As we move through the sermon series on The Lord’s Prayer I’ve asked you to pray it at least once each day, as a way of allowing God to shape you more closely into all God would have you be. I have also been praying it, apart from my sermon preparation, and have found it to be very challenging.
We talked Sunday about the difficult phrase “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” and how we don’t pray it because we believe it and mean it but because we don’t believe it and mean it. When I pray this phrase thoughtfully, with meaning, I realize how rebellious I am, and how little I want to give up life as I have defined it to move toward life as God has defined it for us in Jesus. I’m not really very good at loving my enemies, and blessing those who curse me, and praying for those who abuse me. When I read in Luke 5 about how Jesus said so simply to Simon and James and John, “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching people,” and they left EVERYTHING in response – their boats, their nets full of so many fish they couldn’t even bring them in, their families, their livelihoods – to follow him, I realize that my feeble “thy will be done” has many caveats. There’s a long list of things I might think I need to take care of before traipsing down the road behind my Jesus. And I’m not sure about living in a kingdom where I might have less in order that others might have more of what they need.
So I really NEED to pray this prayer.
How about you?
As you pray it daily please also pray for the families listed below, as we continue to move slowly through our directory. If we are faithful to this calling over time every family in our Gilbert family will be prayed for by hundreds of people. Pray that these families be drawn closer to the Lord who loves them, and more willing to show their love for Him by doing whatever He asks. Pray also for our whole church, that together we might be more willing to allow God’s will to be done in our midst. Finally, pray for the many persons who visited us this week, that they might find among us a place to deepen their faith and strengthen their spirits. Give thanks for the way God is moving among us to make us His own, in spite of us.
Blessings,
Pastor Deborah