We have been thinking about creation and human fallenness. Last week's reading from Romans 8.18-30, focussed our attention on the divine purpose for redemption, restoration and renewal - the groaning of creation, our own inward longing, the Spirit's purposeful intercessory groaning, God's working for our good, even in our most adverse circumstances.
Today our focus is on that most natural human activity - prayer. We were made in the image of God - to know him, to relate to him, to communicate with him.
There was an old hymn with the chorus -
There is a deep truth in those words. But are they only about the straying person who was brought up in the church? or do they express the truth for every person, no matter what the upbringing, ethnic or cultural background? Responding to God, trusting God, knowing God, loving God that is the norm, that is "home"! Somehow we come to think our sin and rebellion are natural and normal, that somehow God and worship and prayer and all that are foreign "odd" activities - rather like standing on your head or walking on your hands.
Prayer is as natural as breathing. It is rather dangerous and disastrous that in our sinful state our relationship with God has been broken. So we have got out of the way of praying and have come into the distorted situation in which we are awkward about talking to God.
Jesus, the Son of God, came into this world to open the possibility of forgiveness for sinners and their restoration into the family and presence of God. It is not surprising that part of his teaching has to do with re-establishing our relationship with God in prayer.
We call the model prayer he gave "the Lord's Prayer" because he gave it to us. However, it is not a prayer the sinless one could himself pray. Rather it is a prayer for sinners, or "a Prayer for the Redeemed."
Jesus tells us that prayer is the private personal relationship of an individual with the Father - unlike the prayer of "hypocrites" who want to be noticed by the crowd (Mt. 6.5-6). And yet, in the model prayer, he teaches us to pray to "our Father" (v. 9).
Our human sin has fractured our relationship with God and with other people. The purpose of redemption is to restore both. It is deeply important that we learn to address "our Father".
There is a sense, because of creation, that all people are his children. Paul drew attention to this when speaking with the Athenian philosophers. He quoted a Greek poet who wrote (of Zeus!), "We too are his children" (Acts 17.28b).
But we approach "our Father" not on the basis of creation but of divine redemption and grace - whether like the prodigal son beginning to reach out in unworthiness (Lk 15.21) or as those who already know they have been "born again", "born of the Spirit" into his family (Jn 3.3,5). This is totally missed by those who want to change our praying from "Father God" to "Creator God". They are materially changing the basis of our approach in prayer.
Last weekend, the Australian people voted rather convincingly against the republican model proposed to us (with a president elected by a two-thirds majority of parliament). It was interesting after the poll to hear Malcolm Turnbull (who headed the "yes" campaign) say that Australians had rejected the best model and that the "direct-election" model would have fared worse.
The more basic issue, as I wrote in our November Notes & News - written before the poll - is how Australians respond to the call of the Kingdom of God. Perhaps we want a kind of spiritual republicanism. Which would we prefer - a god elected by two-thirds majority of parliament? or a popularly-elected god? Should our leaders be allowed to sack god if dissatisfied or threatened by god's role or demands?
And yet the name of God is chiefly a popular swear-word rather than the reverent acknowledgment of his power, wisdom, holiness, justice, mercy and truth.
O may the rule of God come! May it come as more and more people receive his grace! May it come as we grow in the outworking of grace May it come finally as Jesus returns to sum up all history at the end of time!
But yes - may it come now as we and all other people begin to respond positively and fully to the will of God - as fully on earth as in heaven.
The Lord God told the earliest people to "live over all the earth and bring it under their control" (Gen. 1.28) - King James has "replenish the earth and subdue it." This indicates that we rightly find ways of ordering and changing the circumstances in which we live. We don't just "hunt and gather", but breed and cultivate. Then we build fences to keep the animals out of the crops. We spray and irrigate. We develop new high-yield, disease-resistant crops. We graft varieties more desirable for eating onto more vigorous root-stock.
And yet we rightly pray, "Give us today the food we need" (v. 11). We are so much involved in the production of our food - food to feed the teeming millions of this world. In a sense the farmer shares in something of the creative work of God. Yet we need to respond in humble dependence on the Creator.
When David received generous offerings for the building of the Temple, he said to the Lord that "my people and I cannot really give you anything, because everything is a gift from you, and we have only given back what is yours already" (2 Chron. 29.14).
"Daily" ("we need" in GNB) translates a curious Greek word. The meaning is best understood by recalling the Israelites in the wilderness and the provision of manna. There was always sufficient for today - but it spoilt and got worms in it if they kept it till tomorrow (Ex. 16). It was "sufficient for the day". Whatever our skills and technology, we are to depend on our Father for all things.
The next three petitions have to do with our need for divine grace and help on account of our own sinfulness and the evil about us. "Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us. Do not bring us to hard testing, but keep us safe from the Evil One" (Mt. 6.12-13).
"Release us from our debts", we are praying. Forgiveness is not a game of "let's pretend" that nothing wrong has been done. When a debt is forgiven, the creditor is accepting the loss. When God forgives our sins, he is accepting the loss. Jesus, God the Son, died for our sins because God is accepting that debt has been paid in full.
Jesus insisted that our request for forgiveness must be accompanied by a readiness to forgive others. In fact, Jesus re-stated the need for this rather forcefully- "If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done" (vv. 14-15).
"Do not bring us to hard testing" (v. 13a). The "hard testing" may be "enticement to sin" - the King James translates it "temptation". "Hard testing" is not necessarily all bad. Peter wrote, "My dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful test you are suffering, as though something unusual were happening to you. Rather be glad that you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may be full of joy when his glory is revealed" (1 Pet. 4.12,13). But we shouldn't rush into such testing. We are to acknowledge our weakness and our need of God's grace lest we are led astray and fall into sin.
"But keep us safe from the Evil One" (v. 13b). Literally, "save, rescue, deliver or preserve us from the evil." This is God's world, but it is a fallen world. We need to be kept safe from the evil in the world about us, from evil within us and from the evil one, the devil.
"For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever. Amen" This final ascription of praise is not in the most ancient manuscripts. However, it is an early and fitting conclusion. The early church document, the Didache, written before the end of the first century, has a very similar doxology at the end of the Lord's Prayer (Did. 8.2).
The focus of our praying isn't on ourselves, but on God - his character, his will, his glory. J.C. Ryle comments, "We declare in these words our belief that the kingdoms of this world are the rightful property of our Father; that to him alone belongs all 'power,' and that he alone deserves to receive all 'glory.' And we conclude by offering to him the profession of our hearts, that we give him all honour and praise, and rejoice that he is King of kings, and Lord of lords."
We were made in the image of God - to know him, to relate to him, to communicate with him. Prayer is one of the most natural human activities in the world. Don't short-change yourself! "Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus" (1 Thess. 5.16-18).
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