Kingdom's Keys Fellowship
Where God's Kingdom Meets Man's Heart.
In and Within 6 From Recitation to Reality
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
Some questions to ask before we get into it:
What does it say about the Father?
What does it say about the world?
What does it say about us, who we are, where we are, what we do and where we are going?
Until the next, may God bless your ‘in and within’ exploration.
This is where we left off last time. Did you let these questions sink in? The reason I ask is because the very depth to which this prayer is intended to take us can never be reached in the manner it has been used over the centuries. Having become a rote prayer it is recited in a way that neglects the Lord’s purpose in it. Over time it has been used like a rabbit’s foot, a magic amulet for protection and a verbal escape hatch in the midst of fear. In worship services it becomes a quick summary for what has gone before it. Then, considering it is called the ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ (a human conclusion), we can be easily persuaded to think it possesses a mystical quality that can secure us and make us feel good after its recitation. Just by naming this set of verses a prayer changes their nature and intent. There is no indication from Scripture that Jesus meant for us to use these verses any differently than the rest of Scripture.
On the contrary the Lord’s Prayer is a set of teaching principles on prayer. They take us into the presence of the Father. They, like the Psalms, are a meditating experience, a word-by-word, phrase-by-phrase mind and heart opener. Yes, a recitation of principles can keep us centered but their collective purpose is to bring our minds and hearts into a deeper and more mature relationship with our Heavenly Father. They are designed to encourage our relational dependence on Him, to let Him mold who we are as He moves His Spirit in us and then to share the wisdom and maturity gained from those principles with others. Could it be that what we have done to the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ is to quench its real purpose? Isn’t it rather a set of prayer principles that provide us with a pattern to come closer to the Father and He to us?
Look at the context. Jesus is contrasting hypocritical religious behavior and personal spiritual humility before God. “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full (Mt.6:5)…And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think 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 (vs.7).” Jesus is teaching about prayer as a personal experience. It is not recitation but principled step-by-step withdrawal of self into the presence of the Father. Thus He embeds His instruction to retreat in between these two verses, the first, impressing others and the second, impressing one’s self. Perhaps, more to the point, the first is deceiving others and the second is self-deceit. So when Jesus teaches that we should get personally honest with God He has two confronting verses that get us in touch with our motivations when we are ‘out and about’ (vs.5) and then reminding us when we are willing to go ‘in and within’ (vs.7).
Jesus is teaching that to be with the Father is a special time. We retreat from the world outside and go within the rooms of our mind, heart and spirit. That takes deliberate effort to set aside a time for external to internal shifting to allow an internal probing by the Spirit. It is opening ourselves to intimacy with the Father as we align ourselves with Jesus in the comfort of the Spirit. “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (vs.7).”
Next, into the principles.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
Some questions to ask before we get into it:
What does it say about the Father?
What does it say about the world?
What does it say about us, who we are, where we are, what we do and where we are going?
Until the next, may God bless your ‘in and within’ exploration.
This is where we left off last time. Did you let these questions sink in? The reason I ask is because the very depth to which this prayer is intended to take us can never be reached in the manner it has been used over the centuries. Having become a rote prayer it is recited in a way that neglects the Lord’s purpose in it. Over time it has been used like a rabbit’s foot, a magic amulet for protection and a verbal escape hatch in the midst of fear. In worship services it becomes a quick summary for what has gone before it. Then, considering it is called the ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ (a human conclusion), we can be easily persuaded to think it possesses a mystical quality that can secure us and make us feel good after its recitation. Just by naming this set of verses a prayer changes their nature and intent. There is no indication from Scripture that Jesus meant for us to use these verses any differently than the rest of Scripture.
On the contrary the Lord’s Prayer is a set of teaching principles on prayer. They take us into the presence of the Father. They, like the Psalms, are a meditating experience, a word-by-word, phrase-by-phrase mind and heart opener. Yes, a recitation of principles can keep us centered but their collective purpose is to bring our minds and hearts into a deeper and more mature relationship with our Heavenly Father. They are designed to encourage our relational dependence on Him, to let Him mold who we are as He moves His Spirit in us and then to share the wisdom and maturity gained from those principles with others. Could it be that what we have done to the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ is to quench its real purpose? Isn’t it rather a set of prayer principles that provide us with a pattern to come closer to the Father and He to us?
Look at the context. Jesus is contrasting hypocritical religious behavior and personal spiritual humility before God. “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full (Mt.6:5)…And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think 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 (vs.7).” Jesus is teaching about prayer as a personal experience. It is not recitation but principled step-by-step withdrawal of self into the presence of the Father. Thus He embeds His instruction to retreat in between these two verses, the first, impressing others and the second, impressing one’s self. Perhaps, more to the point, the first is deceiving others and the second is self-deceit. So when Jesus teaches that we should get personally honest with God He has two confronting verses that get us in touch with our motivations when we are ‘out and about’ (vs.5) and then reminding us when we are willing to go ‘in and within’ (vs.7).
Jesus is teaching that to be with the Father is a special time. We retreat from the world outside and go within the rooms of our mind, heart and spirit. That takes deliberate effort to set aside a time for external to internal shifting to allow an internal probing by the Spirit. It is opening ourselves to intimacy with the Father as we align ourselves with Jesus in the comfort of the Spirit. “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (vs.7).”
Next, into the principles.
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