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Elmer L. Towns author of the book
Praying the Lord’s Prayer asks a very interesting question. If you were
ushered into the throne room of God with only one minute to request
everything you needed what would you say?
His answer is
The Lord’s Prayer.
If you stop and think about it
the Lord’s Prayer includes everything you need to ask and say when you
talk to God.
“Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed by Thy name, Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily
bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the
power and the glory for ever.
Amen”
I have to wonder if the
disciples knew what Jesus gave them when He taught them this prayer.
Whether you pray the exact words or use the Lord’s Prayer as a pattern
for all your prayers, it is the most powerful way to pray one can ever
ask for.
What makes the Lord’s Prayer so
powerful and effective? For that matter what makes any prayer effective?
Is effective prayer measured by how loud you pray? How long you pray?
How eloquent you speak? Is it possible that the childhood prayer, “Now I
lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep” could be as
effective as “Our Father who art in heaven…”
The effectiveness of prayer is
determined by how prayer is spoken. There are three ways we can pray and
this includes the Lord’s Prayer.
The first way is with our lips.
What comes to me mind are the words of Jesus when He said, “Not everyone
who calls me Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.” The point Jesus is
making is that some people speak His name or pray the Lord’s Prayer
without any meaning. The words just spill from their lips like any other
words.
I am sure you have been
someplace when people have raced through the Lord’s Prayer. It was if
they were trying to set a world record for saying the Lord’s Prayer.
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer by rote we are simple giving lip service
to the prayer.
The second way of praying is
with our mind. We have intellectual knowledge of what the prayer means.
We understand what we are saying. We are thinking about what we are
saying in our prayers. We know what the words mean, but are we willing
to submit to them. When we pray with our minds we tend to rationalize
and even justify our lack of adherence to God and to our prayer request.
We know God can answer prayer but we don’t necessarily expect an answer.
We tend to use prayer for our own personal needs.
An example would be a child who
greets his father who had been away on a business trip. What is usually
the first thing out of the child’s mouth? The child asks, “What did you
bring me?”
Sadly this is a pattern that we
repeat over and over and over again in our prayer life. We go to God
when we need something.
The third way to pray is with
our heart. When we pray with our heart we are acknowledging our
devotion, our faith, our trust, and our love for God. When we pray from
our heart our focus is on God. When we pray from the heart, particularly
when we pray the Lord’s Prayer it can change our life.
Over the course of the next
eight weeks I am going to preach a series of sermons on the petitions of
the Lord’s Prayer. Each petition when prayed from the heart holds a
benefit for you.
This morning our focus is on
the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer.
"Our Father."
Prior to Jesus, God was hardly
if ever thought of as Father.
The Old Testament image of God
was Lord, Almighty, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient. He was a
God to be afraid of. He was the God who brought the people Israel out of
Egypt but He was also the God who killed Uzzah because he touched the
Ark of the Covenant. He was the God who prohibited Moses from entering
the Promised Land because he disobeyed God. He was the God who allowed
foreign nations to destroy Jerusalem and take Israel captive because
they worshipped idols.
Jesus gave us a new way of
addressing God,
OUR FATHER
When you and I pray,
“Our Father” it is like being
ushered into the throne room of God. Why do I say this? I say this
because when we say, Our Father we are not only joining ourselves with
each other, but also with Jesus. Jesus said,
“Our Father…” We are identifying
ourselves with Jesus. He becomes our escort who brings us right to His
Father and ours.
Which sounds more intimate to
you saying, “O Lord God Almighty” or
“Our Father?”
By addressing God as Father he identifies God as a God who desires to be
intimate with you and me. God is identified as a God we can have access
to.
God is no longer sitting in His
throne high above the sky watching from afar. God is now approachable.
Jesus called him Father. Jesus changed the way people came to God. By
believing in Jesus we become children of God.
“But as many as received Him,
to them He gave the right to become children of God,
to those who believe in His name.”
(John 1:12)
God is deserving of every title
given Him in the scripture. None of the titles given to God is as
intimate as the name Father. If you have any questions about the kind of
Father God is remember Jesus cried out,
“Abba, Father!”
(Mark14:36)
Abba is a colloquial term of
endearment like the terms Papa or Daddy. When you pray
“Our Father”
you are saying God is your Daddy.
If you want the benefit of
intimacy with God when you pray, pray with your heart. When you pray,
pray by first acknowledging who God is and what kind of God He is,
“Our Father…”
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