Our Father in Heaven! (The Second Part of Lord’s Prayer) Matthew 6:11-15

[Stephan Choe]

February 20, 2026

Key verses 11-13:            “Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Source: https://www.jesus.de/glauben-leben/gebet/wie-kann-ich-beten

Last Tuesday, we learned the first part of the Lord's Prayer. The first part is about God, namely God's name, His kingdom, and His will.

Now we want to learn the second part of the Lord's Prayer. This part is about us, namely our needs, forgiveness, and protection from temptation. We want to learn this second part with the desire to lead a blessed life of faith and to glorify God.

"Give us this day our daily bread."

Here, bread refers in a narrow sense to our daily food. In a broader sense, however, it refers to our various needs, such as sufficient income, housing, education, training, employment, medical treatment, etc. God knows all about our needs and wants to fulfill them.

Why should we tell God about our needs every day? Because God wants us to nurture our relationship of trust with Him through our prayers. He wants us to continually become aware that He loves us and cares for our needs. Through our prayers, we are to continually perceive His love and care, trust in Him, and thank Him. In this way, we can keep our loving relationship with God fresh.

Jesus doesn't teach us to pray like, "Give us this day bread for months or years!" But rather, He teaches us to pray like, "Give us this day our daily bread." Of course, God doesn't mean that we should live like a day laborer who works one day and receives a day's wages. But we shouldn't worry about what might happen to us tomorrow or in the future. We should ask God for His help with today's needs. What would happen to us if we didn't encounter any difficulties in our future? We would think that we wouldn't need God's help in our future and would rely on our seemingly secure future, such as our wealth, job, health, etc., instead of relying on God. We would neglect our prayer life and our relationship with God because we think we have no need for it.

Our relationship with God is in some ways similar to raising children. Raising small children requires a lot of effort: we have to breastfeed or give milk, change diapers, and play with the child. The child gets sick from time to time. Then the mother has to care for her child all day.

But let's assume that we were to replace all our work in raising children with a super-machine, so that parents don't have to lift a finger. Raising children becomes easy. But then no heartfelt, loving relationship will develop between us and our children. A heartfelt, loving relationship will be missing. That's a spiritual desert.

Our God is like a loving mother, and we are like her babies. As God's babies, we need various forms of care from God. God loves us very much and cares for us well, like a devoted mother cares for her child. God wants us to recognize his love for us, to come to him again and again, and to express our needs when we have needs, difficulties, or problems.

We should tell God about our needs specifically and ask him for his help. We then experience that God gladly grants our request. And we will realize that God is with us and loves us very much. In this way, our relationship with God can always remain fresh.

Jesus doesn't teach us to pray like this: "Give me this day my daily bread," but rather, "Give us this day our daily bread."

In his teaching on prayer, Jesus never uses the word "my," but rather "our," as in our daily bread, our debts. That's why this prayer isn't "My Father," but "Our Father!" This teaches us that we shouldn't only pray for "my own" needs but also for our needs. We shouldn't eat our fill while other brothers and sisters starve, because God is not only my God, but our God. Therefore, we should also pray to God for the needs of others.

"Others" in a narrower sense, means our family, our congregation, our acquaintances, etc. In a broader sense, "others" here means our society, our country, and our world. God is then very pleased and answers our prayer.

"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive those who are in debt with us."

After we have prayed to God for our daily bread, we should pray to God for forgiveness. We desperately need forgiveness so that we can have a blessed, eternal life.

Let's first consider the necessity of forgiveness for our salvation. The Gospel is the Good News of the forgiveness of our sins and our salvation from hell. To experience forgiveness of sins and salvation from hell, we need to confess our guilt. The forgiveness of our sins and our salvation are made possible because Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead. Therefore, we only need to confess our guilt and have faith in Jesus Christ to receive forgiveness and eternal life.

In doing so, we should understand how terrible our sin is and what the consequences of our sin will be. For if we do not understand the consequence of our sin, we will not earnestly seek forgiveness. The Bible says that the consequence of sin is separation from God and eternal damnation in hell. During earthly life, one experiences God's wrath. After physical death, one will suffer the wages of one's sin; the wages of sin is hell. That is terrible. Our physical death is not the final end of our lives. Rather, all people are judged before God after their physical death. Before we die physically, we must receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ so that we are not judged before God but can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. If we take the consequences of sin seriously, we will repent and seek forgiveness. We will then gratefully accept forgiveness and eternal life through faith in the Gospel.

That is why Jesus Christ proclaimed good news to us: Because Jesus Christ took all our guilt upon himself, received God's punishment on the cross, died, and rose from the dead, he does not judge us but forgives our sin and warmly welcomes us into his Kingdom of Heaven. This is a wonderful grace from God.

Thus, through our repentance and our faith in Christ's sacrificial death and resurrection, we can receive forgiveness and eternal life. We are then saved from God's judgment and from hell and are children of God. As children of God, we then have eternal life, the Holy Spirit, and the Kingdom of Heaven. That is a wonderful salvation.

Let us also consider the necessity of daily repentance after our salvation.

Do we not need repentance after our salvation? Yes! As long as we live on this earth, we make mistakes and commit sins. Therefore, even after our salvation, we need repentance for our guilt.

The story in the 13th chapter of the Gospel of John explains this well. Shortly before his death, Jesus poured water into a basin and washed the feet of his disciples. And he explained the meaning of his foot washing this way: “Whoever has bathed is completely clean; they only need to wash the dust of the streets from their feet” (John 13:10).

Those who have already had a full bath no longer need a full bath, but only a washing of their feet or hands. If we describe being born again as a full bath, our daily repentance is comparable to washing our hands. Our hands often get dirty, so we often need to wash them, for example, before eating or after cleaning.

... Thus, a born-again Christian needs daily repentance, for we often sin even after being born again. We should repeatedly confess our sins to God and ask for his forgiveness. We should have no hesitation in confessing our sins to God and asking for his forgiveness. For God is not angry when we confess our sins. Rather, he rejoices in our repentance and gladly forgives us.

Let us also consider the example of Peter, who was the first disciple of Christ. When Jesus Christ was arrested and interrogated, Peter became very afraid. Faced with the danger of his own arrest, he told the people that he did not know Jesus Christ. But when he repented of his denial, God forgave him and used him for the gospel.

Once we have confessed our sins and asked God for forgiveness, we should firmly believe in God's forgiveness. Some people have confessed their sins and prayed for forgiveness but suffer from feelings of guilt because they do not believe in God's forgiveness. Those who confess their sin before God but do not believe in God's forgiveness are very harmful.

We don't need to doubt God's forgiveness. We should firmly believe in God's forgiveness and His blessing. In this way, we can experience a wonderful Kingdom of God and God's blessing.

Jesus teaches us, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (12b).

He teaches us that we should gladly forgive others who have wronged us. God does not want us to refuse to forgive others and yet still ask God for forgiveness. God is my God, our God, and the God of all. He loves not only us but also others who have wronged us. He loves all people and wants to forgive everyone their debts. We have such a heavenly Father.

You know the story of an ungrateful man in Matthew 18:21-35. A man owed a king 1,000,000 euros. Because he couldn't repay his debts, the king forgave him. But this same man refused to show mercy to a fellow citizen who owed him €10,000 and threw him in prison. The king found out, became angry with this ungrateful man, and imprisoned him as well.

We should not be like this ungrateful man. Rather, we should be merciful to others, just as God is merciful to us.

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

I have already said that although we have become children of God, we are still weak as long as we are on this earth. Therefore, we should not forget to pray like this: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

Whoever thinks they can stand and not fall, falls. Therefore, we should tell God about our weakness and ask him for his protection and help. If we do this, he will gladly help us so that we can overcome all temptations and conquer.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen!

The modern translation of "Hope for All" renders this conclusion as follows:

"For to you belong the dominion, the power, and the honor for all time. Amen!"

To you, God, belong the dominion, the power, and the honor forever and ever! Amen!