“It is vain to serve God, and what profit is there in keeping His ordinances?... Those who practice lawlessness prosper more, and though they tempt God, they remain unharmed.” It is hard to argue with this: indeed, serving God brings no special material benefit, nor does it offer...
“It is vain to serve God, and what profit is there in keeping His ordinances?... Those who practice lawlessness prosper more, and though they tempt God, they remain unharmed.” It is hard to argue with this: indeed, serving God brings no special material benefit, nor does it offer a comfortable position or a quiet, settled life. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with simple human desires for peace and prosperity either: it is natural for a person to seek the greatest possible comfort in arranging life for oneself and one's loved ones.
The crisis comes when we link our desires to a time by which God must fulfill them. We want the reward for our service now, and we also want exemplary punishments for those who, in our view, are arrogant.
For God, however, there is still no time or space: He hears and remembers, but the day of recompense has not yet come; He has not yet brought it about. Until then, as the prophet Malachi writes, we must become His possession, which means becoming an instrument that carries out His will or, as Thérèse of Lisieux said, “I shall become His toy”: allowing Him to dispose of us as He sees fit.
In such a situation, all that remains is the right to ask Him for Bread and the Spirit: He promised that He would deny these to no one.
11
11:1 Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples - The Jewish masters used to give their followers some short formof prayer, as a peculiar badge of their relation to them. This it is probable John the Baptist had done. And in this sense it seems to be that the disciples now asked Jesus, to teach them to pray. Accordingly he here repeats that form, which he had before given them in his sermon on the mount, and likewise enlarges on the same head, though still speaking the same things in substance.And this prayer uttered from the heart, and in its true and full meaning, is indeed the badge of a real Christian: for is not he such whose first and most ardent desire is the glory of God, and the happiness of man by the coming of his kingdom? Who asks for no more of this world than his daily bread, longing meantime for the bread that came down from heaven? And whose only desires for himself are forgiveness of sins, (as he heartily forgives others,) and sanctification.
11:2 When ye pray, say - And what he said to them is undoubtedly said to us also. We are therefore here directed, not only to imitate this in all our prayers, but to use this very form of prayer. Mat 6:9.
11:4 Forgive us; for we forgive them - Not once, but continually.This does not denote the meritorious cause of our pardon; but the removal of that hinderance which otherwise would render it impossible.
11:5 At midnight - The most unseasonable time: but no time is unseasonable with God, either for hearing or answering prayer.
11:9 Mat 7:7.
11:13 How much more shall your heavenly Father - How beautiful is the gradation! A friend: a father: God! Give the Holy Spirit - The best of gifts, and that which includes every good gift.