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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for collecting daily manna), make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Thursday, March 02, 2017
Today's Passage : Subject :Sermon on the Mount - The Lord’s Prayer Bible Verse :Matthew 6:9-15 (KJV) "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. " Message:
Having told us not to use vain repetitions, Christ then gives us His model prayer which, ironically, is probably more often said as an automatic, routine, desultory prayer than any other in Christendom. Most of us know it so well that we can say it while working a crossword puzzle. Instead of a message to change our hearts, we often just run through it, perhaps letting a couple of high spots sink into our consciousness a little.
We are going to take the time, starting Monday, to go through it line by line, exploring all the interesting and illuminating subtleties of the prayer; and thus, hopefully, we will be enriched every time we say it, and not be tempted to rush through it.
A more fitting name for it would be “The Disciples' Prayer”, as both the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-2) and, even more strongly, the account of it in Luke (Luke 11:1-4) set it in the context of Jesus teaching His apostles. Although we have a multitude sitting and trying to hear in Matthew, the entire Sermon is more specifically a lecture for future teachers. These are the men who will go off on their own to spread the good news, first traveling short distances in pairs during Christ's life, and more importantly, traveling far and wide after His death and resurrection.
It is not primarily a child's prayer, or a prayer to convert nonbelievers, or a family prayer. It is primarily a prayer for the devout, for those who have been reborn in Christ. In other words, it can only be effectively prayed by those who understand what they are saying, both in their mind and in their heart. It is densely worded and, in several spots, difficult to understand fully.
The prayer has three parts. The first deals with God Himself and our wish to be united with Him in proper relationship. The second is intercessory, for our own needs to be met, and itself has three subparts. If you examine them closely, you will notice that each seems to invoke a different person of God. Our daily bread, implicating the earth and its creation, speaks to the Father, the Creator; our forgiveness, to the Son; our resisting temptation, to the Holy Spirit.
The last section also divides into thirds, each addressing a different aspect of God's greatness: God as King, that is, the maker of laws and the judge of all persons; God as Creator, by whose will all thing were made and are sustained; and God the object of our adoration, the God who is worthy of praise above all else in the world.
In the short footnote Christ references and reiterates the difficult teaching earlier: “love your enemies, bless those who curse you . . .”
Meditation : Prayer : As I travel through the rest of my day, may the God of hope fill me with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit I may abound in hope. Amen. |
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