Tag: luke

Our Father

Luke 11
2 And He said to them, When you pray, say: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come. Your will be done [held holy and revered] on earth as it is in heaven.
3 Give us daily our bread [food for the morrow].
4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us [who has offended us or done us wrong]. And bring us not into temptation but rescue us from evil.

  • “Our Father”
  • When Jesus teaches on prayer there is no individuality. There is no focus on the personal self life. We are not taught to say “My Father”. This is a striking and powerful truth.
  • It is wonderful that we can personally, individually and intimately call upon The Heavenly Father but with these opening words our gaze/focus is immediately off of ourselves and on others, HIS body and HIS family. We are immediately in intercession for others rather than personal petition. Of course it is not wrong to pray for personal needs and petitions. We are encouraged to do this elsewhere in scripture but as a single teaching, a singular example/template this prayer from The Lord is markedly unselfish.
  • I’ve found this to be such a wonderful provision in my own prayerlife. When I have so many people to pray for and so many petitions to bring, when I feel overwhelmed with burdens and unable to pray effectively, this prayer truly and completely fulfils every request/need. With my heart on every brother and sister as well as my own circumstance I can pray “Our Father”. I find myself united in heart, on the same Spiritual plane, standing alongside my brother/sister in Christ.
  • Saying “Our Father” I can stand in representation of all who I desire to pray for, no matter the length of the list or span of the needs. I come before The Father with the burden of all who are on my heart, and I plead “OUR Father”!
  • We will never fully appreciate or understand how incredibly wonderful it is that we can call Him Father. We will never understand the lengths that He has gone to and the price that He has paid for our Salvation, but we can live in the wonder, awe and joy of such a truth. It is something we ought to meditate on more often. Let us take care to not let the words become too familiar and common. We are sons and daughters of God, joint heirs with Christ!! Hallelujah!! What a hope is ours!! We have been given the best robe, a ring on our finger, shoes on our feet and all of heaven rejoices in our Salvation!! Oh, praise the name of Jesus Christ! Bless Your name Heavenly Father! Glory be to You!
  • Brothers and sisters, when we pray let us, reverently and joyfully, say “Our Father”!  

From Broken To Burning

Luke 24
32 And they said to one another, Were not our hearts greatly moved and burning within us while He was talking with us on the road and as He opened and explained to us the Scriptures?

  • These two disciples had been walking along sad and broken hearted. Their hopes were dashed, life hadn’t worked out as they had expected or hoped. With their faith crushed to pieces, they talked in the past tense trying to figure out where it all went wrong.
  • ⁠They did not recognise Jesus! The very one they had hoped in! The one they had followed for so long. He was walking and talking with them but they were ignorant of His presence. Their gaze so inward and their sight so blinded by self pity, disappointment and defeat that they did not recognise their risen, victorious Lord and Saviour was with them.
  • But Jesus, after a straight but gentle rebuke, corrects their understanding and lays firmly the foundations of the gospel message. Slowly they came to realise how their expectations had been wrong! Their focus and understanding had been on the wrong thing, it had been fleshly, without Spiritual understanding. Slowly, by knowledge of The Word, their faith began to stir again… Of course Jesus had to die! It was prophesied, it was necessary, it was God’s plan for Salvation all along! They gradually became certain and assured of the scriptures, they started to believe again, truly Jesus was risen, they didn’t know where He was but it didn’t matter any more! They were reassured in the scriptures, took God at His word and trusted in Him! Their hearts burned with excitement, expectancy, hope, joy and rejoicing in all that God was doing.
  • When their hearts burned in the Spiritual, Jesus revealed himself in the physical! Only after their hearts burned with faith did He open their eyes to see He had been there all along!
  • May our faith be so stirred and may our hearts burn with such joy, expectancy and trust! Hallelujah! HE IS RISEN! PRAISE THE LORD!!