His Praise (2 of 6)
Series: Bent into Shape
Joey Rodgers
Matthew 6:9
I read a story of a pastor on a mission trip who was asked to speak w/ a group of national pastors at an outdoor pavilion. As fate would have it, as he began to speak, torrential rains began to fall, and the noise hitting the roof overhead was deafening. The pastor, wanting to show his spirituality, cried out, ''In Jesus' name, let the rains stop!'' And it began to rain harder. So he called out a 2nd time, ''In the name of Jehovah, make these rains cease!'' About that time, not only did it rain harder, but a clap of thunder shook the pavilion - to which the pastor said, ''Let us all give thanks to God for the rain!''
To say there's a gross misunderstanding and abuse of prayer among people today would be an understatement - and we're not the first generation to suffer from this malaise. As we learned last week, when the disciples approached Jesus to ask Him to teach them to pray, prayer had been so corrupted by rabbinic tradition that prayers like the Shema/Shemoneh ersay had become prescribed/ritualized - and the people had no idea how to have a personal communication w/ God.
Scary - many Christian traditions have done the same w/ the Lord's Prayer as we've misunderstood/misapplied the intent of this prayer by reciting it as rote instead of seeing it is a recipe for engaging w/ God. Jesus gave us this prayer to keep us from using vain repetition.
pray (proseuchomai) pro = facing toward - refers to one who seeks God's face. euchomai = to utter aloud. Meaning prayer is a personal, face-to-face encounter w/ God.
Knowing this, when Jesus taught His disciple to pray - He was clear this prayer was be a pattern/model to connect w/ God but never to be a substitute. We're to understand it and follow it to get face-to-face and bent into shape.
When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others ...
Series: Bent into Shape
Joey Rodgers
Matthew 6:9
I read a story of a pastor on a mission trip who was asked to speak w/ a group of national pastors at an outdoor pavilion. As fate would have it, as he began to speak, torrential rains began to fall, and the noise hitting the roof overhead was deafening. The pastor, wanting to show his spirituality, cried out, ''In Jesus' name, let the rains stop!'' And it began to rain harder. So he called out a 2nd time, ''In the name of Jehovah, make these rains cease!'' About that time, not only did it rain harder, but a clap of thunder shook the pavilion - to which the pastor said, ''Let us all give thanks to God for the rain!''
To say there's a gross misunderstanding and abuse of prayer among people today would be an understatement - and we're not the first generation to suffer from this malaise. As we learned last week, when the disciples approached Jesus to ask Him to teach them to pray, prayer had been so corrupted by rabbinic tradition that prayers like the Shema/Shemoneh ersay had become prescribed/ritualized - and the people had no idea how to have a personal communication w/ God.
Scary - many Christian traditions have done the same w/ the Lord's Prayer as we've misunderstood/misapplied the intent of this prayer by reciting it as rote instead of seeing it is a recipe for engaging w/ God. Jesus gave us this prayer to keep us from using vain repetition.
pray (proseuchomai) pro = facing toward - refers to one who seeks God's face. euchomai = to utter aloud. Meaning prayer is a personal, face-to-face encounter w/ God.
Knowing this, when Jesus taught His disciple to pray - He was clear this prayer was be a pattern/model to connect w/ God but never to be a substitute. We're to understand it and follow it to get face-to-face and bent into shape.
When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others ...
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