Sunday, February 10, 2019 -
I did not begin the “tradition,” I believe it was the idea of my cellmate. But every evening when the five of us meet for prayer right after the 9 pm count, we close it by reciting the Lord’s Prayer together, very loudly! It was so interesting then, that today I read this analytic look at the Lord’s Prayer by Richard Stearns, the principle example of prayer given to us by Jesus.
“1). Acknowledging Who He Is: Our Father, who are art in heaven…In other words, He is God and we are not. We acknowledge His power and authority in our lives. In my GPS metaphor (you’ll have to read the book “Unfinished), this is where we seek to acquire the satellite by appealing to the almighty and all-knowing God.
2) Affirming His Agenda: Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Here we are affirming that we are committed to his kingdom agenda and submitted to His will for our lives; Thy will, not my will. This is our pledge to embrace His agenda and not our own. His destination becomes our destination.
3) Asking For His Help: Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. We are asking Him to provide what we will need for the journey. Since we have forsaken our own pursuit of money, power, and success, we will need to depend on Him to provide those things. He must now put the gas in our tank. We also ask Him to forgive our sins and our bad driving and to give us the grace to do the same for others. And finally, we ask Him to lead us; give us the driving directions that will help us avoid temptations and protect us from evil. Tie us to the mast, Lord. Help us avoid these pitfalls as we seek to embrace Your will for our lives.”
Comentarios