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We all have an innate desire to feel safe.   With a desire for safety, there is almost nothing better than being in a safe place.  You no doubt can remember a time when a sense of fear or uneasiness was eliminated the moment you entered a safe place.  During the past couple of weeks when this specific thought has been on my mind, an event which happened over eleven years ago resurfaced.  Our daughter Lindsay was in her third year of college, and her first month living in New York City.  At 3am one Saturday morning, we received a call that was quite unusual. It was Lindsay.  Although it would have been completely understandable, she wasn’t calling to tell us she was homesick … she was “rat sick.”  In the student housing (in Manhattan), rats were becoming a nuisance for Lindsay and her roommates.  You can imagine young ladies in a dorm room, with small pesky visitors.  Her pre-dawn call was one of desperation, so I made a visit the next day to help out. Upon my arrival, we had dinner and went to a hotel, and for the first time in a while she could relax and sleep without the thought of rats. She was in a safe place.

It’s more than likely that rats are not a problem in your life at the moment.  But you, nonetheless, have a strong desire to be in a safe place. Where is that place?  Most of us would define our safe place as an environment that provides freedom of expression, and unconditional love and acceptance.  We would all like to feel those characteristics are ever-present in our own home, but often that is not the case.  Strong homes definitely possess many of the values that we would want in a safe place, but no home (or family) is perfect. So where is your safest place?

In my reading last week, I was struck by a verse that is easily recognizable, but often overlooked. Matthew 6:6 states:  But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.Think for a moment about what this verse is conveying.  No one would debate that much of our praying should be in a private place alone with the Father.  From my study, I believe the verse is talking about going to the most private place you can find.  Just for a moment, consider if this would be your safest place. Where else on earth could you and I have absolute freedom of expression and unconditional love and acceptance?  But has our safest place become a neglected place?

The reality is that most Christ-followers would be quick to affirm the need for prayer. At the same time, I also believe many would willingly admit that spending quality time with the Father in private prayer is challenging.  My goal is not to create guilt about what your prayer life looked like yesterday, but to encourage you about what it can be today – Your safest place!  Ask yourself how much time you are willing to spend in the place of greatest freedom, with great rewards.  I have no idea if that private time for you should be five, ten, fifteen or thirty minutes a day (don’t make it a chore), but it should be a focused time.

I don’t know that the primary issue in Jesus’ words was location, but getting alone to pray does take intentionality.  My safe place is the basement of our house.  It is my place to just walk and talk to the Father about the most important issues of my life. Words that I speak to the Father in that quiet basement are words of total freedom.  And I know it’s a place where I am unconditionally loved and accepted … my safest place.  Have you found a safe place?  If you have, don’t neglect it … if you haven’t, there is no better time than right now to establish it!

“With friends like that, who needs enemies?!” is a reality that everyone has experienced. We have all felt the pain of a friend betraying our confidence, and sadly have harmed the trust that others needed from us. Often relationships are damaged because of our judgmental attitudes. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to zero in on the faults of others, while avoiding similar issues in our own life? Whether I venture back to the Old Testament book of Job, or land on the words of Jesus, it is easy to understand the wickedness of judging others.

You have no doubt heard of how the friends of Job became his “judges.” They personified the phrase above. Job went through pain that was beyond imagination. In Satan’s attack, he lost his children, his possessions and his reputation. When three old friends heard the news, they came to his side.  But too soon, care turned to judgment. I am sad to say that although I want to condemn his friends, there have been times that I too became a “judge.”  What about you?

One of Job’s friends was Eliphaz. You’ve probably never compared your life to his. But Eliphaz is an example to all of us, of what not to do in the godly friend department. His “being there” for Job eventually became judgment. This is admittedly a strong illustration of judging someone, but my burden is, the art of judging has become a normal part of living … maybe as normal as breathing!  God’s heart is that we love one another and not judge.  Eliphaz, and Job’s other friends took an amazing opportunity to care, and turned it into short-sighted explanations.

Let me share how easy I can become Eliphaz, instead of a giver of grace. One day as I sat religiously in church, I saw a young woman looking at her cell phone. My first thought was, “I can’t believe she is doing that,” but then I saw her actively engaged in worship. I wonder how many times I have been distracted by my cell phone. Because of background and culture, I can easily make wrong judgments. I have seen someone who was not like me, and made quick character assessments. God looks on the heart. When I reflect on how Jesus lived, I am reminded that viewing others should be from a platform of love and caring.  Look at the words of Jesus from Matthew 7:1-5 as a further indication of how to view others.

Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. And why worry about the speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?  Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. (NLT)

This week you will have plenty of opportunities to make a judgment about someone else. You can easily think about their faults, weaknesses, misplaced views, etc… but just maybe with a consciousness to care first and love regardless, you will ask God to intervene in their needs. To not be judgmental does not mean you have to stop having opinions, but it should cause us to reflect on what Christ would do. Christ met others at their point of need and so can, and should we.

It is so easy to judge a friend in need and miss God presenting us with an opportunity to love and care. That moment is a chance to support, not to judge.  When we are like Eliphaz, we may feel right, but when we are like Jesus, we are right.

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL

Let’s get something settled right away – God is not capable of leading us into a sinful situation simply by His very nature.

James 1:13
Let no one say when he is tempted I am being tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil and He himself does not tempt anyone.”

James 1:2-3
Consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

So why would Jesus instruct us to pray that God not do what He would and could NEVER (by the nature of His very Being) do?

Jesus is referring to a matter of our heart – we are to ask for strength to overcome the temptations that will surely come every day. We are to ask for strength to do what we know is the right thing to do each and every day. We need help to guard our eyes, our ears, our steps, our actions, our minds…

John McArthur said it best in his book The Lord’s Prayer – we are to ask, “Lord, keep us from a situation that we will not be able to overcome.”

So how do we practice what we pray?

First, we must remind ourselves often of Satan’s presence and power in this world; he is a roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour.

Second, we need to be alert and aware, never being lulled into a false attitude that “Satan can’t get me!”  Yes, he can!

Third, stay in the Word.

James 4:7
Submit therefore to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Psalm 119:11
Thy word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against thee.

As Jesus gave these words to us as a guide to pray, He is telling us that we are inadequate to fight Satan without Him.  We need His Words, His guidance, His protection, and we need them every day of our lives.

We at Journey onWord truly hope that this week of repeated reading and additional prompting through the daily articles has given you new insight into the words of The Lord’s Prayer.  We pray it isn’t just learned and then left in the vault of stored knowledge, but rather that it’s applied and results in the awakening, or loosing of the power of prayer in your life.

From childhood we have recited it … did you experience it more deeply this week?!

AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE HAVE ALSO FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS

We all have debt, don’t we?  Many of us may still owe a little from the holiday gift giving season. We have house payments and car payments, and all our debtors expect to be paid, don’t they?  In the Lord’s Prayer, we find two different words used in translating this specific section … either “debts” or “trespasses.”  My study found that the Greek word where we get the translation “debt” is Opheilema, which means SIN.  “Trespasses” is somewhat different, but looking in the English dictionary, I found something fascinating.  Both the noun and verb definitions for “trespass” include bullets which specifically use the word “SIN!”

In any language, it is clear that Jesus is referring to SIN.  Our debt may not be financial, but the expectation of The Debtor is the same … the debt must be paid!

We mess up every single day.  We get angry and impatient.  We say something we shouldn’t, or completely lose our temper.  Or maybe just a teeny, tiny, little white lie gets us off the hook with the boss, our spouse, a friend, or our children.  Let’s be honest, those are everyday SINS and we need forgiveness every day from our Father, Abba … Daddy.

Nehemiah 9:17 
Thou art a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness

Romans 5:20
Where sin abounds, God’s grace abounds even more.

Jesus words in this specific portion of His model of prayer speak two very distinct truths.  We need forgiveness, Yes!   But we need also, to forgive others.

I would guess that it does not take much effort for each of us to think about a situation or a someone who has “done us wrong.”  If we are quick to remember offenses, have we truly forgiven them?  Was our grace gift measured?

I have been studying John McArthur’s book The Lord’s Prayer, and he sums up very simply why we must forgive:
Forgiveness is the mark of a growing, maturing Christian
Christ is our example of forgiveness
Unforgiveness in our lives becomes a barrier between us and God
Forgiveness delivers us from God’s discipline
God deals with us as we deal with others
(I think the writer of the Golden Rule may have understood that)

Is forgiveness in order somewhere in our life?  Confess or forgive.  Take care of it … TODAY!

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

When was the last time you were hungry?  To be honest, I’m a little hungry right now as I write this, but I want you to think of the last time you were really, genuinely hungry.  Now let me throw this in … When is the last time you were genuinely hungry and did not know where your next meal was coming from?  I dare say very few of us reading this, if any, could identify with that circumstance.  So let’s break this particular part of The Lord’s Prayer down a bit.  When we ask for “bread” we are asking for:

All Of Our Physical Needs to Be Met

That means food, yes, but also clothes, shelter, warmth, health, medicine, rest … the basic needs that God has always promised us.  And there is another key thought of this prayer that we often miss…God is always the source of everything we need.

God … Abba … created the vegetation, the animals, the rain, the sun, and … man.  He is the Giver of all we need.  The phrase, “Give us,” insures that we recognize and remember that God’s provision has already been promised to us … and already provided for us.  “This day,” reminds us not to gaze or want beyond today.

Each day of this week’s repeated reading of The Lord’s Prayer, we have offered these short articles to encourage you to look at this example of how we ought to pray in a different and more focused way.  The words are so very familiar to most, if not all of us.  How long has it been since any of us took such small bites and counted each chew, breaking the truths down to their life-giving core nutrients?  Jesus gave this to us as an example of how to pray … this is our guide, our outline to effective prayer.

We hope you continue to read with fresh eyes, and taste with renewed and refreshed receptors.

THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS HEAVEN

When I was a kid, I loved the whole idea of Santa Claus.  The thought of going to see him at the store, telling him what my greatest desires were, and then have him deliver them to my house was just awesome to me!

I wonder if our prayers ever seem like a “Santa’s list” to God?

When we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” we are actually asking for God to fulfill the entire Bible!  We are asking for Jesus to return and establish His kingdom on this earth, which is promised in the book of Revelation.  Until that happens, we are praying that His kingdom will be advanced on earth through pastors, missionaries, government leaders, and …. yes, US.  Yet if we made a recording of our prayers, would we be embarrassed to hear what amounts to a “Christmas list” of requests about US?

With this phrase in The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus is reminding us that our purpose on this earth is … To Exalt Him.  And our prayers should reflect that.

And what about, “Thy will be done?”  If God already knows what is going to happen, and He is in control of everything … why pray at all?

When I was younger there was a common bumper sticker that said, “Prayer Changes Things.”  Do you believe that … I mean, really believe that?  Ponder this statement for a moment…

When we pray in faith, putting the emphasis on God and His will for our lives, His Will can become OUR will!

In other words, our entire outlook on life and this world becomes God’s outlook.  Remember the WWJD bracelets – What Would Jesus Do?  When our prayers are centered on God and not on our list of wants and needs, we see the world through the eyes of Jesus.  We start to view people the way Jesus does.  We become more caring, compassionate, and patient.  Our hearts begin to open to God’s will for our lives and that becomes our greatest desire!  Someone once defined the answers to our prayers by three categories – those that are Yes, those that are NO, and those that are Wait a While.  When our prayer life is in line with our purpose (which is To Exalt Him) then whatever the answer, we can accept it … even if we can’t fully understand it at that time.

Praying in faith, and in tune with God’s will, Does.Change.Things … Dramatically!

HALLOWED BE THY NAME

How many times have we uttered this phrase?  Now, how many times have we thought about the meaning of the phrase?  Let’s start with the obvious – what is the meaning of the word “hallowed?”

“Hallowed” means “to make holy.” In other words, we are to pray, “God, holy is your name.” Ok, that’s simple enough …but … what constitutes HOLY?

To pray, “holy is your name,” is to acknowledge ALL the attributes of God – His very character, if you will, as we pray.

He is Creator, Righteous Judge, Peace, Unfailing Love, Provider, Salvation…

He is All-Knowing, All-Present and All-Powerful…

Now for step two: if we are indeed acknowledging His attributes, then we will give Him…

Reverence    Honor    Glory    Obedience    Respect

It comes down to this simple yet staggering thought:  if we acknowledge Our Father as Hallowed (Holy) as we pray, then we have to be fully aware of Who we are talking to!

We have entered into the presence of the One and Only True and Awesome God.  And when we realize that, and pray with that knowledge, we will begin to measure other areas of our lives by that yardstick of truth.  We become more aware of our dealings with others, our own obedience and testimony in front of others, and maybe, even our speech and slang ( OMG doesn’t seem the least bit fitting anymore, does it?)

Jesus gave us The Lord’s Prayer as a model of how to pray.  As we enter into a prayer, let us remember the words of Psalm 34:3.

 O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.

OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN

How much do you love your kids?  That question is almost unanswerable, isn’t it?  We cannot measure the love we feel for our kids.  And Jesus is trying to remind us that He loves us THAT much and more! 

Let me give you a brief historical context here.  The Jews had always viewed God in two ways: as the Father of Israel and as their spiritual Father.  This is taught in the Psalms.  But through the sinful history of the Jews involving foreign cultures and their pagan gods, they had lost and forgotten that second fact.  When the disciples made the request, “Master, teach us to pray,” Jesus first reminded them that God is their FATHER … and He used the Aramaic “Abba,” translated “Daddy.”

Can you remember when you called your father “daddy?”  Isn’t it a wonderful sound when your little one calls out, “daddy!”  How intimate.  How touching.  How pure is that love.  That term could represent joy, excitement or even fear, and so it is when we begin our prayers with “Our Father.”

Author and pastor John McArthur states it so well in his book The Lord’s Prayer.  Allow me to paraphrase his comparison of an earthly father’s love for a child with God’s love for us.

We need not fear – we can approach Our Father

We have hope – how much more does God love us than we love our kids

We can conquer loneliness – Our Father will never forsake us

We have infinite possibilities – Our Father controls all of Heaven and earth

Our Father — how much He loves, accepts, forgives … US!

That is Who you are praying to!

You could probably recite this prayer from memory.  It may be a part of your worship service today.  Since childhood, we have called it The Lord’s Prayer; others describe it as The Disciples’ Prayer.  It is recited often in many different venues, but ask yourself … are the powerful truths within, sadly lost in a corporate recitation of the prayer?  Is there any thought actually given to the real meaning and power that this prayer contains?  Do we realize that these words are the guideline for our praise and adoration of our Lord, not to mention how to take our petitions to Him?

What do Abraham, Jacob, Hannah, Elijah and Jesus, all have in common?  Their prayers are documented in Scripture.  Jesus especially spent a great deal of time in prayer during His three years of earthly ministry.  He often rose very early in the morning and went again in the evening to pray, going to a secluded, quiet place in order to talk to his Father.  Jesus teaches and uses the specific words we are reading this week on two different occasions; first, in full form, as we are reading this week as a part of his “Sermon on the Mount” and second, in a bit shorter form, in Luke’s gospel in response to a direct request from the disciples, “Master, teach us to pray!”  I think it’s quite fair to say that special notice and deeper consideration is warranted when Jesus repeats himself.

As you looked at the words of Jesus reading schedule this week, I bet some of you wondered what in the world we were thinking … reading this same familiar passage every day this week?!  And that is the issue; these words can be too familiar, too mundane.  We forget, or maybe we never realized, that this passage must be studied, understood and applied! To underscore that (pun completely intended), we at Journey onWord wanted to offer a daily study prompt to help bring these words into laser focus and further encourage you to dive deep.  Our hope is that a new awareness of what these words truly mean in our daily lives will be revealed to us as we read this week … not to be overly dramatic, but almost creating a mini epiphany of sorts.

Prayer works

Prayer can make a difference

Prayer can be effective

The Lord’s Prayer can “teach US to pray”

When the disciples asked their question, Jesus answered, “Pray in this way.”  Think about that – Scripture does not tell us where to pray, what time to pray, what to wear to pray, or what specific words to recite … yet we can indeed learn how to “pray in this way” from these words of Jesus.

We challenge you to look with fresh eyes on these words that are so familiar.  Open your heart, open your thoughts and gaze beyond these words you can recite by heart.   Pray the Spirit works within you to restore or increase the power of prayer in your life.

From childhood we have recited it … It’s Time We Learned It!

I wonder what it was like to be in the crowd that day.  What was it like to hear Jesus speak?  In reading this past week, I’ve experienced times where I closed my eyes and tried to imagine myself in the scene.  My senses were fully engaged, listening for the voice of the One who was speaking, visualizing the crowd that was gathered, envisioning the natural surroundings.  How I have longed in the past for the gift of even just a few moments to experience the people and places of Jesus’ earthly life.  In teaching Sunday School, I’ve “re-enacted” Old Testament stories several times.  I get excited about the opportunity, and strongly encourage the children and adults present to dive in and experience the physicality of the story.  I have witnessed and personally experienced so many transformative moments when the story or a truth came alive in a new way, having just “participated” in it.

What would it have been like to have taken in the breadth and depth of wisdom and truth Jesus shared that day?  My grandfather was a pastor.  I loved sitting up near the front and listening to him preach.  I have a few of his notebooks.  Each sermon was a half-page, typed out, meticulously outlined and three-hole punched.  How many pages would the outline for Jesus’ sermon that day have taken up in my grandfather’s notebook?

I wish I could say that I’ve been able to experience even a glimpse of the scene that day, and I cannot imagine what I would have walked away thinking or talking about.  I have the benefit of it all being written down, and of reading it a handful of verses at a time.  But I could still spend days (or even longer) diving deeper into single phrases within single verses … so much wisdom and truth.  I have no doubt there were men and women who left that day with pieces of His words etched on their hearts and minds.  A man convicted by the truth that in simply looking at another woman in lust, he was guilty of adultery in his heart.  A woman in mourning, who heard with her heart and soul the desperately needed promise of comfort.  Men, women and children who left that day challenged to love … not just those who were easy to, but those they considered as enemies.

In taking it all in, I have a longer list of questions than truths (and that list is long).  But more than that, I have a heart that is growing in gratitude for the gift of scripture.  Being there that day would have been amazing.  Holding the sacred text in my hand, with the opportunity to read and re-read, study and commit it to memory, however, is priceless.  This is our gift and treasure; to read and experience the words of Jesus … to pour over them, to meditate on them, to bind them to our hands and forehead, heart and soul, and allow them to change us.  This is our gift and treasure.

I’d like to share a short and personal story from last week that I recorded in my journal and is locked in my memory.  It was early on the first day of the new year and I was sitting, Moleskine notebook open, talking with God, and wondering through prayer what this year would be like.  The word “posture” entered my mind, and very soon after, my youngest son walked into the room.  We are both early risers and often share morning moments together, but because of the holiday schedule, it had been a couple of weeks since we sat together in my sacred spot on the living room couch.  With my only prompt being a welcoming smile, he walked over and snuggled into the space next to me, laying his head on my lap.  He sat quietly for a minute and then began with the questions (he is an inquisitive soul).  In an instant, I “saw” the word that had entered my mind only moments before this precious boy entered the room.  The scene of he and I, was the scene of He and I.  This would be my posture this year … curled up, head on my Father’s lap, resting, talking and questioning.

Your journey with Him through this year is absolutely your own.  What will your posture be?  I pray you experience an enduring closeness like the one illustrated in my early morning moment.

His words … they are our gift and treasure.