The Lord's Prayer

THE LORD'S PRAYER

"This, then, is how you should pray: "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. Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For it you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." Matthew 6:9-14

Two key parts of Matthew 6 are the words of this prayer outline, and the words that precede them. "This, then, is how you should pray." Jesus gave these words as a structured outline of how all people should seek Our Lord God in prayer. How we are to esteem Him in hallowed reverence.
In our lives, thoughts and finally the words that come out of our mouth.
That everything we say shall be edifying and all our conversations will be holy and pleasing to Him. Our desire to have a relationship with God should pour out from our heart into our words.

God knows our desires and our needs. So when we petition Our Lord in prayer we must remove anything that offends Him out of our heart and allow Him to reign there supreme. God requires that we be specific, to list things and people by their names one by one. That we appeal to His sovereignty with a sense of urgency. To be in constant remembrance that He created us for His pleasure and not to let anything come between this divine communion.

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord teach us to pray just as John taught His disciples." (Luke 11:1) Because they had seen Jesus do this, they also wanted to. Jesus took their initial interest and gave them a model to follow. He shared with them spiritual principles on confession, praise, thanksgiving, intercession and petition. We follow these same principles today in our walk with God. We can waste a lot of precious time away from the presence of God. By getting ready to pray, finding the time, getting in the right frame of mind and then reading books on prayer. But sooner or later - WE MUST PRAY! We must humble ourselves and cry out to Our Lord for help, mercy and forgiveness.

Our Father has given all power unto His Son and if we ask in the name of Jesus, He will give it. We must pray in Jesus' name - as standing in His place - fully identified with Him - asking by virtue of our very union with Him. When we truly ask in the name of Christ, He is the real petitioner. When we plead before God the merits of His Blessed Son, He looks past us and sees His Son as the true recipient. When we pray like this we demonstrate our total dependence and confidence in God. There are many places in the New Testament Jesus shows us that constant prayer is mandatory in order to live a victorious Christian life. Paul exhorts us to "pray continually." (I Thess. 5:17) Peter declares he gave himself over "continually to prayer." (Acts 6:4) Jesus teaches us that in order for our prayers to be effective, we must be diligent, fixing our eyes on Christ, so that all our prayers begin with, are directed by, and received by God alone.

When all they mercies, O my God,

My rising soul surveys,

Transported with the view, I'm lost

In wonder, love and praise - Joseph Addison

Today's Freedom Fighter was written by Chris Connors, a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and our Director of Housekeeping.

Great Quote: "I don't have a hard time believing the Gospel is true...for you. God loves you and accepts you and wants to do good to you. The problem is, I have such a hard time believing it's true for me. Luther nailed it when he said that we are born with an inborn suspicion that God is not for us. Like a bass note in a terrific song, I battle almost daily the constant thumping that because of my failures, sins, and selfishness, I do not have God's favor. He seems to be never satisfied. So what is the answer? How do I keep on keeping on? The life and death of Jesus tells me that the lie is just that, a lie. God is satisfied because He was satisfied with Jesus; and I am in Him and He is in me. That's the antidote to the inborn suspicion-the Father is for me, because of the cross of Jesus. So daily, it's a fight of faith; to believe the Gospel is true for me." Tom Wood