We started thinking yesterday on the Lord’s Prayer as recorded in Luke 11.1 – 4 in The Passion Translation. Here it is, word for word, just with bullets added to set off the six (in this translation) requests:

One day, as Jesus was in prayer, one of his disciples came over to him as he finished and said, “Would you teach us a model prayer that we can pray, just like John did for his disciples?” So Jesus taught them this prayer: 

• “Our heavenly Father, may the glory of your name be the center on which our life turns.
• May your Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us.
• Manifest your kingdom on earth.
• And give us our needed bread for the coming day.
• Forgive our sins as we ourselves release forgiveness to those who have wronged us.
• And rescue us every time we face tribulations.”

Today’s meditation is on the second request:

May your Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us. (Luke 11.2, Passion Translation)

This request is not in most translations. The Passion translator’s footnote says that it’s found in several of the oldest Greek manuscripts.

Cleansing. When I first read this I was in the process of pressure washing my driveway, preparing it for sealing. I knew some parts were very dirty, and it was fun to see them come clean. Other parts didn’t look all that dirty UNTIL the pressure spray hit them. And there it was: a clean streak showing that the area around it was, in fact, also needing…cleansing.

God cares about cleansing and provides us multiple means. Check out these verses, emphases mine:

• May your Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us. (Luke 11.2, Passion Translation)
• But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1.7, ESV)
• Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. (John 15.3, ESV)
• …Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word… (Ephesians 5.25, 26, ESV)