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The Concerns of Jesus, Part 12

Copyright © 2005, Roy F. Osborne. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.

Before leaving the Lord's Prayer, and at the risk of being repetitive, I want to emphasize again a couple of things. First, we should never repeat the Lord's Prayer as a ritual, or simply as a group religious exercise. These words of Jesus were words He was passing to His intimate disciples, to guide them as they approached the throne of the Eternal. They expressed the deepest concerns of His heart, and thus should be seriously considered by anyone who would repeat them. God is not impressed by human words, and simply reciting them cannot be called a prayer unless the heart is deeply involved.

Second, there is a pervading sense of dependence being expressed by Jesus in this prayer. It expresses the awesomeness of being in the hallowed presence of God, and the amazing privilege of calling Him "Father". Also, imbedded in that reverence, is the expression of total dependence upon Him in every way. "Thy Kingdom come" is not simply a desire for the establishment of the church, as many have thought. In the words of Jesus, it is the overwhelming desire for the reign of God to envelop the whole earth. Immediately following those words, Jesus prays that the Father's will might be done in the entire universe, as it is perfectly and completely done in the realm of heaven. It is more than a prayer for the church. It is a petition that the whole cosmos be under His rule and fulfill His purposes!

Finally (and I wish I had a greater vocabulary, and more impressive words, with which to say this), the prayer for forgiveness, and for God's leading, must be accompanied by a heart that realizes it is in sin, and needs forgiveness, and a spirit that realizes our utter helplessness, and need for God at every turn, with every decision we make, and every breath we take.

In Athens, Paul said, "God wants us to seek Him...He is not far from any one of us". God is not far away, nor is He too weak to help us. The skeptic says, "If God is so good, why doesn't He help us?" The skeptic doesn't understand. God made us decision-making creatures. We are free to choose Him or not. It is a relationship of love He wants, and without this freedom of choice it could not be. To violate it, even to bless us, would violate the whole purpose of His creation.

You are a creature of free choice, and as such you make many wrong ones, so you, with all the rest of us, are alienated from God by your sins. God alone can forgive, and lead you back to life and hope. But the choice to let Him do it has to be up to you.

The concern of Jesus, in this prayer, was that we open ourselves to the Father completely, so that He can give us the eternal treasures He has in store for all who will accept them. Real faith is realizing my desperate need for God, and that He is always there to forgive and lead, if I will let Him.

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