To Our Knees

I've been thinking a lot about prayer lately... maybe I should be doing more of it rather than just thinking about it :-). For some reason I was reminded of when I was in high school and after every basketball game our team would circle around center court, hold hands and recite the Lord's Prayer. Now when I say recite I mean say it at the speed of light. You've never in your life seen a prayer said so quickly! In my memory of it I was actually laughing all by myself because it was just ridiculous. We said it as quickly and painlessly as we could... ready to move on. It made me wonder how often we do that in our own lives. Prayer isn't about our time to talk to God... it's how quick and painless can we make it? I think we forget that the Lord's Prayer... is our 'Dummies Guide' to how to pray. I want to break it down and take a look at it... and see how Jesus laid it out there for us.

Our Father, which art in Heaven,
Hallowed by thy name.

Jesus starts the prayer with 'Our Father'. Not 'my' Father, not 'your' Father... 'our' Father. He quickly puts ourselves in the same boat as he is. He makes it as though he is equal to us as Children of God. Instead of calling him 'God' or something of that sort, he uses the phrase 'Father'... he makes it so personal. Next, Jesus says 'hallowed' be thy name. Webster's dictionary says hallowed means to hold sacred or to be holy. Jesus reminds us that in the simple name of God... He's holy and we are to claim that and remember that He is just that. We so flippantly call him 'Father' and we claim his name to be holy, but when it's inconvenient for us to uphold that... we let it slip to the side.

Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done.
On earth as it is in heaven.

Ok, yeah... because we really mean this one. Be honest with me for a second. How many of you have said these 3 little lines and not meant it a bit more than a man in the moon? I certainly have! Many times. When I say it what I mean is... "Ok, so I want your will done, God, but how about your will be my will?". We always want what we want when we want it. And why shouldn't we? Everything else in the world is that way. We can get it anyway we want it. We forget that the entire point of our existence is to glorify God... to makes fishers of men... to advance the cause. When will we truly fall on our face and desire His will be done... regardless of my own selfish ambitions?

Give us this day our daily bread.

So I'm gonna leave this one by itself because the kicker's coming up. Take a moment to breath :)

Forgive us our trespasses.
As we forgive those who trespass against us.

So I love this one. I almost find it humorous in a weird sort of way. Please know I'm condemning no one, but only writing this out of complete personal experience! We beg, plead and cry for God to forgive us. We pour out our souls and just expect Him to do it... but in the same exact breath we're screaming 'Did you see what she did to me?'. I can't even tell you how many times I've flippantly prayed this one. I expect forgiveness, but can't in turn let go of what so and so said about me. I just can't 'let it go' because it hurt so bad. The moment of realization comes when you see a sinless man hanging from a blood stained cross and quickly remember... He let it go. *ouch*

And lead us not into temptation;
But deliver us from evil.

This one always gets me, too... how many times are we begging God to save us from evil and help us flee from the schemes of the evil one, but we're following the lead of the wrong one?

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.
For ever and ever. Amen.

I love how he ends and begins giving sole glory to God. He begins with calling Him Father... claiming his name to be holy and ends with giving it all back to him. For EVERYTHING is yours Lord... everything.

Growing up, I always felt like there wasn't much I could learn from the Lord's Prayer. I felt it was just something you said that everyone knew. There wasn't much meaning to it and it was rather repetitive. When I started looking closer into it, I picked out so many pieces I could use for my own prayer life. We so often forget about our prayer lives. We say whatever we feel like at the time and forget the meaning in what we are saying. We cry out for the pain of the world when some days we should simply be crying out for the pain of ourselves. We find weakness in coming to God broken or without it all together. That's what he wants!!! He wants us broken because HE wants to be the one to put us back together. He wants that shambled heart we bring him so HE can be the glue that forms it back. We give Him so little credit. We make him our last resort when He should be our first. We make Him the least when he should be the most. When will we just realize that all He wants is us.... Unveiled faces falling to our knees in the holiness and majesty of Him. Desiring to know Him through and through and not just getting through it as quickly as we can.