Today's Word - "Father"
When his disciples asked Jesus how to pray (Luke 11:1), this is what He said;
"This, then, is how you should pray:
'Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.' " Matthew 6:9-13(NLT)
Note: Periodically I will present the Lord’s Prayer in a different translation. Most of us know it from the King James translation (KJV) of 1611. Last week’s translation was the New International Version (NIV). Today’s version is the New Living Translation (NLT) which uses the contemporary language of Kenneth Taylor’s paraphrase, The Living Bible (TLB). I am hoping that doing this will help you to connect with the prayer in a new, fresh, and thoughtful way.
Reflection
I think it is astonishing and life transforming to think that you are in reality a son or a daughter of God.
Think about it. If I spend most of my life not knowing who my father is and wondering what’s “in me” genetically an otherwise and then I suddenly discover that my father is not only alive, but that he’s been searching the world for me, that would do something to me. Then, when I discover that my father is this highly competent leader with abilities beyond anything I’ve ever known, and that I have that very same DNA then suddenly I begin to view myself differently. And when I discover that His resources are unlimited and that I have access to them, suddenly the world opens up to me in a new way. And when I find out that I have a huge extended family who also have Father’s likeness, then a whole new world of “our” (as in “Our Father”) opens up as well.
And there is this one other thing too. When I discover not only all of the above, but then discover that my Father is still alive and present, albeit in a non visible way, and that He communicates to me about how to “live out” this reality in the real (but broken) world He made, then I realize that I get to be mentored, taught, trained, rebuilt into this new person (2 Corinthians 5:17). I discover that I have a father who wants to teach me how to “live into” who I actually am and into how to “live out” a life actually works this world that He made.
As you pray today take some time to reflect on the implications of this for how you “do” your life.
Prayer
“Lord perhaps the news that I am a daughter or son of yours seems to too good or too far “out there” to be true. But since the record of who you are (the Bible) tells me it’s true, I ask your help to believe it and to allow that belief to direct me today. This I pray. Amen”
I have been fretting over spending money to have my car fixed, vs. trying to fix it myself. I need to get it fixed quickly (and done right) as I need to drive to North Carolina next week. Today's "Pastor's Reflection" has help me feel better about spending the extra money to have a mechanic do the work. God will provide for all my needs according to His riches in Glory!!
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, in re-studying the Lord's Prayer, I found it is only in Matthew and Luke.
ReplyDeleteMatthew has "OUR Father" and Luke has just "Father".
But, the point is made this way in Luke (who always seems to look at things more relational to me).
The Lord's Prayer came about because the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray "just as John (the Baptist) taught his disciples to pray".
Sibling Rivalry?
John the Baptist came preaching the coming of Christ. Christ was with them, yet they were still looking at the "crowd over there" as some type of competition.
Jesus gathered them into reality with reminding them that we are all ONE. As the prayer goes on we see this proven and played out. But, for now, either way we look at it, "Father" or Our Father" , Jesus was telling the disciples, there is no 'us and them'. We all are one under the Father.
Not only can Christians become compartmentalized individually, we are, sad to say, this very thing corporately as well.
Unity was Jesus' purpose and is tenderly and lovingly seen in John 17 through his own prayers to the Father.
Jesus, help us to tear down the walls, to be the family you have designed for us to be. Bind us together, Lord with chords of love and grace.