I probably shouldn’t have been surprised that it has taken a little longer to work though the Lord’s Prayer than I was initially expecting… after all, it is the most influential prayer ever uttered.
When Jesus gave the pattern for the prayer he was helping give his followers a guide to prayer, knowing that we all need to learn how to make God’s priorities our priorities and that growing as His followers is a journey.
As we have already found, Jesus starts the prayer by focussing on God and our relationship to him and then moves to us and what it means to live the kind of life that reflects our faith… and it turns out that Jesus wants us to know that we are in a spiritual battle where we will be tempted and that Satan will be working hard to steer us off course.
As if to underline the point Jesus finishes with a couple of lines about the profound nature of forgiveness and why it isn’t an optional extra for His followers.
If we take this prayer seriously everything changes. Let’s take it seriously.
Matt
Thanks Matt for a balanced response to some obviously unbalanced media (I attend a C3 church, and have for many years).
I take my hat off to church leaders and pastors in all Christian denominations – it can be hard yakka at times.
Keep the Faith, and go Citywide Baptist!
Thanks Robin