Thursday, June 24, 2010

A PP'sPs About Prayer

Today's Texts: Proverbs 27-28, Deut. 27, Micah 3, Matt. 6:1-18

Today as I was reading, the passage that impacted me was the text from Matthew, specifically, the Lord's Prayer. I felt like God was leading me to really read each of the lines of the prayer and glorify Him for the His characteristics found there.

The word for Father in Aramaic is "Abba". This word carries a strong sense of closeness, or intimacy. God is our close dad and loving Father! This is in great contrast to the god of the Muslims, Allah, who is far away and cannot be known. One cannot have a relationship with Allah. Praise be to Yahweh, who is knowable and relatable!

The fact that Abba is in Heaven reminds us that He is still sovereign! He is still in control and sees and knows everything. Our God is Great and Mighty, yet intimate and loving! Awesome!

"Hallowed" is just a fancy word for Holy. His name is to be kept Holy because HE is Holy! He does everything exactly the way it's supposed to be. He is pure; He is perfect; He is Holy!

The only response for us in light of His Holy Sovereign Intimacy is humility. "Your will be done" is our only possible response and was modeled for us by Jesus himself in the Garden. But, it's only when we fully understand how awesome and Holy and Mighty and Close He is that we are able to submit our will to His. May we get there soon!

The final lines are evidence that our God is a providing God. He is able to meet our physical needs (daily bread) as well as our spiritual needs (forgiveness and holiness), further moving us to humility and praise.

It is my prayer that we will spend today considering the amazing attributes of God found in this perfect prayer. And after we have considered these, may we respond with complete humility and genuine praise.

Humble in Worship,

Josh

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