Our church is really focusing on the meaning of Lent. Its a time to evaluate our lives and be reminded of our dependence on God for everything.
This past Sunday I preached a sermon about what is commonly known as, The Lord's Prayer. I guess it could also be known as The Disciple's Prayer because it was a prayer that Jesus used to instruct his followers to pray. One of the things that I wanted to stress is that this prayer wasn't given as a formula just to recite over and over, but it was given to influence the content of prayer.
During the latter part of my preaching of this sermon I led the congregation in praying through this prayer. As I was doing this I began to be gripped by the power of what I was praying and I became very emotional. It was very hard to contain myself and I am sure I was quite the spectacle, but it didn't matter to me. In that moment I just wanted the congregation to sense how great our Heavenly Father is and how transformational his love and forgiveness can be in our lives.
Knowing him impacts everything. It impacts our values and decisions. It impacts the way we receive from him and the way we relate to others. I will never read or pray this prayer the same way again.
You can listen if you wanna. Go to PRAYER.
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There's a couple of things that stand out to me about "The Lord's Prayer". Jesus teaching not only the apostles how to pray, but us as well. one commentator said this helped the disciples, then and now, to seperate us/xianity from other religions. Moreover, the Lord's prayer/the form of it, is also intended to be a daily prayer; this is especially interesting when it comes to the part about sins. Keeing in mind that this is to be a daily prayer, it serves to remind those "holier than thou's" that we all sin every day and that no one is perfect and that we desperately need God's grace everyday. But it's also encouraging because God Himself was acknowledging the fact that He knows we are going to screw up everyday and He's understanding of that and is ready and willing to forgive. That's good news!
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