GIVE US OUR DAILY BREAD (24 OF 32)
Scripture: Matthew 6:11
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Give Us Our Daily Bread (24 of 32)
Series: Sermon on the Mount
Robert Dawson
Matthew 6:11
One of the things I hated most about seminary was my student mailbox. It looked like a P.O. Box at the post office but it had a build in combination locks. The lock, as most locks do, consisted of three sets of numbers. Each one had to be turned a certain number of times in a certain direction in a certain sequence. That mail box, 14125, turned out to be the most challenging part of my seminary career. Those three #’s and their subsequent decoding process was frustrating because the turns had to be find-tuned (the inner workings of a clock fine-tuned) if that mailbox door was going to open. These boxes were so temperamental most students around me simply rigged their box so the combination was unnecessary and the door would just open. Since my dad was a postal worker I could not bring myself to deface the public property in such away - if I got caught throwing rocks at the mailbox (which I did often) I was reminded it was a federal crime.
I am glad that when it comes to prayer and opening a door of communication to God the process is not as tedious and temperamental as my old mailbox. While prayer is not as complicated as my old mailbox, Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, gives us a prayer pattern that helps us unlock the joys, blessings and true purpose of prayer.
Jesus gives us a recipe for prayer. All the ingredients Jesus gives us makes for a vibrant prayer life. It demonstrates for us what should characterize our relationship with God. That is after all what this prayer is and prayer itself is really about, a relationship with God.
1. Prayer’s purpose is not to impress others with our great spirituality and Christian piety. It not to make us feel good and spiritual about ourselves.
2. The purpose of prayer is not to manipulate God into doing what we want or giving us what we ask (magic formula).
Prayer is not about getting our request granted but pu ...
Series: Sermon on the Mount
Robert Dawson
Matthew 6:11
One of the things I hated most about seminary was my student mailbox. It looked like a P.O. Box at the post office but it had a build in combination locks. The lock, as most locks do, consisted of three sets of numbers. Each one had to be turned a certain number of times in a certain direction in a certain sequence. That mail box, 14125, turned out to be the most challenging part of my seminary career. Those three #’s and their subsequent decoding process was frustrating because the turns had to be find-tuned (the inner workings of a clock fine-tuned) if that mailbox door was going to open. These boxes were so temperamental most students around me simply rigged their box so the combination was unnecessary and the door would just open. Since my dad was a postal worker I could not bring myself to deface the public property in such away - if I got caught throwing rocks at the mailbox (which I did often) I was reminded it was a federal crime.
I am glad that when it comes to prayer and opening a door of communication to God the process is not as tedious and temperamental as my old mailbox. While prayer is not as complicated as my old mailbox, Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, gives us a prayer pattern that helps us unlock the joys, blessings and true purpose of prayer.
Jesus gives us a recipe for prayer. All the ingredients Jesus gives us makes for a vibrant prayer life. It demonstrates for us what should characterize our relationship with God. That is after all what this prayer is and prayer itself is really about, a relationship with God.
1. Prayer’s purpose is not to impress others with our great spirituality and Christian piety. It not to make us feel good and spiritual about ourselves.
2. The purpose of prayer is not to manipulate God into doing what we want or giving us what we ask (magic formula).
Prayer is not about getting our request granted but pu ...
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