THE LORD’S PRAYER - PRAISE
A father walked by his daughter’s bedroom door which was cracked just enough so that he could see that she was kneeling beside her bed in prayer. Interested to find out what subjects a child would bring before God, he paused and listened. He was puzzled though to hear her reciting the alphabet: "A, B, C, D, E, F, G …" She just kept repeating it. He didn’t want to interrupt her, but soon curiosity got the best of him and he broke into her prayer. "Honey," he asked, "what are you doing?" "I’m praying, Daddy," she replied. "Well, why are you praying the alphabet?" he asked. She explained, "I started my prayers, but I wasn’t sure what to pray. So I decided to just say all the letters of the alphabet and let God put them together however He thinks best."
Have you ever felt that way? You knew you needed to pray, but just weren’t sure how. You didn’t know the right words. You didn’t know what was acceptable to God. In the Luke account, the disciples said to Jesus “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1)
Matt 6:9 This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
I’d rather be able to pray than to be a great preacher; Jesus Christ never taught his disciples how to preach, but only how to pray. -- D. L. Moody
Growing up we sang the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday in church. As soon as it started my mind would switch off. I would simply mouth the words. I hope you are not like that this morning. I hope that you have not heard these words so many times that they have lost their meaning for you.
I thought the Lord’s Prayer was a short prayer; but the longer I live the more I see of life, I believe there is no such thing as getting through it. If a man, in praying that prayer, were to be stopped by every word until he had thoroughly prayed it, it would take a lifetime. -- Henry Ward Beecher
The Lord’s Prayer may be committed to memory quickly, but it is slowly learnt by heart. -- John Frederick Denison Maurice
What deep mysteries are contained in the Lord’s Prayer. They are expressed in a few words, but they are rich in spiritual power so that nothing is left out; every petition and prayer we have to make is included. It is a compendium of heavenly doctrine. -- Saint Cyprian (200-258)
1. Our Father – who we are
The first words of the lord’s prayer show us who we are Christ. Jesus taught His disciples to address God as Father. Isn’t it amazing that of all the names of God that could be used, Jesus used Father. In the Bible Jesus refers to God as Father over 200 times. The first recorded words of Jesus show this relationship. "Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?" (Luke 2:49). The last words of Jesus on the cross also show this "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." Luke (23:46). The Lord’s prayer remind us of who we are in Christ. We come to God not as outcasts or strangers but as those who have been adopted into God’s kingdom. We come as His children.
Isn’t it great to know that we can come to God as “our father”. It means that we have direct access into His presence. When I was growing up my dad worked for Imperial Oil. He was an executive with a big corner office and secretaries who took his calls. Most people had to go through the secretary, but I didn’t. He had a private number that was a direct line. He always answered his phone “Sheane here”. For us, that is where the executive ended and the father began.
I heard the story of a boy fishing on a dock on the Mississippi River. A great steamboat was coming down the river and the boy started yelling "here I am, come and get me". An old fisherman on the dock just shook his head and said "son, that is one of the biggest steamships on this river. It has better things to do than stop and pick you up." To the old man’s surprise the boat changed direction and pulled up alongside the dock. The boy jumped aboard and as the ship headed back out into the river the boy shouted "I knew it would stop. My dad is the captain".
When John F. Kennedy was President of the United States, Life magazine published photos of his children, John Jr. and Caroline, playing with their toys on the floor of the Oval Office. Those images captured the hearts of the American people because it bridged the gap between two thoughts: Kennedy was the President of the United States, but he was also a father. He held ultimate political power in the Free World, but playing at his feet were two little kids who called him Daddy. Your or my kids would have been allowed to do that. His kids were because he was their father. In the same way, God is both our Father and the Lord of glory. We can approach Him confidently in prayer because we are His dearly beloved children.
Remember the story of the prodigal son? The son decided to leave the family. The son recognized that he had given up his rights as a son and went back to the father willing to be treated as a servant or hired hand. The father had other plans. Instead of punishment, his sonship was restored. Though he had left the Father’s house he had never left the father’s heart. You may be willing to stop being God’s child, but God is not willing to stop being your Father. All prayer is centered on the fact that God loves us and has welcomed us home and restored us to the position of sonship in His home.
Rom 8:15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children
Notice that Jesus prayed "OUR Father" and not "MY Father." Jesus recognized that while we all long for closeness with our God, we do not always like closeness to each other. Every time we pray "OUR Father" we are forced to recognize the fact that we cannot pray alone. We can’t be related to our earthly father without also being related to our brother and sister. They are part of the package. We can’t have a close relationship with our father if we hate the rest of the family. The family stands or falls as a unit.
2. In Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name – who God is
God is our Father, but he is also the Almighty Creator of Eternity. The phrase "in heaven" does more than merely locate God. It helps to define Him. The word hallowed means holy. It comes from the same root word in the Greek. To proclaim “hallowed be your name” is to recognize and declare the holiness or “otherness” of God. God’s nature and power is completely different than anything we have ever known or could imagine.
Consider the earth. It weighs 6 sextillion tons (a six with 21 zeros). It is precisely tilted at 23 degrees – any more or less and our seasons would be lost in a melted polar flood. It travels through space at a rate of 1000 miles per hour or 9 million miles per year and yet never gets nearer or farther to the sun. It is one of countless planets in the galaxy. Think about the sun. Every square yard of it is constantly emitting 130,000 horse power – or the equivalent of 450 eight cylinder engines. Yet it is but one minor star in the billions of stars that make up our Milky Way Galaxy. Hold a 5 cent piece at arms length towards the sky and you will block out 15 million stars from your view.
Is 55: 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
God’s nature and thoughts are not like our own. He lives far beyond the bounds of time and humanity so He has a completely different perspective on reality than we do.
We think “preserve the body” while He is thinking “save the soul”.
We dream of pay raises while He is thinking “raise the dead”.
We avoid pain to seek peace while He sometimes uses pain to bring us peace.
We seek to live before we die while He wants us to die before we can really live.
We rejoice at our successes while He rejoices in our confessions.
Job learned this the hard way. He had lost his children and possessions. The council of his wife was “curse God and die”. For 37 chapters his friends Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophath each gave their words of advice but then, in Chapter 38, from the storm God speaks.
In prayer we seek to silence the voices of men and turn our attention to the Holy God who sits in heaven. When you are in the middle of a storm you do not set your course by the waves or by things on the waves but by the shore. In battle it is important to listen to someone who is above the field of conflict – one who sees the overall picture. The same is true in life. In prayer we turn our attention to the Rock of Ages who can never be shaken.
When an observatory is about to be built, the site selected is always on some high mountain. The aim is to find a place where there is a clear, unobstructed view of the heavens. Similarly, coming to God in prayer requires a clear vision from the highlands of holiness and separation, the pure sky of a consecrated life.
3. Your Kingdom Come – what God wants
Once we have a clear vision of who we are in Christ and who Christ is then we will seek to line up with God’s will and purposes in our lives. When we see from God’s perspective our focus will be on His kingdom. Out of information comes transformation.
2 Cor 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Prayer is not just about talking but also listening. Before we turn our attention to our needs and concerns, it is always wise to turn our attention to God’s will. What does God want? What is His agenda for our time together?
Richard Baxter, a great Puritan thinker and writer, well understood the real truth. He used to write these words whenever he was asked to sign one of his books: "Lord, what Thou wilt, where Thou wilt, and when Thou wilt." In the old Puritan manner of speaking he was saying, "Lord, whatever you want, wherever you want it, and whenever you want it, that’s what I want.”
"The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in." -- C. S. Lewis
I heard the story of a church business meeting that got pretty hot. After discussing the issue for some time one person said “maybe we should pray about this”. One of the others at the meeting said “Oh no, has it come to that”.
Do your recognize who you are in Christ? Can you see your life and situation from God’s higher perspective? Is your prayer that God’s will be done? What role do play in God’s kingdom coming to earth?
