Our Father

                                                


This Sunday, we begin a 6 week journey in which we will focus on the Lord's Prayer as the center of our worship time. The preaching series will be broken up into different portions of the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples from Matthew 6:

Our Father in heaven,
    hallowed be your name.
    Your kingdom come.
    Your will be done,
        on earth as it is in heaven.
     Give us this day our daily bread.
     And forgive us our debts,
        as we also have forgiven our debtors.
     And do not bring us to the time of trial,
        but rescue us from the evil one.

For thine is the kingdom, 

        and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

This, for all its different renditions and translations, unites all Christians.

Some of the differences include:

The phrase " And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" to "and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

The phrase "And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one" to "and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

However you pray this prayer, there is a completeness, a wholeness, to it. We address our God appropriately, pray for God's ways to be accomplished here on earth in our lives, for God to provide for us, forgive us, equip us to forgive others, and to save us for eternal life with God. All this is prayed because we believe that God can do these things, that God is powerful and loving enough to listen to us and accomplish these things.

The sermon series will be broken down like this:

1. Our Father 

2. Thy Kingdom Come 

3. Give us This Day Our Daily Bread 

4. Forgive us Our Trespasses (Debts)

5. Lead us Not Into Temptation    

6. For Thine Is 

  

My hope is that you will find these reflections and sermons as helpful in guiding you to a place where you would pray this prayer with intention. Christians are very good at doing and saying the same things over and over and forgetting the meaning behind these words and ways. The Lord's Prayer is not meant to be spoken and forgotten, but prayed and lived out with God in our daily lives. My hope and prayer is that you will find that this is one of the most radical and earth-shattering prayers you could you ever pray. When we pursue with God what we pray for in this Lord's Prayer, we are asking God to break through in this world with us. Nothing is more powerful than that. 

So, this first week we will look at the first phrase "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." 

The word "hallowed" means to honor as holy; to revere or respect. In this first phrase of the prayer, we are honoring, revering, and respecting God as our God, our Father. This is similar to calling your parents "ma'am" or "sir." You are saying to yourself and to God that you recognize who God is, one to be glorified. This sets the "tone" of the entire prayer!  

My challenge to you, and to myself, is to say the Lord's Prayer daily. Say each line slowly, and think about what you are praying. Let your prayer life flow in and through this prayer. This is the way Jesus taught his disciples to pray, perhaps we should take his advice!

Prayer:*

My prayer rises to heaven, to the mystery of God's power, 

as the smoke ascends when the precious incense urns.

Have mercy on us, Lord, and grant us your grace. 

My voice glorifies the Lord God of majesty, 

as the night bird sings the dawning of the day.

This is my offering to God, the Lord of all

*My Prayer Rises to Heaven (Refrain), United Methodist Hymnal, 498.

In Christ, 

Jack