Lord's Prayer

It is unbelievable how fascinating and powerful the Lord’s Prayer has been.  Numerous people over the years have used this prayer to invoke the mighty power of God to come into our very presence.  Yet, I have come to believe that even though many people pray this prayer; do not really know what it means.  Through a series of blogs that I am going to write I would like to focus on the Lord’s Prayer by looking at the Greek, what it means, and how it can be applied.  

I will not go into great depth but will only touch the surface of what it means because I believe that the Lord’s Prayer is not merely said to have communication with God, but so that His kingdom may be done through His people.

When looking at the beginning section of the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13 one would think that the Lord’s Prayer begins at “Our Father in heaven”, but I personally believe that it starts at “This, then, is how you should pray”.

To begin, the Greek text says, Ou{twV ou:n proseuvcesqe uJmei:V.  Now this may look weird but trust me this is really cool.  It is translated from the NIV as “This, then, is how you should pray”, where the NLT simply says, “Pray like this”.  I have come to translate this verse as “Therefore in this way you all must pray (!)”. 

The beginning word “therefore” (ou:n) points to what is said before this from verses 5-8.  After this most of this phrase comes from the one word proseuvcesqe which is translated as “you all must pray (!).  Why there is an exclamation point at that end is because Greek grammar calls this an Imperative which is defined as a “mood of command.”

From this understanding we can understand that Jesus, the one who is teaching how to pray, says “therefore” or “this, then” to indicate from the previous verse that you do not pray like the hypocrites (v.5).  But, prayer is supposed to be in your room, with the door closed and then pray!  My addition of the word “must” may not be accurate when looking at the original text, but Jesus sets the standard for how to pray and asks us to pray like this.

Prayer was an active part of Jesus’ life on earth, and he often left his disciples to go off somewhere else to pray.  Our lives get busy and hectic that we neglect our prayer life to God.  I do not believe saying this prayer is the only way to communicate to God, but prayer is important that he commanded his disciples to do. 

Prayer is not to be taken lightly, but is a sense of communication with God that we can have.  I encourage you if you have not taken the time to get away from the day to take time and pray.  Set time in your day to just sit and talk with God and ask Him to fill your day with His presence.  If you already do set aside time to pray I encourage you that it is not in vain, you may not see fruit of your prayers every day, but continue on.

Having Faith

It can be very hard to look at your day and see it as good.  Spiritually, emotionally, and physically our days can get rough and we do not know how to deal with them.  There are days,  however, were everything goes so well for us and nothing could go wrong.  Yet, there are other days were we wish we could just have them back and makes something better of them.  We want to be able to turn back the clocks and save that moment.
There are two solutions that I believe have become problematic when trying to solve our problems.  One, we blame others for the day.  We like to have the blame not on ourselves.  This happened in the beginning of the book of Genesis were Adam blamed Eve for giving him the fruit of the tree that they were commanded not to eat from (Gen. 3:12).  By this very example we like to live because it is not our faults that bad things are happening.
Another way that we like to try and solve our problems is by being optimistic of ourselves.  When a problem occurs in this persons life, they like to try and solve it on their own.  They do not want anyone's help and they try to set up "self-help" type solutions for their problems.  This allows them to be able to not have to tell anyone the bad things they have done.  This can leave a person in isolation and puts them in a rough spot. 
A couple of ways that I hope to bring to light as possible solutions to problems in life are through the following:
1) God created things that are good.  If you do not believe me, read the first chapter of Genesis.  Genesis speaks of a story of God that is created good.  God redeemed creation later by His Son who came to die on a cross that we may have hope.  This hope allows us to see the good of creation in the light that Jesus has brought to us.  God created the world as something good, it may be hard to see, but read over that first chapter and reflect on God's goodness and His creation that He offers us to participate in.
2) God created us for community.  Again, if you do not believe me read the Gospels.  Jesus was constantly with others and when he was not, he was in communication with God.  Jesus realized that he needed to rely on the Father to guide him, but he also needed to rely on his people, or the disciples, to follow him.  The disciples were in community with each other and Jesus.  Jesus became an example of how to live.  He taught them to become doers of the word.  These disciples shared with each other and were mentored by Jesus.
When pain and trouble come, it can be hard to look on the bright side of things.  The weight of the world may weigh so heavily on your shoulders that you want to isolate yourself or try to blame others for your problems.  You may fit one of these or you may not and may be dealing with something totally different.  But, hopefully this will encourage you to understand the goodness of creation and how every day is a gift that we can live in the hope of Christ that is lived out through community.  Be reliable on Christ and be accountable to one another.