Matthew 6:9-13
.“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day
our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil
For thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory. Forever and ever. Amen. In Jesus Christ the Lord.
Today is the one Day Jesus was treated as God's Son on earth. And I missed Church because Edward asked me time and again to go with him to the Texas State's Championship and we went to see Edward play in that. DG is a good time to pray and think about lessons and thoughts Jesus gives. It doesn't take the place of Church and I will be listening to our Church Sermon on line later today.
When I pray, I always start out with the Lord's Prayer. Today I was struck with the idea that the Lord's Prayer is a conversation Jesus is having as He tells the Disciples about prayer. Remember with me Jesus said He was not, on earth, informed of all of God's plans for the earth. And yesterday I read Jesus knew He was filled with the Father's Spirit and Jesus healed them all. Jesus did this massive healing several times, but not all the Chapters record this abundance of healing.
Is it possible, wonder with me - Jesus said I see a new Heaven, where Satan is falls out like lightning. Is this New Prayer reminding His Father - like a proud Son - of God's Will Accomplished. Jesus reminds Abba that Jesus is providing the Sacrifice to make His Father's Kingdom in Justice and Mercy able to distinguish between being the Place of the dead - Sheol. And the Home of God's Grace and Mercy in Forgiveness - Holy.
Jesus told us how much He walked our lives on earth - as He willingly opened His arms on the cross for me. And for you. He asked His Father why He was forsaken.Then calling forth His Power to dismiss His Spirit to God.
Jesus is re inviting God to have His Will continued on earth. He understands what we, just people, feel about our importance and the need for our Father God. A good thing Jesus reminds us about our need and His compassion for all of us, I'd say.
Reminding us God's mercies renew daily - this is a New Day for the Bread of Life. What an aroma the bread sacrifice made in the Temple. Jesus says He is our Bread of Life. Our sins are covered by the Sacrifice of God's Holy Son - Innocent and Blameless. Jesus prays for us in John 17
Jesus is praying for us. The Lord's Prayer is NOT a little prayer - nice enough. This is The Word Of God Almighty In His Son Jesus Christ the Lord. A Powerful Prayer. God's Word.
Clearly, this prayer when recognized for this being like Jesus - the Word of God - we have prayed for some of the most important matters for our lives in eternity.
God is recognized as Holy Father - Authority - we recognize like Jeremiah - His Will for us is good. We find reasons to find blessings in this very day and in sufficiency and in God being our Bread of Life. Forgiveness of our sins as God's gift. Reminding us forgiveness is the path forward. Jesus prays for temptation to be out of our path. Jesus prays for us to be delivered from evil. This covers tremendous and far reaching ground. We are covered in the Lord's Prayer - God's Word. Covered in the name of Jesus.
It has the Sacrifice unearned for us. Our Eternal Life. A Gift from our Father.
John 17
13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
Notice this ties to John 17. Jesus knows about temptation. He has experienced the most powerful temptation in the Universe. Jesus is saying in John 17 and the Lord's Prayer that He has asked God to cover us as Jesus returns to Heaven. We are kept in God's Word. His Will. This is major league important in the earnestness of the Actions of Jesus.
Jesus is making sure we are not deserted. In His name we are kept eternally in God. Thank God. Thank You Jesus Christ.
Ray Stedman says this more eloquently that I:
Christ is the ground of your righteous standing before God, your acceptance before Him. If you are wearing that "breastplate," you can rest secure that your heart, your emotions, are securely guarded and adequately protected against attack. This is perhaps the most frequent ground of attack against Christian faith. Christians often feel they lack assurance. They feel unworthy of God. They feel they are a failure in the Christian life and that God is certain to reject them, that He is no longer interested in them. They are so aware of their failures and shortcomings. Growth has been so slow. The first joy of faith has faded, and they feel God is angry with them or that He is far off somewhere. There is a constant sense of guilt. Their conscience is always stabbing them, making them unhappy. They feel God blames them. This is simply a satanic attack.
How do you answer an attack like this? You are to remember that you have put on the breastplate of righteousness. In other words, you do not stand on your own merits. You never did. You never had anything worthwhile in yourself to offer to God. You gave all that up when you came to Christ. You quit trying to be good enough to please God. You came on His merits. You came on the ground of His imputed righteousness—that which He gives to you. You began your Christian life like that, and there is no change now. You are still standing before God on that basis.
Paul himself used this breastplate of righteousness when he was under pressure to be discouraged and defeated. Here was a man who was small of stature and unimpressive in his personal appearance. His background was anti-Christian, and Paul could never get away from that completely. Paul had been the most hostile, brutal persecutor of the church that it had known. Paul must constantly have run across families with loved ones whom he had put to death. Paul was often reminded by many people that he was not one of the original twelve apostles, that his calling was suspect, that perhaps he really was not an apostle at all.
What a ground for discouragement! How easy it would have been for Paul to say to himself, "What's the use? Here I am working my fingers to the bone, making tents and trying to preach the gospel to these people, and look at the blessing God has brought them, but they don't care. They hurl recriminations back into my face. Why try anymore?" But that is not what Paul does. Instead, Paul says, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not without effect" (1 Corinthians 15: l0a). There Paul is using the breastplate of righteousness. "I don't care," Paul says, "what I have been; I am forgiven. I don't defend what I am. I simply say to you, by the grace of God, I am what I am. What I am is what Christ has made me. I'm not standing on my righteousness; I'm standing on His. I am accepted by grace, and my personal situation does not make any difference at all." So Paul's heart was kept from discouragement.
Father may these words meet me right where I am and help me right in the conflict in which I am engaged. Lift up my heart by the consciousness that Christ is my righteousness. This Holy Week, now and always. Amen in Jesus.
♔ Lord Jesus Saves ♰
Matthew 28:20
Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
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