By Pastor Kyle Smith
Ellendale
At last here we are, at the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, which says, “For Thine in the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.” If you open to Matthew 6 and read the Lord’s Prayer as Jesus taught it, you may be surprised to find that the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer isn’t found in Scripture. But if the conclusion isn’t found in the Lord’s Prayer, where did it come from?
As you opened up to Matthew 6, your Bible may have a footnote at the bottom of the page saying something along the lines of, “Some manuscripts add For yours in the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.” Bible scholars take their job very seriously and would not want to add something to the Bible that isn’t supposed to be there, so depending on how questionable a text is, it is better to leave it out and make a footnote to clarify that there is some uncertainty. But that isn’t the only reason for us including the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer as we pray it today.
An additional reason why the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer is included is that the words confess that our Father is able to do all that we asked of Him earlier in the prayer. We see this idea come out best in 1 Chronicles 29:11 which says, “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Yours. Yours is the Kingdom, O LORD, and You are exalted as head above all.”
As Christians, we recognize that God our Father is the Creator-King of the universe and that every good gift comes from Him and Him alone, as we see in James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” We also recognize that our Father has the power to grant our requests, “To Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph. 3:20-21)”
Speaking of “Amen,” why do we end the Lord’s Prayer with the word amen? Amen is a word that means, “Let it be so,” or “So be it.” Once again, we see that we are certain that our requests are heard by our Father and that He has promised to hear us. And so when we prayer the Lord’s Prayer, whether it be within the gathering of the saints or on our own, may we remember we pray this prayer by the Lord’s command and be confident that He hears us through Jesus Christ our Lord.