Your kingdom come." Our desires ought to be to further God's kingdom.

"Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We all want our own way. Our wills are very powerful forces in our lives, and we must consciously submit our wills to God's will. Often we SAY we want God's will, but we deceive ourselves. What we usually mean is that we want God's will to conform to our own.

"Give us day by day our daily bread." We are right to ask God to supply our daily needs, and He has promises to do it.

"And forgive our sins." (which are many)

"For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us." This is the hard part and comes only through regular prayer and remembering how much God has forgiven us.

"And do not lead us into temptation." This phrase puzzles me because I don't believe God does lead us into temptation. And so I don't know what it means for sure. The NLT says, "And don't let us yield to temptation." I do know that we can lead ourselves into temptation and we can allow others to lead us there too. And we don't want that!

"But deliver us from the evil one." Yes, yes, yes!



"