WATCHWORD:
1 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.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”
9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Luke 11:1-4,9-10
Meditation:
Our Father Who Art…
It seems like every church service that I attend has the congregation recite the Lord’s Prayer. I say “recite” because, even though the prayer is printed in the bulletin, we tend to recite it by memory. We just rattled it off, too often without thinking, because it’s so familiar to us.
Even though this prayer was given to the disciples as an outline of how they should talk with God, nevertheless, there it is and I’m left with wondering how meaningful it is for us to simply recite. The disciples had asked him to teach them how to pray. And what he gave them was what to include, not what specifically they should say. I think too often we see the Lord’s Prayer as THE prayer and everything else is secondary, maybe even conversation.
But wait, that’s an important point, conversation with the Almighty. Until Jesus came among us, nothing that we had read in the ancient scrolls allowed any kind of approach to the Almighty. Now here was Jesus telling us that we should come to the Father. Our Father, as if we are His children. Radical! Unknown before. How amazing it is for us to be able to come to the Father! You and me, directly, not through a mediator, not a priest, just directly to our Father.
But Jesus did not stop there, He emphasized that direct access to The Father, opened the door to the “Ask”, bringing your needs, even your wants, to the Father, and ask Him to provide. No wonder, for those disciples, it was revolutionary.
What about us? In our prayer life has it become so commonplace, that speaking to God, the God who created everything, the Almighty, is no big deal? I wonder. In our morning prayers, are we respectful? Do we realize who we are speaking to? Do we give Him all the praise and honor? Very essential.
I would confess, I rarely use the Our Father Prayer in my morning time with Him. It’s more common for me to say Lord, or Father, sometimes Creator God. I would think that you, reading this, like me, would pray as if you are carrying on a conversation with someone very close to you. This is a sacred kind of familiarity, that I can only imagine that Our Father finds very good, for He, Himself, opened that door for us. Our Father stands at the door, the open door, for us! Amen.
Bulletin Board:
Religion in its humility restores man to his only dignity, the courage to live by grace. George Santayana
Closing Prayer:
Let us say the Lord’s Prayer. I’ll not provide the words because you know it so well. Go in Peace, serve Our Father. Amen.
