I was looking at how Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, thinking and meditating on it's various forms and came to quite a good conclusion of how we should pray. I'm not sure whether I'll share it with you, but I'll definitely share some thoughts on the lyrics of Cliff Richards Christmas number one from years ago...
Nothing against old Cliff.
Firstly, Jesus addresses His father. That's fairly important.
Circulating around Jesus' message we can quickly discover He's not a crazy man trying to give some kind of escape from what we think we need freedom of. In fact He decides to come along and show us we need freedom something that we were previously unaware of. Pretty good going Jesus. Moving on, His message moved quickly from something else to 'save' to a belief system that put God at the top of your tree. Quite literally He, God, Yahweh becomes your Father. You, by believing in Jesus, become 'grafted onto the vine,' or 'adopted into the family.' Basically you get a new responsibility, and a new pecking order. Pretty good going for something as simple as believing in Jesus. Jesus, in addressing this head-on, teaching others to pray by using a title as intimate as father, shows a family quality of this faith, that previous and alternative lifestyles wouldn't allow. Children from the same family must come together, especially when they have a perfect father, not some competitive, favouratist father.
Next we have the location of Yahweh. He's in heaven. He's in the 'not yet.' Or the kingdom of heaven that Jesus is showing is upon us. This is where He is, and this is what you inherit if you're part of the family, so join in. It puts everything at the right point, in order to set the world view in motion.
Thirdly is this interesting and dense phrase; 'let your kingdom come, let your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.' Notice it doesn't say in heaven as it is in heaven. This is definitely about changing this earth not waiting until we are taken from this place.
This is something at which we take action. Jesus tells everyone He meets that 'the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!' This only provokes this odd reaction because it's not supposed to be invisible. This phrase offers our complete surrender to God, while at the same time wanting to see more of Him. Your kingdom come; Your rule over more and more in it's invisible yet tangible reality. Your will be done; Your way of doing things, not mine. One earth as it is in heaven; bring these two conflicting realities into harmony with one another. Make them come together and be restored. Awesome.
Give us this day our daily bread; provide the things that are bear essentials
Forgive us our sins; I'm wrong you forgive, let your grace rule over me
As we forgive those who sin against us; make me more like you, Jesus
Lead us not into temptation; Renew my heart and mind into a holy and blameless living sacrifice
and deliver us from evil; be gracious and protect me from the unworking of this world
Yours is the kingdom; your rule is the greatest and best way to work
Yours is the Power; your will is so abounding I want to see it work
Yours is the Glory; and all I want to do is for your honour and praise
For ever and ever; I can't see you losing
Amen
I notice one big thing in all of this prayer. There aren't any questions. There is not explicit guidance. Imagine that. I remember a friend sharing with me an insight that said something along the lines of 'wherever you go the light of Jesus, the lamppost, the lantern; it won't lead you, it will follow you.' If Jesus wanted a lot of His sheep to follow Him explicitly we wouldn't just be a complete pen of clones, but we'd also all be tripping Jesus up wondering where He would go next. To follow 'The Way' would not be some kind of special path, although that metaphor is used. It would be closer to having the right kind of glasses on to be able to see what's up ahead and which options could be taken. Jesus never really tells us to go to God if we have three job offers and they're all pretty amazing, but one's got these extra perks that I'm not sure would be a good thing because what if it makes me less content and...blah blah etc. etc.
He says things like 'don't you expect God to provide, you of little faith?!'
What if this happens, Jesus? Well then make a decision. You have this renewed spirit that shines my light wherever you go. It doesn't really matter what decision you make as long as it doesn't mean you sin. And if it does mean you sin then turn around and come back. We all make mistakes. Basically, what His message is is 'we're not ruled by law we're ruled by grace.' Jesus taught us to pray everyday for the basics. That way we've got all the bases covered and we can live in trust that God is bigger than us, and always will be. It's a good family to be in.
Of course in all of this...I could be wrong.
Circulating around Jesus' message we can quickly discover He's not a crazy man trying to give some kind of escape from what we think we need freedom of. In fact He decides to come along and show us we need freedom something that we were previously unaware of. Pretty good going Jesus. Moving on, His message moved quickly from something else to 'save' to a belief system that put God at the top of your tree. Quite literally He, God, Yahweh becomes your Father. You, by believing in Jesus, become 'grafted onto the vine,' or 'adopted into the family.' Basically you get a new responsibility, and a new pecking order. Pretty good going for something as simple as believing in Jesus. Jesus, in addressing this head-on, teaching others to pray by using a title as intimate as father, shows a family quality of this faith, that previous and alternative lifestyles wouldn't allow. Children from the same family must come together, especially when they have a perfect father, not some competitive, favouratist father.
Next we have the location of Yahweh. He's in heaven. He's in the 'not yet.' Or the kingdom of heaven that Jesus is showing is upon us. This is where He is, and this is what you inherit if you're part of the family, so join in. It puts everything at the right point, in order to set the world view in motion.
Thirdly is this interesting and dense phrase; 'let your kingdom come, let your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.' Notice it doesn't say in heaven as it is in heaven. This is definitely about changing this earth not waiting until we are taken from this place.
This is something at which we take action. Jesus tells everyone He meets that 'the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!' This only provokes this odd reaction because it's not supposed to be invisible. This phrase offers our complete surrender to God, while at the same time wanting to see more of Him. Your kingdom come; Your rule over more and more in it's invisible yet tangible reality. Your will be done; Your way of doing things, not mine. One earth as it is in heaven; bring these two conflicting realities into harmony with one another. Make them come together and be restored. Awesome.
Give us this day our daily bread; provide the things that are bear essentials
Forgive us our sins; I'm wrong you forgive, let your grace rule over me
As we forgive those who sin against us; make me more like you, Jesus
Lead us not into temptation; Renew my heart and mind into a holy and blameless living sacrifice
and deliver us from evil; be gracious and protect me from the unworking of this world
Yours is the kingdom; your rule is the greatest and best way to work
Yours is the Power; your will is so abounding I want to see it work
Yours is the Glory; and all I want to do is for your honour and praise
For ever and ever; I can't see you losing
Amen
I notice one big thing in all of this prayer. There aren't any questions. There is not explicit guidance. Imagine that. I remember a friend sharing with me an insight that said something along the lines of 'wherever you go the light of Jesus, the lamppost, the lantern; it won't lead you, it will follow you.' If Jesus wanted a lot of His sheep to follow Him explicitly we wouldn't just be a complete pen of clones, but we'd also all be tripping Jesus up wondering where He would go next. To follow 'The Way' would not be some kind of special path, although that metaphor is used. It would be closer to having the right kind of glasses on to be able to see what's up ahead and which options could be taken. Jesus never really tells us to go to God if we have three job offers and they're all pretty amazing, but one's got these extra perks that I'm not sure would be a good thing because what if it makes me less content and...blah blah etc. etc.
He says things like 'don't you expect God to provide, you of little faith?!'
What if this happens, Jesus? Well then make a decision. You have this renewed spirit that shines my light wherever you go. It doesn't really matter what decision you make as long as it doesn't mean you sin. And if it does mean you sin then turn around and come back. We all make mistakes. Basically, what His message is is 'we're not ruled by law we're ruled by grace.' Jesus taught us to pray everyday for the basics. That way we've got all the bases covered and we can live in trust that God is bigger than us, and always will be. It's a good family to be in.
Of course in all of this...I could be wrong.
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