THE LORD’S PRAYER AND I

• I cannot say: “Our” if I live in a selfish water-tight compartment.
• I cannot say: “Father” if I don’t demonstrate that relationship in my daily life.
• I cannot say: “Which art in Heaven” if I’m so preoccupied with an earthly life and laying up no treasure there.
• I cannot say: “Hallowed be Thy Name” if I, who am called by His Name, do not practise being Holy.
• I cannot say: “Thy Kingdom come” if I live as though earth is my only kingdom.
• I cannot say: “Thy will be done on earth” if I am questioning and resentful of His will for me.
• I cannot say: “As it is in Heaven” if I’m not prepared to devote my life to His Service.
• I cannot say: “Give us this day our daily bread” if I am living on yesterday’s experiences and not feeding on The Bread of Life.
• I cannot say: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” if I harbour grudges and resentment against others.
• I cannot say: “Lead us not into temptation” if I deliberately place myself in a position to be tempted.
• I cannot say: “Deliver us from evil” if I’m not prepared to confront the fact that evil is real and fight it at every turn in the spiritual realm with the weapon of prayer.
• I cannot say: “For Thine is the Kingdom” if I don’t offer myself to the King as a disciplined and obedient subject.
• I cannot say: “The power and the Glory” if I have little or no appreciation of just how powerful God is and fear what man may do or think of me.
• I cannot say: “For ever and ever” if my attitude toward God is restricted and limited and if my horizon is defined by things of earth and of time.
• I cannot say: “Amen” if I do not truly believe and trust that God is who He says He is.

Perhaps now we may look upon the prayer Jesus used to teach His disciples how to pray, in a different and more meaningful way!

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.