There’s likely no more famous prayer than the one spoken by Jesus when his disciples asked if he’d teach them how to pray. You likely know the one.
How often do you use it yourself?
N.T. Wright’s words got my attention this week. In speaking of this prayer, he said…
The prayer is therefore a way of saying to the Father: Jesus has (in the image he himself used) caught me in the net of his good news. The prayer says: I want to be part of his kingdom-movement. I find myself drawn into his heaven-on-earth way of living. I want to be part of his bread-for-the-world agenda, for myself and for others. I need forgiveness fro myself–from sin, from debt, from every weight around my neck–and I intend to live with forgiveness in my heart in my own dealings with others. (Notice how remarkable it is that, at the heart of the prayer, we commit ourselves to live in a particular way, a way we find difficult.) And because I live in the real world, where evil is still powerful, I need protecting and rescuing. And, in and through it all, I acknowledge and celebrate the Father’s kingdom, power, and glory.
Yeah, I should use that prayer more often.
We’ve heard the Lord’s Prayer so often we make it commonplace. But when it gets rephrased in that manner as Wright as so eloquently done I realize that the prayer is important and in that way is complete in all aspects of prayer.
How I wish I have the strength to pray that prayer and really mean it from the heart.
i won’t try to present this in a guise of holiness, but actually, it seems like this prayer comes out almost every time i pray. which isn’t that much. but this prayer has become very important to me.
sometimes it is such a comfort. but sometimes it tastes so bitter in my mouth. when i’m particularly discouraged, its so hard to get out the words, “Your kingdom come, your will be done.” it feels at times like an impossible thing to ask, and it’s important to actually get the words out.
alright, maybe more later, gotta go.
thanks j