Oct 30 - Matthew 6:9

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.”

He said to them,

"When you pray, say: 'Father,

hallowed be your name,'

Luke 11:1-2

Jesus said,

"Pray then in this way:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name."

Matthew 6:9

The Lord's Prayer can be found in both the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. In the next few days, we'll cover Jesus' words as recorded in Matthew in our month-long survey of the Sermon on the Mount. 

But ... I couldn't resist starting here with the disciples' lead-in question that Luke thankfully recorded: "Lord, teach us to pray."

Let that be our rallying cry for these next few days. "Lord, teach us to pray."

And so the Lord did. He gave us what we call the Lord's Prayer. 

Many churches and many people say this prayer word for word. That's a very good thing – especially when we mean it word for word ... rather than just saying it out of rote and routine.

But most scholars believe that Jesus was not offering us a prayer to be read word for word. Rather most see this as a pattern for prayer. Must see this as teaching us the general categories to make sure we pray for if we want to grow our relationship with our Father who art in heaven. 

And it starts with those words: "Our Father in heaven."

Those were radical words. Blasphemous words. How dare someone call the Lord God Almighty their Father unless they really were the Son of God!

With this prayer, Jesus was claiming his divinity. But then he did something remarkable: He gave us the same access to the Father in heaven.

No, we are not THE Son of God ... but we are sons and daughters of God. And as children of God we have the right to come to the Lord God Almighty in personal relationship. We have the trust to talk to him as Abba, Father, Daddy. 

Jesus promised us this kind of relationship through this prayer. And it was radical. And wonderful.

Right now, try spending a few minutes talking to God as your Dad.

In Christ's Love,

a guy who acts like a child

(a child of the King)