March 13th, 2023
by Steve Marshall
by Steve Marshall
June 5, 2020
Hey there Church Family:
When Jesus teaches us to pray by giving us the Lord’s Prayer there becomes some very clear elements of the prayer that are glaringly obvious. Jesus teaches His disciples and us to pray by immediately beginning with a pronoun that is to direct our heart during prayer. The pronoun that He begins with is also the only pronoun used throughout the entire prayer, “OUR”. “Our” is not an insignificant pronoun. The entire prayer is written in first-person plural. There is not one single occurrence of a singular pronoun in the entire prayer besides the pronoun “your” referring to God. Jesus is making a huge point here at the beginning and throughout the prayer. Jesus challenges any individualism that we may have in prayer.
Jesus wants us to understand that when we enter into a relationship with our Heavenly Father, our relationship is not just an individual relationship but a community relationship with ALL of His people. Before we were adopted by God the Father, we were individuals roaming this world as children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3) but have now been adopted into the Family of God, children, heirs with Christ (Romans 8).
As adopted brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus desires for us to pray as believers remembering that we are never alone. Praying is not an individual sport! Prayer is not always about me, but it is about we and the Lord’s Prayer starts out with that understanding. One of the huge problems of the American church today is individualism. We tend to be alone, by ourselves and we put great emphasis on “my own personal walk with God.” In the Family of God, my personal walk with God is to be interwoven with my church family walk with God. We call this community. My walk is never just about me but always about we. Jesus teaches us through His prayer that we are to know what the needs are of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus wants us to know how we can pray for the family of God, how we can help serve each other and meet needs. When we come to our Heavenly Father in prayer, we come as a family member with the rest of the family on our heart.
Do you know of anyone in your church family praying for you? Have you let anyone in your church family know how they can pray for you? Have you ever asked anyone in your church family how you can pray for them? Have you been vulnerable enough to do what Jesus is calling us to do in His teaching on prayer? Are your prayers filled mostly with the singular pronouns I, me, my, mine? God has made us to be a grace gift to each other from our Heavenly Father to pray for each other. For some of us, this is one reason why this season of isolation from COVID19 has resulted in great discouragement, hopelessness, worries, loneliness and fear. We are not enjoying one of the greatest gifts that we have been given by our Father in Heaven, the gift of praying for one another. Praying for one another replaces discouragement with hope, replaces hopelessness with hopefulness, replaces worries with trust, replaces loneliness with togetherness, and replaces fear with belief.
God has adopted us into His family to care and love and pray for one another as if our lives depended on our prayers. Let us pray that way. Let our prayers be plural, we, us, our, ours. Let the plurality, the community of our prayers push us to know others, seek others and how to pray for others. Let your church family know how to be praying for you. And yes, that is going to take vulnerability but be encouraged, the result is that our Heavenly Father, the ruler of everything, all things, visible and invisible, in heavens and on earth, works in us and through us and for us as His family with His sovereign power and purpose. That is kind of a big deal!
Matthew 6:9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven…
This Sunday we will be meeting in person at the church building, respecting NC Executive Order #138, if you would like to join us in person at 10am. And for those who will be staying at home, we will be live-streaming on our Grace Community Church Topsail YouTube Channel. Push the blue link. We can also be found at https://www.gracetopsail.com/
I look forward to worshipping with you Sunday. - Steve
When Jesus teaches us to pray by giving us the Lord’s Prayer there becomes some very clear elements of the prayer that are glaringly obvious. Jesus teaches His disciples and us to pray by immediately beginning with a pronoun that is to direct our heart during prayer. The pronoun that He begins with is also the only pronoun used throughout the entire prayer, “OUR”. “Our” is not an insignificant pronoun. The entire prayer is written in first-person plural. There is not one single occurrence of a singular pronoun in the entire prayer besides the pronoun “your” referring to God. Jesus is making a huge point here at the beginning and throughout the prayer. Jesus challenges any individualism that we may have in prayer.
Jesus wants us to understand that when we enter into a relationship with our Heavenly Father, our relationship is not just an individual relationship but a community relationship with ALL of His people. Before we were adopted by God the Father, we were individuals roaming this world as children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3) but have now been adopted into the Family of God, children, heirs with Christ (Romans 8).
As adopted brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus desires for us to pray as believers remembering that we are never alone. Praying is not an individual sport! Prayer is not always about me, but it is about we and the Lord’s Prayer starts out with that understanding. One of the huge problems of the American church today is individualism. We tend to be alone, by ourselves and we put great emphasis on “my own personal walk with God.” In the Family of God, my personal walk with God is to be interwoven with my church family walk with God. We call this community. My walk is never just about me but always about we. Jesus teaches us through His prayer that we are to know what the needs are of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus wants us to know how we can pray for the family of God, how we can help serve each other and meet needs. When we come to our Heavenly Father in prayer, we come as a family member with the rest of the family on our heart.
Do you know of anyone in your church family praying for you? Have you let anyone in your church family know how they can pray for you? Have you ever asked anyone in your church family how you can pray for them? Have you been vulnerable enough to do what Jesus is calling us to do in His teaching on prayer? Are your prayers filled mostly with the singular pronouns I, me, my, mine? God has made us to be a grace gift to each other from our Heavenly Father to pray for each other. For some of us, this is one reason why this season of isolation from COVID19 has resulted in great discouragement, hopelessness, worries, loneliness and fear. We are not enjoying one of the greatest gifts that we have been given by our Father in Heaven, the gift of praying for one another. Praying for one another replaces discouragement with hope, replaces hopelessness with hopefulness, replaces worries with trust, replaces loneliness with togetherness, and replaces fear with belief.
God has adopted us into His family to care and love and pray for one another as if our lives depended on our prayers. Let us pray that way. Let our prayers be plural, we, us, our, ours. Let the plurality, the community of our prayers push us to know others, seek others and how to pray for others. Let your church family know how to be praying for you. And yes, that is going to take vulnerability but be encouraged, the result is that our Heavenly Father, the ruler of everything, all things, visible and invisible, in heavens and on earth, works in us and through us and for us as His family with His sovereign power and purpose. That is kind of a big deal!
Matthew 6:9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven…
This Sunday we will be meeting in person at the church building, respecting NC Executive Order #138, if you would like to join us in person at 10am. And for those who will be staying at home, we will be live-streaming on our Grace Community Church Topsail YouTube Channel. Push the blue link. We can also be found at https://www.gracetopsail.com/
I look forward to worshipping with you Sunday. - Steve
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