The Prayers We Pray

The Lord’s Prayer was given to us by Jesus as a template on how we should approach God and the content that should mark our conversation with Him. It also teaches us a lot about who we are and who God is.

That being the case, the Lord’s Prayer is an excellent mirror, reflecting the current state of your heart, not only in prayer, but in daily life.

Take fatherhood. Do you view God as your Father, or do you see Him as some frustrated Samaritan who’s fed up with helping the weak and needy and just about ready to quit helping you?

We ask that God’s Kingdom would come, but do we really want His law and His government on earth, as it is in heaven? Does our life already reflect life under His government, or are we being governed by the current culture and our own remaining sin?

Are we honouring Him with our hearts, seeing Him, the world, and ourselves, as He sees us? That is to say, the way things really are; or, are our deepest thoughts, hopes and prayers more like…

Our Generic Care Giver, in a galaxy, far, far way.
Handy is your name.
Your kingdom can wait, your will be done, in heaven, when we get there.

Give us a Porsche or first prize in an art contest, and ignore our daily lusts, as we take to court those who park across our driveway.
Keep us free from all trial and tribulation and deliver us from any inconvenience.

If this be your kingdom, then we are all in, forever and ever, amen.

I’d like to blame The Shack for this all-too-common state of affairs, but our distaste and dislike of fatherhood has been with us since Eden.

Nevertheless, the author, William Young, most certainly broadened the ways in which we could fool around with the character of God, and in a way that many Christians have embraced.

In a book clearly written to deal with the pain of fatherlessness, how does Young go about it? How does he go about reconciling the distance between our Heavenly Father and us? He makes God the Father, a large African American comfort Mamma who spends her days baking comfort food.

But God is a Father. He is the ideal father. The Father to whom all other fathers should look, and the one Father we need to reconcile with more than any other.

And true repentance and true salvation mean reconciliation with this Father and not a father of our own imagination.

The Apostle Paul said that God was not far from every one of us and that in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

But it follows, that if we don’t much honour fatherhood, then it suits us to keep God at a reasonable distance.

And so, while we acknowledge Him on Sundays, we find Him absent from our many thoughts day to day, moment to moment. For many, God has not only become distant but silent.

And when we do call upon Him, is it in the form of a maid and not that of a holy God who thunders from heaven to scatter those who would harm His children.

Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come.” But this means that our little kingdoms must all go.

It means living under a new government whose builder and maker is God.

Do we really want heaven on earth or do we, deep down, think that His visible rule and reign would be too restrictive on our pet sins.

When we say ‘freedom’, do we mean what God means when He speaks about our freedom? That is, freedom from the power of sin and condemnation? Or, do we really mean, “free to do whatever we please.”?

Give us a Porsche

Jesus promised that God would provide everything needed to sustain our faith and hope in Him. With food and clothing, writes Paul, we are to be content (1 Timothy 6:8).

But let’s be honest. Many of us are not content. We are restless. And the reason for our restless hearts is not that we don’t have food and clothing, but that we have not been given all of the things necessary to sustain and satisfy our idolatry.

The fact is that many of us love money more than mercy and, rather than forgive our neighbour, we are willing to sue a Christian brother if they stand between us and our idols (1 Corinthians 6:1-11).

Rather than hand over our coat, we are tempted to hand out a court summons (Matthew 5:40).

Most of us would agree that we deeply desire a transformed life. But are we prepared to face the trial and tribulation that this transformation requires (2 Timothy 3:12)?

Many Christians have been flat out lied to. They have been told that if they come to Christ, everything will be rosy.

We say that we want freedom, but perhaps what we really mean is, “free and easy.” Freedom to whittle away our finite lives watching reruns of Home and Away, and organising our shell collection.

Because nobody really wants the way of the cross (Even Jesus asked the question), the church has increasingly removed the cross from view and replaced it with the promise of cash, cars and candy.

If this be your kingdom, then we are all in…

I’m witnessing a sad case of this sentiment at the moment.

There’s a single dad with seven children not far from me who is currently living by himself in a canvas-top caravan with no running water or electricity and with very little food.

Leaving aside how he came to be in that predicament, he’s come to Christ and been baptised. And he’s been told week after week that if he hands over the money in his wallet, God will prosper him.

Do I really need to write the next paragraph?

Given that his circumstances don’t match the promise, he is now wondering if this whole Christian thing was in vain. After all, he was promised that if he came to Jesus, everything would be peaches and cream.

God cautions us not to play fast and loose with His word. As those who love Him, it is our joy to honour His word and seek to live out our faith with humility and simplicity of heart—and not wander off course through either our remaining sinful appetites or our desire to keep up with the cool kids.