How to Use the Lord's Prayer

Thanks everyone for a great study through the Lord's Prayer!  I sure learned a lot and was challenged each week through your insight and discussion.  During our last session we reviewed some of what we had gone through regarding each phrase in the Lord's Prayer and then we talked about how are we to use the Lord's Prayer.

I think it is important to understand the Lord's Prayer in its context.  Jesus was teaching the disciples to pray this prayer as they went about traveling with him to continue his work - and it was intended to be said after their other daily prayers.  In other words, it isn't an all-encompassing prayer that should be prayed all the time.  Nor does the prayer include everything that we should pray for.  Since it is the Lord's Prayer we tend to think that if we aren't praying like this all the time then we are missing something.  

I told the group last night that I didn't want anyone to leave this study feeling guilty that they don't pray this prayer more often, or come away with the understanding that this is a formula for successful prayer.  We can learn from it, pray it, and allow it to guide our prayers, but it is not the end-all of prayers that all other prayers should follow.  I encourage all of you to find a variety of expressions of prayer, just as we find a variety of prayers in scripture (particularly the Psalms).

We also talked last night about what was most meaningful in our study.  What did you learn or what did we talk about that has really made a difference in your life, or encouraged you or challenged you?  Use this space to reflect on the past few weeks and share what God has done in your life.  

Lead us not into temptation

Tuesday was another great study.  Thanks for everyone's openness and honesty!  

We talked about the nature of temptation and this key question: Does God lead us into temptation?  That's a difficult question.  We had people land in different spots so I want to see where you land.  Have you thought more about it since Tuesday?  If you weren't able to join us, what do you think?  

One key point that came out about the prayer - we couldn't hardly pray, "Lord, lead me into temptation in order to prove myself righteous."  That is sort of like praying, "Hallowed be my name..." 

How does this truth continue to work in you?  Would anyone be brave enough to share ways that you are tempted and how are you able to overcome those temptations?  Use this space to continue to engage God's Word.

Lenten Journey

Emmaus Road,

Lent started off well with a great Ash Wednesday service.  God's presence was very real in the service - if you weren't there I would encourage you to be sure and make it next year!

Use this blog post to share your thoughts on the Lenten journey.  What are you fasting?  How is God filling you up as a result of you emptying yourself?  How is God speaking to you?  What questions do you have about Lent?

I will check back here regularly and I encourage you to do the same.  Let's journey together!

Forgive us our debts....

Thanks for a great discussion last night!  For those that might have missed, we talked about the nature of forgiveness.  At first it seems like forgiveness is conditional upon our ability to forgive others.  We looked at the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6:14-15 & Matthew 18:23-35.  None of us were very comfortable with a conditional forgiveness, so we ultimately landed on accepting forgiveness from God should form us in a forgiving heart.

We recognized, however, that forgiveness isn't always easy.  My particular argument was that while our forgiveness may not always come easy, for the Christian, it should be consistent.  We can be a forgiving people!  

One of the questions we asked that was never really answered was how to understand these passages in light of their direct language that points to a conditional forgiveness.  Use this space to react to that question, and share other thoughts / insights regarding this weeks study.  I look forward to hearing your comments!

Daily Bread

This past week we talked about what the petition, "give us this day our daily bread" could mean.  Our discussion led us to believe that it can (and does) mean a lot of things.  It is a prayer for basic needs, for Christ to fill us up, and a way of looking ahead to the wedding banquet of the Lamb.  

Is there one of these meanings that is particularly meaningful to you?  Have you gained any new insights this week?  How was the last session helpful to you?  How have you come to answer the question that was posed at the end of the session, "Can we petition God full of faith?"  In other words, can our prayer for daily bread be a confession of confidence that God will meet our basic needs?

Use this space to continue the conversation.  Allow God to continue to speak to you through the discussion here.

Thy Kingdom Come

We had a great discussion on the next phrase of the Lord's Prayer, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done."  Our discussion centered on this question: "What part (if any) do we play in God's Kingdom coming?"  

To help us out, we looked at 2 parables Jesus tells about the nature of the Kingdom.  In Mt. 13 he describes the Kingdom as a mustard seed and yeast.  We determined that although there is human involvement, the Kingdom grows and spreads all by itself.  For this reason some would believe that we have no involvement in God's Kingdom coming - our only job can be to pray and to wait.

We decided, however, that our role is one of embracing and collaborating.  We are called to embrace the reality of God's Kingdom and then collaborate with what God is already doing in the world to build His Kingdom.

We usually talk about the Kingdom in terms of building it, or advancing (in fact, this is often how I have talked about it).  However, the implicit posture behind language like "building" and "advancing" is that the Kingdom is up to me.  It is a prideful, and selfish way to live - to believe that I, with my own hands, can build God's Kingdom.  As though it were up to me.  Lord, forgive us when we believe that we are responsible or powerful enough to build your Kingdom by ourselves.

So, how can this truth be applied to our lives?  What does it mean to make the shift from building to embracing; from advancing to collaborating?  How do we discern the areas in which God is at work so we can join that work?  What further questions do you have about the nature of God's Kingdom?  Use this space to allow this discussion on the Kingdom to continue.

Thy Kingdom Come prep

This coming Tuesday we are going to look at the next phrase in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

If you know me, you know that I have an overblown theology of the Kingdom of God so for me this is a very significant part of the prayer.  In preparation for the study on Tuesday be thinking about the following:

-What does God's Kingdom look like?

-What would it look like for the Kingdom of God to come at your workplace, in your neighborhood, at CSU, Front Range, UNC?

-What are the implications of Jesus teaching us to pray for God's Kingdom to come?

-Similar to "hallowed be your name," do we have a part to play in the Kingdom coming, or is that up to God alone?  

Be thinking about these things, post comments if you would like.  I'll see you Tuesday!

Our Father in heaven....

I thought this week's Bible study went really well.  My goal in studying the Lord's Prayer is to new depth to this common prayer.  Understanding it's depth will also help us understand the value of praying this prayer (both corporately and personally).

I encourage you to use this space to bounce ideas off one another, and continue the conversation.  So, bookmark this page and leave comments on a regular basis.  Here is this week's topic of discussion:

Have you had further understanding of the opening words of the Lord's Prayer as a result of this week's study?  Have you found yourself praying, "hallowed be your name?"  Perhaps you have a thought you would like to add to what we talked about this week.  Let's hear it!