Why Pray the Lord's Prayer?
Here are ten reasons:
Here are ten reasons:
1. Our FATHER who art in heaven
Because without prayer there is only – myself. Between the heaven of prayer and the hell of the self there is no middle way. The more I try to find myself, the more I am lost. To call on GOD as FATHER is to discover myself as someone GOD calls child.
2. hallowed be thy name
Not because prayer will give me what I want, but because it will knead and pummel my wants, stretching them my whole life long, until at the last hour of my life I have learned to want one thing only, the only thing worth having. And so my whole life becomes a secret sigh, an inarticulate utterance of the hidden Name of GOD. And so even my death will be my prayer, the sigh by which I give myself up into the presence of the holy Name.
3. thy kingdom come
Because my prayer encompasses not my own life only but the entire world of which I am a part. What defines this world is scarcity, injustice, and oppression – in other words, hunger. To pray is to find in my own hunger an echo of the hunger of the world, in my own small cry an echo of the cry for justice that rises like smoke from the scorched earth.
4. thy will be done
Because prayer is the end of willing, the beginning of wisdom. The life of prayer is a slow dying into the will of GOD, a slow awakening into the freedom to live.
5. on earth as it is in heaven
Not because prayer is a technique of self-improvement or an instrument of spiritual experience, but because it is beyond all human competency, beyond all language and learning and control. Prayer is the speech of heaven. To pray is to live beyond the narrow walls of the self and beyond whatever I can merely control. As sunflowers open to the morning, so the praying life opens towards heaven, standing up straight into the bright burning presence of the Name.
6. give us this day our daily bread
Because every day, morning and night, I hunger. The stuff of my life is hunger, need, and lack. Technology and affluence blind me to this truth, but one day – a single morning – without food is enough to show me the truth of what I am. I live by lack: GOD lives by fullness. I am only hunger: GOD is only food.
7. and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Because hurt and disappointment and resentment are always knocking at the door of my life. As soon as I drive one away another arrives, eager to come in and set up its home in the little house of my heart. I will die of resentment; I am destroyed by what I am owed. But I learn to forgive when God writes off my debts and makes me free. Now I can live, now I can clear the debts of enemies and friends, and speak the magic word of forgiveness that drives resentments back into the dark.
8. and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil
Because this world is only trial. Yet it is God's world, and all the evils that crowd in upon my life can never hide my voice from the listening GOD.
9. for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever
Because God is glorious. All my life I was asleep within myself, but when I bowed my head to pray I opened my eyes to the glory of GOD. Glory should be seen. Just as it is right for a mountain to be seen or a piece of music to be heard or the body of a lover to be loved, so it is right to give GOD thanks and praise, for God is glorious.
10. Amen
Because the life of GOD is prayer itself. It is deep calling to deep, the endless giving and receiving of unbounded self-divesting self-communicating joy. My prayer is an eavesdropping on the Prayer that is GOD. God's speech is grace and truth, GOD'S life is love, GOD'S silence is the annunciation of the Name. The word of my life is a modest, small, yet glad and true, Amen.
Because without prayer there is only – myself. Between the heaven of prayer and the hell of the self there is no middle way. The more I try to find myself, the more I am lost. To call on GOD as FATHER is to discover myself as someone GOD calls child.
2. hallowed be thy name
Not because prayer will give me what I want, but because it will knead and pummel my wants, stretching them my whole life long, until at the last hour of my life I have learned to want one thing only, the only thing worth having. And so my whole life becomes a secret sigh, an inarticulate utterance of the hidden Name of GOD. And so even my death will be my prayer, the sigh by which I give myself up into the presence of the holy Name.
3. thy kingdom come
Because my prayer encompasses not my own life only but the entire world of which I am a part. What defines this world is scarcity, injustice, and oppression – in other words, hunger. To pray is to find in my own hunger an echo of the hunger of the world, in my own small cry an echo of the cry for justice that rises like smoke from the scorched earth.
4. thy will be done
Because prayer is the end of willing, the beginning of wisdom. The life of prayer is a slow dying into the will of GOD, a slow awakening into the freedom to live.
5. on earth as it is in heaven
Not because prayer is a technique of self-improvement or an instrument of spiritual experience, but because it is beyond all human competency, beyond all language and learning and control. Prayer is the speech of heaven. To pray is to live beyond the narrow walls of the self and beyond whatever I can merely control. As sunflowers open to the morning, so the praying life opens towards heaven, standing up straight into the bright burning presence of the Name.
6. give us this day our daily bread
Because every day, morning and night, I hunger. The stuff of my life is hunger, need, and lack. Technology and affluence blind me to this truth, but one day – a single morning – without food is enough to show me the truth of what I am. I live by lack: GOD lives by fullness. I am only hunger: GOD is only food.
7. and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Because hurt and disappointment and resentment are always knocking at the door of my life. As soon as I drive one away another arrives, eager to come in and set up its home in the little house of my heart. I will die of resentment; I am destroyed by what I am owed. But I learn to forgive when God writes off my debts and makes me free. Now I can live, now I can clear the debts of enemies and friends, and speak the magic word of forgiveness that drives resentments back into the dark.
8. and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil
Because this world is only trial. Yet it is God's world, and all the evils that crowd in upon my life can never hide my voice from the listening GOD.
9. for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever
Because God is glorious. All my life I was asleep within myself, but when I bowed my head to pray I opened my eyes to the glory of GOD. Glory should be seen. Just as it is right for a mountain to be seen or a piece of music to be heard or the body of a lover to be loved, so it is right to give GOD thanks and praise, for God is glorious.
10. Amen
Because the life of GOD is prayer itself. It is deep calling to deep, the endless giving and receiving of unbounded self-divesting self-communicating joy. My prayer is an eavesdropping on the Prayer that is GOD. God's speech is grace and truth, GOD'S life is love, GOD'S silence is the annunciation of the Name. The word of my life is a modest, small, yet glad and true, Amen.
WHY PRAY THE LORD'S PRAYER ? Author unknown
(Google image and my emphasis added)
(Google image and my emphasis added)
 Father, thank You for giving us this prayer to show us what we should pray for. Your express desire is that when we pray, we live beyond the narrow walls of ourselves, and beyond what we can merely control. Thank you that I can clear the debts of enemies and friends, and speak the magic word of forgiveness. May I become fully aware of Your goodness and mercy through prayer. I ask this in the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Today’s Bible verse: Matt. 10:39 KJV "He that findeth his life shall lose it. and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."
Today’s quote: If You Have Faith
You Can Make It
If you have faith you can make it;
At times you may feel "down,"
So ask God to help you take it
And wipe away your frown.
We are to pray when Life seems tough
For Jesus to guide us.
We'll find that He will be enough
When in Him we do trust.
As we're not promised many days
Or that a year we'll live,
It's best we find out some new ways
Each day our love to give.
As you surrender to God's will
You'll learn about his love.
May it be you'll listen until
His thoughts come from above.
It's God Who'll give you guidance, dear
So that you can soon see,
How you're to live will become clear
In each adversity.
When on God's Word folks see you stand
You'll find they can be blessed.
You will help them to know God's plan
To guide them in their test.
"Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and
He shall sustain thee: he shall never
suffer the righteous to be moved."
Psalm 55:22 (KJV)
by Jean Oathout
(pp.48, 49)
Some thoughts today: Allow the Holy Spirit to awaken you to the things of God. Develop a reckless abandonment to Jesus. Begin to want His life for you.
~ The faith of God asks us to ask for more, not less. He puts His thoughts in our minds. We can feel good, or not. Feelings aren't what determines the outcome. Obedience, does. ~ Faith is a firm persuasion that God will make the changes needed to work in our situation of concern.
12/1 Tuesday’s post: #117 The Pitfall of Poor Timing C. Peter Wagner
3rd- Thursday's post: #118 The Pitfall of Empty Rhetoric C. Peter Wagner 5th- Saturday's post: Of Geese and Difficult People Randy Kilgore 6th- Sunday evening's post: Be a Witness Butch Dias
shares with us, "At church recently a man and his wife approached me following the service and asked, 'Are you Michael Brooks?"
"He proceeded to tell me that he was in the same business..." |
Thank you for replying, Lisa. We need a reminder at times.
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