The Las Vegas Shooting and the Lord’s Prayer

[Mark Corbett]

The words of the Lord’s prayer, taken from Matthew 6:9-13, are in purple. My feeble attempt to apply this mighty prayer to the tragedy in Las Vegas is in italics.

9a "This, then, is how you should pray:

O Lord, even in the simple things of life we often are at a loss as to how we should pray, how much more so when facing the massive evil of over 500 people being injured in the worst mass shooting in our nation’s history. Yet, we thank you for teaching us how to pray. Help us to take the prayer you taught us to pray and apply it to the terrible tragedy of the Las Vegas shooting. And beyond that, please fulfill your promise to have your Holy Spirit intercede in deep ways which go beyond our words (Romans 8:26).

9b"'Our Father in heaven,

How thankful we are at a time like this to have you as our Heavenly Father. The gunman’s father was a criminal and an unfaithful father. Did that influence his son? We don’t know. But Lord, we do know that you are willing to be a Father to any who will accept Jesus as their Savior. You are a Father who loves, and gives, and protects, and disciplines us for our good, and transforms us, and You protect Your children. Oh, how great is your love that we should be called your children (1 John 3:1)!

Lord, right now many thousands of your children who have lost loved ones or who have loved ones injured by bullets, or who have been traumatized, need to be reminded of your great, faithful Fatherly love. Remind them, Lord! Help them “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18).

Lord, we pray that even through this tragedy others will be drawn to Christ, and having heard the gospel, will believe and be adopted into your family.

9c hallowed be your name,

Oh God, please don’t let people listen to the lies of the devil and believe in any way that the evil in Las Vegas indicates any evil, or lack of love and power, in You. Rather, let Your Name be lifted up as the source of hope and comfort. Let people see in us Your great love, compassion, and goodness.

10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Lord, we long for you to be in charge, for you to rule in all that’s going on. Intervene, Lord. In every aspect of this tragedy come and rule. In every hospital room, be with the wounded. In the homes and hearts of every grieving person, reign with your love and mercy. Come and do Your good will through the police, FBI, and others as they seek truth and justice. Reveal truth. Bring justice here on earth, amidst all the pain and hurt and confusion brought by evil. Reign! Come and act as our King. And Lord, how we long for You to return and to end all the evil and pain and suffering and to establish Your New Heaven and New Earth, a home of eternal righteousness (2 Peter 3:13).

11 Give us today our daily bread.

Heavenly Father, provide all that the suffering need. Give the wounded healing. Grant the mourning comfort. Provide them with courage. Give those who are called to minister the right words that come from Your Holy Spirit. O Lord, thank you for being our mighty faithful provider.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Forgive us! We remember with trembling Your words, “. . . unless you repent, you will all perish as well” (Luke 13:3). If You “kept a record of our sins, O Lord, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3). We confess that all of us deserve every hurricane and every bullet. But Lord, thank You for Your mercy! In Christ we are forgiven! O Lord, thank You. Cleanse us and purify us and bring revival and healing to our sin-stained land.

And give us forgiving hearts. Let us forgive as we have been forgiven.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. '

In our grief, our anger, our fear, and our confusion, protect us from temptation. Don’t let our feet stumble. Keep us from the pits and traps prepared by the evil one. Rather, let us hear Your voice and be led by Your Spirit through Your Word.

And keep us safe from the evil one and the evil in this world. We are reminded of the evil all around us. Watch over us, our families, and our church families. We trust You to shield us by Your power until we see the completion of Your salvation (1 Peter 1:5).

Do all this for Your glory Lord! “For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen,” (Matthew 6:13b, NKJV).

 

[MARIAH36]

Amen! We are standing in solidarity and praying for all of you in the United States, here in Canada.

 

[joshua 1 9]

When we look at the 50 people that were killed we begin to realize that these were very amazing people. Then we learn that they died using their body as a shield to protect their loved ones. "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends." John 15:13 (Liv)

One man was glad that he got shot in the arm because his arm was around his wife and he was able to protect her from getting hurt.

 

[Halbhh]

The words of the Lord’s prayer, taken from Matthew 6:9-13, are in purple. My feeble attempt to apply this mighty prayer to the tragedy in Las Vegas is in italics.

9a "This, then, is how you should pray:

O Lord, even in the simple things of life we often are at a loss as to how we should pray, how much more so when facing the massive evil of over 500 people being injured in the worst mass shooting in our nation’s history. Yet, we thank you for teaching us how to pray. Help us to take the prayer you taught us to pray and apply it to the terrible tragedy of the Las Vegas shooting. And beyond that, please fulfill your promise to have your Holy Spirit intercede in deep ways which go beyond our words (Romans 8:26).

9b"'Our Father in heaven,

How thankful we are at a time like this to have you as our Heavenly Father. The gunman’s father was a criminal and an unfaithful father. Did that influence his son? We don’t know. But Lord, we do know that you are willing to be a Father to any who will accept Jesus as their Savior. You are a Father who loves, and gives, and protects, and disciplines us for our good, and transforms us, and You protect Your children. Oh, how great is your love that we should be called your children (1 John 3:1)!

Lord, right now many thousands of your children who have lost loved ones or who have loved ones injured by bullets, or who have been traumatized, need to be reminded of your great, faithful Fatherly love. Remind them, Lord! Help them “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18).

Lord, we pray that even through this tragedy others will be drawn to Christ, and having heard the gospel, will believe and be adopted into your family.

9c hallowed be your name,

Oh God, please don’t let people listen to the lies of the devil and believe in any way that the evil in Las Vegas indicates any evil, or lack of love and power, in You. Rather, let Your Name be lifted up as the source of hope and comfort. Let people see in us Your great love, compassion, and goodness.

10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Lord, we long for you to be in charge, for you to rule in all that’s going on. Intervene, Lord. In every aspect of this tragedy come and rule. In every hospital room, be with the wounded. In the homes and hearts of every grieving person, reign with your love and mercy. Come and do Your good will through the police, FBI, and others as they seek truth and justice. Reveal truth. Bring justice here on earth, amidst all the pain and hurt and confusion brought by evil. Reign! Come and act as our King. And Lord, how we long for You to return and to end all the evil and pain and suffering and to establish Your New Heaven and New Earth, a home of eternal righteousness (2 Peter 3:13).

11 Give us today our daily bread.

Heavenly Father, provide all that the suffering need. Give the wounded healing. Grant the mourning comfort. Provide them with courage. Give those who are called to minister the right words that come from Your Holy Spirit. O Lord, thank you for being our mighty faithful provider.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Forgive us! We remember with trembling Your words, “. . . unless you repent, you will all perish as well” (Luke 13:3). If You “kept a record of our sins, O Lord, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3). We confess that all of us deserve every hurricane and every bullet. But Lord, thank You for Your mercy! In Christ we are forgiven! O Lord, thank You. Cleanse us and purify us and bring revival and healing to our sin-stained land.

And give us forgiving hearts. Let us forgive as we have been forgiven.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. '

In our grief, our anger, our fear, and our confusion, protect us from temptation. Don’t let our feet stumble. Keep us from the pits and traps prepared by the evil one. Rather, let us hear Your voice and be led by Your Spirit through Your Word.

And keep us safe from the evil one and the evil in this world. We are reminded of the evil all around us. Watch over us, our families, and our church families. We trust You to shield us by Your power until we see the completion of Your salvation (1 Peter 1:5).

Do all this for Your glory Lord! “For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen,” (Matthew 6:13b, NKJV).

A lot of good things to pray here -- but I could not pray it all at once in just one prayer. Even because of how I interpret the instruction about "many words" in Matthew 6, v 7, as I myself understand it, at least for me, in terms of what I must do to be obedient to His instruction myself. I feel like you have several good prayers there, pieces of many prayers any of us could make also, over a day. I don't know how many different things I could pray for in a day, like 15 or 25, and I'm not used to praying for more than maybe 5 or 6 things in a day. I don't think there is one right answer on this, I just got concerned that it is too many words at once for many of us. We do know that very short prayers are perfectly good, and simply making this into many separate prayers over a day might be a very good thing also.

 

[Greg Merrill]

Father, I appreciate this application of "The Lord's Prayer" to this tragedy. I trust You will answer it accordingly. May we be inspired and motivated to use Your Word in application to the events around us. May much good in much time come out of such evil that happened in such a relatively short amount of time. Jesus, You who are the resurrection and the life, the Great Physician, may Your victory over evil be seen in this event, that doesn't end with death and wounding, but in resurrection and Your healing. The devil doesn't win. You do. Praise Your holy name. Amen.

 

[Mark Corbett]

Halbhh wrote:

A lot of good things to pray here -- but I could not pray it all at once in just one prayer. Even because of how I interpret the instruction about "many words" in Matthew 6, v 7, as I myself understand it, at least for me, in terms of what I must do to be obedient to His instruction myself.

and

I don't think there is one right answer on this, I just got concerned that it is too many words at once for many of us. We do know that very short prayers are perfectly good, and simply making this into many separate prayers over a day might be a very good thing also.

Halbhh, I am struck by your commitment to obey God's Word as you understand it. You also are humble and confess that your understanding may not be the "one right answer on this".

I want to reply with the hope that my reply might help you to understand more precisely what Jesus meant in Matthew 6:7. It may be that an inaccurate understanding of His words is limiting your prayer life. Let's look at Matthew 6:7 in several translations:

CSB Matthew 6:7 When you pray, don't babble like the idolaters, since they imagine they'll be heard for their many words.

ESV Matthew 6:7 "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

KJV Matthew 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

NIV Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

In each translation I have put in blue the part that is a command to us. The rest of the verse is an explanation of the reason for the command. Jesus does not say "don' use many words". Rather, He says that the pagans are wrong to think that God hears them because they use many words, as if the number of their words earns credit with God.

With respect to the command (in blue), notice that none of the translations say "do not pray for a long time" or "do not pray a long prayer". Jesus is warning against "vain repetitions" (my favorite translation, but the other translations are consistent with this meaning).

I don't think "vain repetitions" means praying for a long time, because Jesus Himself prayed for a long time:

ESV Luke 6:12 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.

When Jesus mentioned "vain repetitions", I think Jesus had in mind something like the practice of many Muslims today. Muslims repeat the same prayers many times. During Ramadan, they will repeat the same prayers sometimes for hours on end late into the night. They believe that this practice earns them "merit" or a type of "credit" with God and can make up for failures during the past year. It is this wrong way of viewing prayer, as a rather mechanistic way of earning "points", which I think Jesus was warning us against.

Also, consider this encouraging command:

ESV 1 Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing,

So, of course I would never want you to do anything which you thought was contrary to God's Word. But I hope you will see that Jesus was not teaching that it is wrong to pray a long prayer or pray for a long time, but only that it is wrong to pray using "vain repetitions".

Grace and Peace, Mark (with Hope and Joy!)

 

[Halbhh]

Halbhh wrote:



and



Halbhh, I am struck by your commitment to obey God's Word as you understand it. You also are humble and confess that your understanding may not be the "one right answer on this".

I want to reply with the hope that my reply might help you to understand more precisely what Jesus meant in Matthew 6:7. It may be that an inaccurate understanding of His words is limiting your prayer life. Let's look at Matthew 6:7 in several translations:

CSB Matthew 6:7 When you pray, don't babble like the idolaters, since they imagine they'll be heard for their many words.

ESV Matthew 6:7 "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

KJV Matthew 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

NIV Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

In each translation I have put in blue the part that is a command to us. The rest of the verse is an explanation of the reason for the command. Jesus does not say "don' use many words". Rather, He says that the pagans are wrong to think that God hears them because they use many words, as if the number of their words earns credit with God.

With respect to the command (in blue), notice that none of the translations say "do not pray for a long time" or "do not pray a long prayer". Jesus is warning against "vain repetitions" (my favorite translation, but the other translations are consistent with this meaning).

I don't think "vain repetitions" means praying for a long time, because Jesus Himself prayed for a long time:

ESV Luke 6:12 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.

When Jesus mentioned "vain repetitions", I think Jesus had in mind something like the practice of many Muslims today. Muslims repeat the same prayers many times. During Ramadan, they will repeat the same prayers sometimes for hours on end late into the night. They believe that this practice earns them "merit" or a type of "credit" with God and can make up for failures during the past year. It is this wrong way of viewing prayer, as a rather mechanistic way of earning "points", which I think Jesus was warning us against.

Also, consider this encouraging command:

ESV 1 Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing,

So, of course I would never want you to do anything which you thought was contrary to God's Word. But I hope you will see that Jesus was not teaching that it is wrong to pray a long prayer or pray for a long time, but only that it is wrong to pray using "vain repetitions".

Grace and Peace, Mark (with Hope and Joy!)

I've also been asking people what "pray without ceasing" means, and one answer I get many times is that it includes all the different ways of focusing on God and Christ and the things of God, things I might use various words for like prayer, songs, mediation, reading, worship, and more. Or also that it can mean to simply pray often, return to God often, keeping God as your focus, even though you are going about tasks each day.

Thanks Mark!
--Hal

 

[drjean]

OH the heartache Father from the evil in this world that so heavily affects us! How much more does it grieve Your Spirit! We believers know that soon You will forever heal but how long O Lord, how long do we have to wait? Yeshua warned us of these intensely increasingly evil days, yet how He blessed us with hope that it truly will not last much longer. Give us strength LORD, give those who are touched by such evil strength and understanding, and for those who do not yet know YOU, may someone who does reach them. May we all find courage to open our mouths to those around us, knowing that it might be the last thing they consider...as those who had just sung GOD BLESS AMERICA, in Vegas. In Your Son's most holy name, Christ Jesus, amen.

 

[TaiKamiya720]

Lord have mercy. Grant strength and comfort to the victims and their families.