Live by the Spirit (7) - Our Father

The final message in this series takes us back to a Jesus team basic. This prayer was taught by Jesus to the twelve but also to his disciples and believers.

Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be 
Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done, 
on earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our 
daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we 
forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us 
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. (traditional version)

If you have been around Christians awhile you will be aware that this prayer is part of the scenery of Church life but each time we say it we should try our best and hear ourselves saying it for the first time. Why? Because if Jesus taught us to say it daily it is important. The reason is that for the serious disciple it is an aide memoir to help us consistently remember the component parts of prayer. And so! Next time you say or hear it I want the words TEAM PRAYER to flash into your mind. And savour its wisdom and meaning. It is for meditation and for saying daily. Lets's have a look why.

Our Father, Who art in Heaven - reminds us that our life comes from God. Our dad in heaven - perfect father to us. Our dad like earthly dads is greater than us his children. Perfectly loving us (unlike our fallible earthly dads). This opening phrase reminds us where we are in the relationship. That God is greater than us. That as author of our lives he is greater and more knowledgeable about us. We should enter prayer with that thought.

Hallowed be Thy Name - These days we would say "Holy is your name" - A reminder that there is power in the God's name. As it says in the Acts of the Apostles, there is no other name by which we can be saved. As followers Jesus wants us to have that thought always before us.

Thy Kingdom come - We are here to build your Kingdom here on earth. As Kingdom builders we yearn for  it's coming fully to our neighbourhood. We will do us best to enable it! Not hinder it!

Thy Will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven - There is no point ever, and I mean ever, praying for something that is against God's will. If we desire something illicit we need to ask God to convert our heart. We align ourselves with his will.

Give us this day our daily bread - We ask God to provide for our needs, through our labour, daily. Notice it doesn't mention a Porsche! Just bread.... asking God that we always have the daily necessaries.

 Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation -  A reminder to live in daily repentance. Daily we have to forgive others and receive their forgiveness. Very necessary in family life. In our immediate family and beyond where would we be without this! No long held grudges are allowed in the Christian life. If you have one lurking in your life surrender it today!

....but deliver us from evil. A reminder that God is more powerful than any evil we will encounter in our daily life. Stronger than the darkness we encounter.

For meditation:

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
Jesus said to them, 
“When you pray, say this:
‘Father: May your holy name be honored; may your Kingdom come.
Give us day by day the food we need.
Forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone who does us wrong.
And do not bring us to hard testing.’”
And Jesus said to his disciples, “Suppose one of you should go to a friend's house at midnight and say, ‘Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread.  A friend of mine who is on a trip has just come to my house, and I don't have any food for him!’  And suppose your friend should answer from inside, ‘Don't bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.’  Well, what then? I tell you that even if he will not get up and give you the bread because you are his friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not ashamed to keep on asking.  And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. Luke 11:1-9 GNT

Dear Lord, open our hearts in prayer. Let your Spirit come in to teach us! Amen

God delights in showing mercy

One of my preoccupations since I moved to Ipswich is which rubbish bin I should put out on a Monday evening. I always have to look it up as I can never remember whether to put my black or blue bin out.

Do you ever wonder what it would be like if we could de-junk our personal lives from the burdens that we carry? Wouldn't it be lovely to be able to put our emotional baggage out for collection?

Some of that feeling we have of emotional baggage comes from having unresolved sin in our lives. I want you to listen to some words from the prophet Micah that reveal a wonderful image of God. Here they are:

"What god can compare with you: taking fault away, pardoning crime, not cherishing anger for ever but delighting in showing mercy? Once more have pity on us, tread down our faults, to the bottom of the sea throw all our sins. Grant Jacob your faithfulness, and Abraham your mercy, as you swore to our fathers from the days of long ago." JB

That sounds like a God that cares for us and wants us to succeed doesn't it? And what a beautiful image "tread down our faults to the bottom of the sea."

Before we go further with that thought we need to ask ourselves what is sin? In the original language of the NewTestament the Greek word 'hamartia' is used. Literally translated this means to 'miss the mark.' Sin is when we deliberately choose to miss the mark. Where we deliberately choose a bad action instead of a good or neutral action. Another way of looking at it is that sin is when we choose to be unloving in the way we act. Now there are various levels of harm caused by sin. A major,or grave, one would be to murder someone. Obviously the harm in that is collosal. A minor sin in comparison is when we tell a white lie. But even that has a knock on effect.

St Paul says that sin unchecked leads to death. I believe that he means spiritual death but he might equally be warning of physical death. We can quite see that the cumulative results of a series of negative actions could lead us into the sort of angry conflict where death ensues. Sometimes inevitably one evil thing leads to another.

Some sins break national laws as well as spiritual laws. It is worth us thinking about the following passage from St Paul "The commandments... are summed up in the one command, "Love your neighbour as you love yourself." If you love someone you will never do them wrong; to love then is to obey the whole law." Romans 13:10 - Surely this means that love should be the yardstick by which we need to measure our actions?

The thing about the Christian faith is that it is about redemption. It doesn't lead us to an awareness of sin and then leave us 'high and dry' to wallow in our misery. God through Jesus offers us a new beginning. A way out of sin, a new way of forgiveness that comes from God.

God wants us to be happy and fulfilled people who have put darkness behind us. He can bring us to a stage where we are aware of our sins. When that happens we need to then turn to him and ask what we need to do put things right. It could be, for example, that we need to forgive someone or ask them to forgive us. That forgiveness then opens us to receiving God's forgiveness. The fact that we are trying to make amends allows a spiritual dynamic to happen.

Now the great thing is that we can access this grace gift at any time. We don't have to wait until the one day in two weeks when the bin men come. God comes out to meet us on the road and is prepared at any time to "tread down our faults to the bottom of the sea."

Dear Lord, help me to identify what in my life needs changing. Show me how that change can happen. Give me courage and insight to take the steps that I need to. Help me to bless and not to curse. To build and not to destroy. May your Spirit come to strengthen me, Amen