“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:9-10 (NIV)
“Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven,” Matthew 7:21 (NIV)
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV)
Have you ever set out on your own path, only to find that you made a wrong turn and were suddenly lost? We continue to joke about our navigationally-challenged freewheeling kids who took off from Birmingham, Alabama for Knoxville, TN and ended up in Atlanta, GA. This kind of navigation is a lot like whitewater rafting without a paddle. You are at the mercy of where the water takes you, including all the bumpy rocks in the river!
In Matthew Chapter 6, Jesus is teaching the disciples how to pray with power like He does. He opens this model prayer by acknowledging the Father’s honor and authority by proclaiming that the Father’s will should be exercised on earth, just like it is in the heavenly kingdom. By submitting our desires to the King’s will, we declare His Lordship once again. Remember, we first submitted to Him when we asked Jesus to be Lord of our lives in exchange for redemption of our sins. He has, thankfully, restored us to the peace Adam and Eve shared with God before their disobedient fall into sin in the Garden of Eden. We have received the gift of salvation to live with the Lord forever!
In Jeremiah 29:11-13, the Lord declares that He knows the best plans for us, after all, He created them for our good. He knows our nature and its weaknesses and strengths, and wants to guide us successfully through the fallen world. He wants us to come to Him in prayer to ask how we should go. He wants us to have a relationship with Him, comfortable to seek His will and obey it. More than that, He wants us to pray to strengthen others to seek and obey Him, too. He blesses us with His presence, knowledge, favor and revelations as we repeatedly yield to His plans.
Comments