LordsPrayer5

BACK TO THE WELL

REFRESHMENT FOR THE SPIRIT

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Dr. Joe Kutter

(Part 5)

Imagine that you are in a strange neighborhood. The streets are narrow, crooked and crowded. Your eye scans the spaces and there seems to be hundreds of places where danger could lurk. The simple reality of not-knowing the area stirs a sense of fear. However, you have a guide who has traveled these crooked streets and knows the way. So, not only do you carefully watch the streets, you keep your eye on the guide.

Not knowing what the rest of today or tomorrow may bring, ask God to help you to keep your eyes on Jesus. You may choose to pray with your palms open or your hands up to symbolize your desire that God will take your hand and lead you through the course of the day. Pray for God’s daily guidance just as you pray for daily bread.

Pray the Lord’s Prayer giving your full attention to God just as God is giving full attention to you.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil….

The great problem with a leader is that you may choose not to follow! Bullies coerce others into subservience or obedience but leaders invite by the power of their character and wisdom and love. Jesus prays to God as a “leader.”

If God is a, indeed the ultimate, “leader”, what is most likely to prevent you from following?

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What do you do to “keep your eye on Jesus”?

Regular Bible reading

Prayer

Worship

Deeds of kindness and Love

Reflection and thought

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Do you have a sense of God’s “leading” now? If so, where might God be leading you?

To do what I am doing in the way that God wants me to do it

To intensify the practices that will help me to keep my eye on Jesus

To contact an old friend or a new acquaintance with words of encouragement

To be open to share my faith with someone struggling with fear or despair

To offer special help to someone in need

To accept a new responsibility for the sake of the Gospel

To reconcile a broken relationship

To forgive an antagonist

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You may wish to stand as a sign before God that you are willing to go wherever God leads. Ask God to lead you in “paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23). Pray that the Holy Spirit will be your constant guide in the through the events of every day life.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil….

If God is our Leader and if keeping our eye on Jesus is the discipline that we most need for walking the narrow, crooked, and crowded streets of life, then our first temptation always is to take our eyes off Jesus. The wonders of life are so spectacularly awesome and sometimes so frightening and the streets are so busy and crowded, that keeping our eyes on Jesus is often a difficult thing to do. Like a child at the fair, there is always one more piece of candy to taste, one more sight to see, one more ride to experience, distractions and diversions to capture the attention and losing sight of Jesus seems almost inevitable. No wonder we get lost! So we pray, God, do not take us into places where the distractions and competition for our attention is so great that we forget to follow you. Do not let us lose sight of Jesus.

What is most likely to distract you from following Jesus?

Stress at work

Complications in family life

A cantankerous person at church

The suffering of a friend

My own physical pain

Desires that are out of step with the will of God

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With you head bowed and your hands folded in a sign of humility before God, confess your temptations to God and ask for the wisdom and strength of the Holy Spirit in your efforts to faithfully follow Jesus.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil….

There are times when we suffer the consequences of our own decisions and the results are exceedingly painful. Having lost sight of the way of Jesus we pray, “God, free me from the results of my own trespasses.” The Apostle taught us in Romans that “the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life” and we pray to be forgiven and to be pardoned.

For what “consequence” do you see deliverance?

Broken relations and the behavior that caused the break

Separation from God and the loss of a relationship with God

Violating one of the Ten Commandments

Dishonesty in some form

A failure to exercise kindness, mercy and love

Sexual indiscretion

Neglecting the results of injustice and oppression

Simple selfishness

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You may wish to kneel in humble confession that you deserve the “wages of sin” and that you are seeking the pardon that only God can give. Ask God for deliverance from you sin.

There are times when Evil imposes itself on the innocent or less guilty. There are times when, from our point of view, that we can not believe that the suffering of someone who appears to be innocent is the just dessert for any sin committed. Suffering is sometimes the consequence of something initiated by someone else or some force of nature. So we pray, “deliver us from evil.” We pray for safety.

For what security or safety do you pray?

Protection for our children

Traveling mercies

Safety for soldiers

Protection of innocent civilians in the war zones

A shield against illness and injury

The prevention of death

Strength and wisdom for spiritual struggle

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Ask God for the protection against evil that most concerns you now.

The last part of “The Lord’s Prayer” as commonly prayed is not included in the New Testament accounts. It has been added for the purposes of worship. Its intention is clearly to reaffirm our faith and hope in God and to assert that God alone is God and Lord of our lives.

Pray the Lord’s Prayer giving your full attention to God just as God is giving full attention to you.