Teach Us to Pray

“This then is how you should pray:
  Our Father in heaven,
  hallowed be your name,
  your kingdom come,
  your will be done,
   on earth as it is in heaven.”     Matt. 6:9-10


I grew up on a side street off a main busy road that ran through our neighbourhood. When I was a young girl, old enough to cross that road on my own, I would leave the house around 4:30 in the afternoon, cross the road and meet my dad. He carpooled to work every day and that was where the driver would drop him off. It was a great part of my day as we walked the short distance home, carrying his lunch pail in my one hand while he held my other. I looked forward to being with him.


This memory from years ago came to mind while thinking about the struggle I have looking forward to meeting my heavenly Father in prayer. It isn’t that I don’t want to pray. But it seems like I’m often going to God with a long list of things to pray for.


There are members of my family and others I want to know him so I ask for his Spirit to draw them to himself. There are those who are not well physically or facing their last days on earth so I ask him to comfort them. There are others who are struggling with various things in life and I ask him to give them strength and guidance. I pray for leaders to have wisdom in decision making and for protection for those facing persecution for their faith. I ask him to bless my day. By the end of the list time is up and I need to get on with other things.


I don’t think there is anything wrong with these prayers. But I sometimes feel like I’m treating God like a big dispensing machine: putting my requests in and expecting blessings to come out. My relationship with him has not changed at all and I feel dissatisfied.


In Darrell Johnson’s short but powerful book, Fifty-Seven Words that Change the World, he reminds me that when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, the first half was completely focused on the Father: “make your name holy”, “make your Kingdom come”; “make your will done.”


It is good to pray for others. But what Jesus was teaching about prayer is that my heavenly Father is the other who should be the priority. I realize I have not really focused my thoughts on God, listened to his heart or paid attention to his concerns. I haven’t gone to meet and be with my heavenly Father at all like I did with my dad when I was a child.


Johnson points out that when the focus is on the Father—his glory, his kingdom, his will—it covers everything on my list. His life opens up to me more deeply and richly. And answers come before I even ask.


Want a fulfilling and meaningful prayer life? As Jesus taught, focus on your heavenly Father and you will enter into the life of the Father, Son and Spirit in ways beyond your imagining.

Your Kingdom Come

Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done here on earth as it is in heaven   Matthew 6:10

The student leaders of Church In The Box chose The Kingdom of God as their theme of the year. In thinking about the theme as I prepared an initial talk on the subject, it struck me again that many people have little idea of what it actually is.

The late theologian George Eldon Ladd wrote with insight and clarity about the Kingdom of God. His writing on the subject was certainly a benchmark for my generation. I found that his writing continues to be of personal and pastoral benefit as I grapple with the tensions inherent within the biblical texts. In piecing together the dozens of scriptures which refer to the Kingdom and putting them into a coherent whole, he wrote:


“The Mystery of the Kingdom is this: that the Kingdom which will one day change the entire external order has entered into This Age in advance to bring the blessings of God’s Kingdom to men and women without yet transforming the old order. The old age is going on, yet people may already enjoy the powers of The Age To Come “


We can taste now in part what we shall experience in full. The Kingdom of God is now, whether we can perceive it or not, and it will yet be fully consummated in the future. The future has invaded the present and we can begin to experience it now.


In my life, I have had the privilege of meeting and even knowing people of Kingdom Influence. Their lives bore evidence of the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom in who they were and what they did. This would include business people, housewives, mothers, students, missionaries… people of all walks of life. What they shared in common was brokenness about the way things are, and a deep conviction that God did not want things to stay that way.


I think of my friend, Kevin Rogers, who felt God calling him to plant a church in the most desolate part of the post recessionary City of Windsor. This church has been a catalyst for vitality and  blessing in that neighborhood. Addictions are broken, lives are redeemed and a whole neighborhood changed.  I think of our Redeemer students who have directed much agape love in the direction of Hamilton’s downtown core. I think of those like James Tughan and Chris Cuthill whose Flagship Art Gallery serves as a beacon in the midst James Street. There are Redeemer grads who have planted businesses down in the urban core that are making a difference.


Can you think of examples?  Are there people, or communities that reveal fingerprints of His Kingdom? What experience might you have of His inbreaking rulership? What would you like to see? What might God be calling you to do?

Puzzled, Confused & Bewildered

Jesus: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Disciples: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel.”  Acts 1:4-6

Last week I was definitely puzzled, confused and bewildered. Someone told me something and in my context it made no sense to me. But thinking I understood what they meant I continued on with certain plans. It wasn’t until a day later that I learned that what they were saying, which made sense in their context, was very different from what I thought.


Have you had that same experience? Perhaps you were to meet someone at 9:00 but you thought it was morning and they meant it was at night. Or maybe the prof said a 10-page paper and you struggle to fill 8 pages single spaced when he meant double-spaced. There are lots of times when communication breaks down because we have one perspective and the other person has a different idea in mind. And it is usually only in hind-sight when things become clear.


That is what is happening in this conversation between Jesus and the disciples. Forty days earlier Jesus was resurrected and now he is ready to go to his Father. He tells them they will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. It was necessary for the Spirit to come to empower the disciples for the work of God’s Kingdom. That’s Jesus’ context.


But the disciples were living a different context. They are still expecting the gift they were to receive was the overthrow the Roman government. Isn’t that why the Messiah has come? Now that he has come back to life they were ready for the kingdom to be re-established in Israel, for God’s chosen people.


But you can see the difficulty arise in the references to time. Jesus says, “Wait,” and “in a few days”; the disciples ask “at this time.”


The disciples thought they had a grand plan but in fact were thinking small, a narrow strip of land for a relatively tiny number of people. Jesus was thinking immense, all the nations across the whole earth.


Are there times when the circumstances are perfect, when everything is in place to move ahead on a project, a relationship, a position? There seems to be no reason why it shouldn’t. We are ready and our context makes it seems like this is the time. But nothing happens. And we can become puzzled and confused and bewildered. Why is it not happening like I thought it should?


My confusion last week was changed to abundant gratitude as I saw again God working out his plan for his glory. Are you being limited by your context? Seeing only from your perspective? Wait. And God will reveal his astonishing plan in his time..

Transitions

Transition: the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another. 

Paul: “and we…are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Cor. 3:18

September is a period of transition for everyone on campus. First-year students and transfer students, new faculty and new staff may be experiencing the greatest amount of change including different living, studying and working environments. HA’s and RA’s and RLF’s are shifting into roles with new sets of responsibilities and requirements. Becoming an Associate Chaplain has meant a very significant transition for me from a corner cubicle on the second floor to the window office in a main hallway. Even those who are long-term members of the Redeemer community are in transition: new challenges; different classes; or changing responsibilities. Whether Redeemer is new to you are not we are all in transition.

As schedules develop and life seems to take on a new routine we may think there is little that has changed. “Same old, same old” can be the way we often see life. But in reality today is a transition from yesterday and all the days that went before. Each day brings new experiences, conversations, and activities adding new insights and perspectives that help shape and form us.

And every day as the sun rises and sets we have the opportunity of experiencing God’s mercy in beautiful, unique, and challenging ways. Although God’s love is constant his compassions are new every day.

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  Lam. 3:21

Did you notice the plural? It is compassions: multiple expressions of God’s love that are revealed every day.

These compassions are new. That means we haven’t experienced them before.  

Do you have the eyes, ears, and heart to notice God’s outpouring of his love every day? Do you take the time to notice?  Do you see his compassion when you awake in the morning, while waiting in line or in traffic, during your walk to class? I encourage all of us to take a few minutes each day to absorb into our lives some of the countless demonstrations of his love.

When we are willing daily to be open to knowing his love in a way that surpasses knowledge, we can begin to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is his love. The more we experience the love of God, the most beautiful and amazing transition takes place in our lives: we become transformed more and more into the likeness of the Son of God.