Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”Slice of Infinity Snippets:Jesus said,
“This is how you should pray:
“Father, may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
Give us each day the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation.” Luke 11:1-4 NLT
The Lord’s Prayer, which is familiar to many, comes out of this context, out of the praying of Jesus himself. It is not just good advice about praying; it is his praying. Giving his followers this prayer, Jesus, like John, was following a common rabbinic pattern. When a rabbi taught a prayer, he would use it to teach his disciples the most distinctive, concise, essential elements of his teachings. Furthermore, disciples would learn to pray as their teacher prayed. From then on, when a disciple’s prayer would be heard, it would sound like that of his teacher’s prayers, bearing his mark and posture before the Father. Thus, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we sound like Jesus, we belong to him, and we pronounce the lessons he wanted us most to learn.
Comments:
I am often taken by surprise when my relationship to my daughter teaches me something about my relationship to God. Today's message was one of these moments.
In Exodus 3 when Moses finds God speaking out of a burning bush, God essentially tells him, “I have heard the cries of my people, I have seen their oppression, and I am sending you.” God cares deeply about human need, the world we live in, and the brokenness all around us--so much so that God sends his own children to respond.
When we pray the words Christ told us to pray, we pray out of the same paradox in which he prayed himself. He was both the Son who knew he would need the Father’s provision to get through the days before him and the Son who poured out his life for the crowds and individuals that needed him.
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