Weekly devotion no 9

Weekly Devotion no 9
29 May 2020

Bible reading – Matthew 6:9-13

⁹ ‘This, then, is how you should pray:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰ your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one.”

Reflection - Our Father in Heaven

As we consider how to pray, we’re going to look at the first line of the section of the Lord’s Prayer that focusses on God.

One of the beautiful things about this prayer is that it is a communal prayer. The prayer addresses ‘our’ Father, not ‘my’ Father. We are not coming to our own private deity, but to a God who is bigger than our individual perception of Him. This is a prayer that we often pray together in church, because it is a communal prayer. And even when we pray it on our own, as we must do in these current times, we can remember that others are also praying it and so we are praying it together, in unity with one another.

We are also praying to our Father. By using the term ‘father’, Jesus himself identifies with us and prays the prayer with us. God is his Father and also ours. We are joined together and united in acknowledging God as our Father. This is a hard image for those who have had difficult relationships with their earthly fathers. But our thoughts of God as Father can be more expansive than our experience of our earthly fathers. And we can be encouraged by Jesus’ inclusion of us as God’s children. It reminds us that we, like Jesus, can have a relationship with God. God is not impersonal and He is not distant.

We often think of heaven as a place in the sky – somewhere separate from us here on earth. The reference to heaven in this prayer reminds us that God is not our earthly father. It reminds us that God is outside of time and space and is not limited by our human existence or experience. United with Jesus, we are praying to our shared God, who has a relationship with us and who is all-knowing, all-powerful and awesome! That’s a God to whom I want to pray. 

Hymn

Verse 1

Dear Lord and Father of mankind

Forgive our foolish ways

Reclothe us in our rightful mind

In purer lives Thy service find

In deeper reverence praise

In deeper reverence praise

Verse 2

In simple trust like theirs who heard

Beside the Syrian sea

The gracious calling of the Lord

Let us like them without a word

Rise up and follow Thee

Rise up and follow Thee

Verse 3

O Sabbath rest by Galilee

O calm of hills above

Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee

The silence of eternity

Interpreted by love

Interpreted by love

Verse 4

With that deep hush subduing all

Our words and works that drown

The tender whisper of Thy call

As noiseless let Thy blessing fall

As fell Thy manna down

As fell Thy manna down

Verse 5

Drop Thy still dews of quietness

Till all our strivings cease

Take from our souls the strain and stress

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace

The beauty of Thy peace

Verse 6

Breathe through the heats of our desire

Thy coolness and Thy balm

Let sense be dumb let flesh retire

Speak through the earthquake wind and fire

O still small voice of calm

O still small voice of calm

John Greenleaf Whittier © 1872 Public Domain CCLI:69198    

Prayer

Our Father:

reveal yourself to me,

not as I have imagined you and not as others have stereo-typed you,

but as you really are:

creator of all that is,

loving redeemer of all your people. Amen

Eugene Peterson: Praying with Jesus