Week of 12/29/96

Give us this day our daily bread.

(Matthew 6:11)

Again this week we are continuing with a study of the Lord's Prayer. You might want to read the past three weeks' articles when you have time, for a look at Father, praise, kingdom and will. The only thing I will keep repeating is that this prayer is intended as a model or outline to show us how to pray. The verse is still in red, which means Jesus is still talking.

If you are constantly doubting whether God really wants to provide for you and as a result spend your time worrying about how you're going to get by, you might want to tattoo this verse across your forehead (or at least stick it on the fridge). Jesus would not have told us to ask for something the Father was unwilling to give us. He didn't get up from the crowd at His feet and walk away wondering if He should have put that part about "daily bread" in His sermon. He told us what the Father told Him. This is the Father's will for us. In fact, He considered it so important He tells us to ask for it before we even ask for forgiveness.

Look at this verse closely. The first word is give, not please. Not please please oh God please. This is what is called "boldly approaching the throne of grace". It is not disrespectful, but confident. It's Jesus' confidence in His Father and our's. It is acknowledging God as our Source. And we want it now, this day, not the day after tomorrow. This is our daily bread, what we need for this moment to sustain us til the next day dawns.

While I am a serious believer in the sowing and reaping principle of increase and abundance, this isn't it. This is covenant. This is what a father does for his children simply because they are his children. Did the Israelites sow manna? No, in fact they weren't even being particularly good kids at the time. Yet God had them go out every morning and gather their daily bread. He met their need for that day. Then the next day they had to do it again. If they tried to store the manna up for the next day it would stink and become wormy (Exodus 16:20).

So it is with us. We should ask (and expect) God to meet our need every day. He wants us to come to Him daily and ask Him to be our Source, whether we're in need at that moment or not. You should do this whether you're the billionaire head of some Fortune 500 company or a part-time babysitter. You still need to reinforce that covenant relationship. Otherwise it will stink and become wormy (Sorry, I couldn't help myself).

Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

(Matthew 6:10)

Today we are continuing with a study of the Lord's Prayer. You might want to read the past two weeks' articles because I won't be doing any backtracking. The only thing I want to say again is that this prayer is intended as a model or outline to show us how to pray. You'll notice also that the verse is in red because Jesus is speaking. This is what you call "expert advice".

The first thing we are instructed to ask for is God's rule to be established here on earth and in our lives personally. In some ways we have already obtained this. Jesus said the kingdom of God was within us (Luke 17:21), so obviously it's not far away. Yet that doesn't mean we are allowing God to rule as King in our lives. Paul said that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). It seems to me that if these three kingdom benefits are not present in our lives, God is not ruling. While that might sound kind of harsh, I know this to be true for me. Any time I lose my sense of righteousness in Christ, anxiety overtakes me and my joy evaporates, I can be sure I've once again usurped the throne. Unfortunately, God is not going to resist the man who would be king. He will not force His rule on us. If this has taught me anything over the years, it's that I make an exceedingly lousy king.

Next, we are told to ask for His will to done on earth just like it is being done in heaven. Think about that. God has no problem at all exercising His will in heaven. No one gets in His way. He does what He pleases, and it's all good. Now I don't know about you, but I'm on earth and I would like for Him to do the same thing right here, right now, in my life, every day. This must be possible or Jesus wouldn't have told us to ask for it. Of course it comes back to giving Him free reign. It means getting out of His way. It means walking by faith and also knowing what His will is. This is done by spending time with Him and knowing what His Word says. His will is clearly established for all time.

Also, please notice the difference between your will be done and if it be Your will. When you pray for God's will to be done and know what His will is for His children, you are praying from a position of authority and power. If you start your prayer with if it be Your will you might as well hang it up. Prayer is only effective when praying God's will. When you put that "if" in there it shows that you aren't quite sure who your Father is or what His Word says or if this prayer thing really works. Can you imagine your own child coming to you and saying, "Dad, is it alright with you if I eat today?" How about, "Would it be okay with you if I am successful?" Or maybe, "Gee, Dad, would you mind if I get over this flu, or would you like me to be sick just a little longer?' If your kid came up with questions like that you would probably wonder what you did wrong. God must sometimes feel the same way.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.

(Matthew 6:9)

Today we are beginning a study of the Lord's Prayer. Sadly, most of us are familiar to the point of numbness with these few verses. Therefore, try to imagine that you are reading them for the first time. Maybe then you will see the power and revelation that these few short lines can bring to your life.

First of all, remember that this is Jesus giving us instructions on How To Pray. As I said last week in the introduction to this study, this is intended to be an outline, a guide to building our prayers so that they will be effective. It is not a mantra that we repeat mindlessly over and over. Remember also that Jesus only said what He heard the Father say (John 8:26-29), so when He gives us instructions He's not guessing at what might work. Think about that as we go through this study. Every line in this prayer is there for a reason. Every idea is in a specific order for a reason. Jesus was not winging it.

The opening two words of this prayer changed the world forever. Jesus told us to call God Almighty, Lord of hosts, Creator of heaven and earth: Father. Our Father. To the people of His day, this was a radical concept. A few times in the Old Testament will you see God referred to as the Father but not in the way Jesus is using the word here. He is talking about an intimate, personal, parent-child relationship that had never existed before. He made it happen (see Rom. 8:15 and Gal. 4:6). No, God didn't change. We did. Through Jesus Christ's birth, death and resurrection we were given the privilege of calling God, literally, Daddy (Abba)! And Jesus Himself, the King of kings, Lord of lords, Lion of the tribe of Judah, became our big Brother (Rom. 8:29), as well as our Lord and Savior. No matter what family you were born into, you can be reborn into the most powerful, wealthiest and influential family the world will ever know.

In the next line, hallowed be Your name, we show that even though we have this family bond between us and the Father, we still reverence Him. We are approaching Him worshipfully and praising Him for who He is. This is not just respectful (and smart), but brings His presence, His intervention (Psalm22:3). I'll write more on this powerful subject later.

Now look at this. Isn't it interesting that Jesus has us praise God after we address Him? I would probably do it the other way around, you know, try to get on God's good side before saying anything at all. But Jesus has us simply say Our Father, and we have God's attention. No begging, no crawling, no "I'm not worthy". Just a child talking to his Father who loves him. Already.

This is what the New Testament, the New Covenant, brought us. Indeed it's the whole point. This is why Jesus lived and died on a lonely little planet instead of staying in heaven. This is why He endured thirty-three long years with folks like us. This was what kept Him going when they mocked Him, tortured Him and killed Him. He knew He was making us sons and daughters of God. He was giving us the right to say "our Father".

You have that right if Jesus is your Lord and Savior. Remember that when you pray. Remember who you are. Don't forget you're talking to your Father. He's delighted that you called.

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think they will be heard for their many words.

(Matthew 6:7)

These illuminating words are spoken during Jesus' discourse on prayer, leading up to what we call the Lord's Prayer. Our Savior continues with, "Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:" What follows is the Lord's Prayer, which most of us, if we've memorized any Scripture, have at least memorized this.

Over the next few Sundays I intend to take a close look at this prayer we all know by "heart" and hopefully bring out some points that may be fresh to you. For now, however, let's look at what the Lord is saying about prayer.

When talking about vain repetitions, Jesus is not referring to repeating a request, because we know that there are times when this is proper and indeed necessary (Luke 18:3-8). What He is referring to is the mind-numbing, Spirit-quenching babbling and chanting that was part of so many religions of His day and continues even now. The point He is making is that God is neither hard of hearing nor stupid. While this shouldn't be a major revelation to anyone, many of us seem to forget this from time to time. We try to impress the Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, with our words. We think we can trick God into answering us by reciting prayer recipes and Christian algebra. It doesn't work. Prayer that comes from the heart as opposed to prayer we know by heart is the only kind that works (changes things).

Jesus goes on to remind us that the Father actually knows what we need before we ask. Again, why should this be news to anyone? Yet we forget this, too, and as a result we whine and beg and cry out to God as if He didn't have a clue as to what's going on down here. Considering that God is omniscient, to start your prayers by insulting Him is probably not going to get Him moving on your behalf.

So to put an end to this foolishness, Jesus gives us an outline to use when praying. I say outline because He told us in this manner, pray. He didn't say to memorize this and repeat it anytime you can't think of anything else to say. And He certainly never intended for it to be used as a form of ritual punishment to be repeated ad nauseum til it becomes mind-numbing, Spirit-quenching babbling and chanting (see vain repetitions). It is the key to a successful prayer life. It is the very heart of Christ.

Jesus knows how to pray. He wants our prayer life to be every bit as effective as His was (and is). That's why He sat down on a rock one day and told us how to do it. Isn't it time we listened?.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.

(Psalm 100:4)

Since last Thursday was Thanksgiving, I felt that I should write about giving thanks. Original, huh? I began to look through all the Scriptures I could find on thanksgiving and something suddenly hit me. Like everything else God has instructed us to do, directing our thanks to Him benefits us.

Take this verse from Psalm 100 that began today's message. Like me you've probably heard it a thousand times. What do you see? A commandment? Several Tupperware containers? Or could it be that this is inside information on how to get inside the Father's gates and into the safety of His inner court? That's what I believe. In other words, To enter His gates, thank Him. To get into the heart of His presence, praise Him. This puts you in a place of total security, peace and joy. Why? Because there's one guy who doesn't know the passwords and isn't getting in.

Here's a rather weird example of this in action. Last week I had a nightmare. I don't need to go into detail but it was one of those really stupid dreams where everything is going wrong. As the situation went from bad to dear God get me out of here, I felt myself being overwhelmed with uncontrollable terror. I ran to my car to get away only to discover that it had been sabotaged. As I turned the key, oil and all sorts of gunk started to fly up all over the place and I was covered from head to toe with black slime. There was no escape. Now here's the weird part. I started shouting thanks to God and praising Him in my dream. All the terror immediately left me and I woke up laughing. What the enemy meant as a torment (I hadn't eaten any pizza) became a testimony.

This even works when you're awake. The grimmer the situation, the more you should thank and praise God. The enemy hates this more than anything you can do. When you're sick and you start thanking and praising God for healing you when you still ache all over, the devil knows he has lost another round. You're entering into the presence of God where there is no sickness, no pain and no fear. All the devil can do is wait for you to come back out.

It's crucial to remember this: God is not a taker, He's a giver. He does not need our thanks and praise to feel good about Himself, any more than He needs our tithes and offerings to pay His bills. All these things that He asks us to do are for our benefit. They bring His power, His presence and His blessing into our lives. Certainly you don't pray and expect nothing to happen (You don't, do you?). Then don't approach the Father with thanks and praise and expect nothing. Expect His presence.

Try this experiment. When you wake up tomorrow morning, say, "Thank You, Father." Do it before your feet hit the floor. As you go through your day, make your mind up to keep thanking Him, no matter what happens. Yes, this will frustrate the devil something awful, but don't worry. He'll find someone else to bother.