Father in Heaven

There is an amount of comfort that comes over you when you pray to the Father.

“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. "Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. - Matt. 6:7-15

There is a degree of trust in these words.  Jesus told us that we could pray, not to him, but to the Father directly.

It is a personal conversation between us and God.

We have learned how to say it, but do we think about the words when we do?

We acknowledge that God is in heaven and that the name of God is so precious, we don't even say it.

We pray for the coming of His Kingdom, even though we may be frightened or confused as to what that means.  It is obviously a good thing, that the kingdom comes here on earth as well as in heaven.

But we are giving up our will to God, and replacing it with God's will.  If it is your will that this kingdom be brought upon the earth, then we want it to happen.

There is a lot of trust involved here.

What we ask of God is to help us through this day and this day only, so we should be coming back to pray again tomorrow.

If we are good about forgiving others, then we would expect to be forgiven ourselves.  A little exchange of commitment to one another is going on here.

And there is one more thing we ask God to do for us.  That is to protect us from the evil one when the time comes that all will be judged.

Then Jesus tells his disciples once again to forgive others, if they want God to forgive them.

It packs a real punch, this short prayer, and it begs us to think about the words as we recite them.

So, maybe we should slow down when we pray.

More to come...