What a Life

GUARDING THE YARD: Terriers return offensive bite to lineup
August 21, 2007
August 23
August 23, 2007
GUARDING THE YARD: Terriers return offensive bite to lineup
August 21, 2007
August 23
August 23, 2007

Readers are constantly sending me religious inspirational e-mail messages. If they are worth keeping, I save them. If they are first class, I pass them onto family and friends. The ones I do not value, I delete.


What I cannot stand are the additions to some of these e-mail messages that try to intimidate me with predictions of evil things that will happen if I do not pass this message onto other people, or the ones that tell me how I will be blessed if I do send them. This is no more than superstition that ruins an otherwise good message.


When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, he did not give them (and us) a formula to pass onto others or else something bad might happen. He didn’t even give us a formula. If that were his intention, Matthew and Luke would have written down the same thing. They are a little different. The “Lord’s Prayer” or the “Our Father” contains our attitudes toward God and our life. Let’s look at this beautiful prayer a little closer.

Jesus started by saying, “Our Father.” He didn’t say “My Father,” he said “Our Father.” No one has a corner on God. All who believe have the same God and Father. We are all brothers and sisters in the Lord.


God is a spirit. A spirit is neither male nor female. Jesus often used female images of God. In this prayer he used the word “Abba” which can be translated “Daddy” to show our intimate relationship with our loving God. We can see the image of a young child crawling on his father’s lap asking for a favor.

The Matthew version of the Lord’s Prayer has six petitions, three are directed to God, three deal with life itself. The first petition asks that God’s name be always glorified – “hollowed be thy name.” For our ancestors, a person’s name stood for the person. When you used a person’s name in vain, you insulted the person. That is why one commandment is: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” We then pray that God’s kingdom will come. Where is God’s kingdom? God’s kingdom exists wherever God rules. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is among you.” (Luke 17:21) Are you living under God’s rule? Then God’s kingdom is there. Is your family living under God’s rule? Then God’s kingdom is present. We want to have the whole world under God’s rule. However, we have a long way to go. Keep praying.

Then we pray that God’s will, not our own, be established in our lives. When Jesus was praying in the Mount of Olives, he asked his Father to let him out this suffering. Then he added, “Not as I will but as you will.” The Bible tells us he prayed that way three different times. Then he knew he had to go through his crucifixion. How often do we make this our prayer – “Dear God, what is your will for me today.”

Then we pray for our daily bread. The word bread can have more than one meaning. We are praying for the nourishment we need to get us through this day. We never pray to win the lottery. That’s selfish. We rely on God every day for strength and grace to be the persons God wants us to be. We next pray for forgiveness that God will forgive us as we forgive others.

We need to let go of our hurts so we can be free. God forgives us as we forgive others. Scary? Lastly, we ask God to keep us from temptations. We all know the many temptations that keep us from doing God’s will. Lord, keep us focused on you.