The Lord's Prayer: A Prayer of Selflessness

If you're ever gonna teach anyone how to pray why not use the Lord's Prayer as your basis, right?

I did and I'm not going to go through the whole message over a blog but there was one common theme that ran through the prayer that was a little groundbreaking for me, even though I have literally read or recited that prayer at least a hundred times or more. Here's the NIV's take on Jesus' teaching moment:

"Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name,   (ok stop yawning already and focus)
 your kingdom come,
   your will be done
  on earth as it is in heaven."

Here's where it got interesting for me.  Peep the words I make bold. As I read this prayer with what felt like new eyes and a new mind, the parenthesis explain my thoughts.

" Give us today our daily bread."
 This is more than just asking for and then "blessing" our food, as if it would be less good for you if you didn't "bless" it.  It is God that needs to be blessed by our prayer and thanked for His Earth producing the food that it does for us.  And it is us that needs to pray for the whole world to get the food they need.  And if we would pray for that, I'm positively sure that God would convict us actually to something about it.


 "Forgive us our debts..." 
We are so ego-centric about our mistakes.  So much so that many of us stop giving or serving others just because we're sulking in our sins that no one else but God knows about.  How stupid is that? God chooses to forget.  Your sin doesn't linger with Him and if there's not a physical consequence for your action, don't make it a psychological one! How about taking the time to pray for God to reveal to someone else their sin for a change? Most of the time we either do nothing about others behavior or are so vocal that we come off as judgmental, arrogant Bible-bashers.  Humans are such extreme beings, either we're apathetic (or ignorant) or come on way too strong and that's particularly true of Christ-followers.


"...as we also have forgiven our debtors."
How often do we do this, really?  We usually forgive because we forget (someone else has already ticked us off) not because we literally have chosen to forget because we have forgiven. 



"And lead us not into temptation,
 but deliver us from evil."
Here again we usually focus so much on ourselves and our struggles or addictions that we fail, 99% of the time, to pray for the struggles of other people.  This statement can have corporate connotations, as well.  (imagine a local church, as a whole, praying this line) This statement also does not suggest only that people may sin but that Satan may spring on them for no apparent reason.  We shouldn't pray for someone just because they screwed up, or have the propensity to, but also pray for the vulnerable ones out there; the ones with low self-esteem, with no family, with mental deficiencies, etc.


For yours is the Kingdom
and the power and glory. Amen.

Thank you Jesus for reminding me today that my prayer life is not even closely all about only me.  In fact, it's more about all of us!

Think about it...how often (if you pray often) do you say something that goes like this...

"God thank you for this and this...
Sorry about this and that.
Help me to get or do this.
Amen."

You've been enlightened.  Get that prayer hierarchy worked out:)