Unpacking the Lord's Prayer-Part 2

Did you do your homework?  Remember you were to read I Chronicles 16:7-36 and see how many descriptive words of God you could find.  I found 21:

thanks  sing  praise  covenant  salvation  splendor  joy  jubilant  glory  rejoice  strength  oath  anointed  majesty  worship  seek  wonders  miracles  decree  deeds   resound

I love finding a passage of scripture like this that shows us what true worship looks like!  I have bookmarked that one and will be going back to it during some praise time.

Alright, let's dig in to where we left off yesterday:

Thy Kingdom Come Thy Will be Done on earth as it is in heaven

And this is where it gets hard!  Did you see it says THY kingdom, not MY kingdom?  This is certainly an area where I get caught praying for my own wish list, instead of praying for where God wants to lead me.  In three places we are directed to seek FIRST His Kingdom:

1. "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."  Matthew 6:33
2. "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy  Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men."  Romans 14:17
3. "Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God?  Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."  Galatians 1:10

But that is not all.  Jesus wants us to realize that the Kingdom of God is everywhere.  It is within us when we accept Jesus to be our Savior.  It is around us as we join in unity with other believers.  It is also before us, in the second coming of Christ when he will once again rule this earth.

Give us this day our Daily Bread

We don't often have to pray for our daily provisions like the Israelites in the dessert who depended on manna from heaven each day to feed them.  But we do need to pause and realize that everything we have is a gift of God.  If He were to close his hand of blessing, we would wither and die.

Asking God for our Daily Bread helps us depend on him, eliminate worry and enlarge our duty to pray.  Did you notice that again it says OUR daily bread, not MY daily bread.  There are many people in the world who truly do not know where their next meal will come from and they pray each day for God's provision.

"The key to praying with right motives is to keep our prayers in the context of worship and God's kingdom.  With those as the context of what we ask for, we will run far less risk of praying with impure motives."  David Jeremiah

As we wrap up our portion for today, go back to I Chronicles in chapter 29:10-19.  List all that belongs to God, noting in verse 17 how God determines our attitudes toward material things.

I'll see you back here tomorrow for our final day in the Lord's Prayer.

=========================================================

My notes were compiled from the study guide Prayer the Great Adventure by David Jeremiah.  I was almost done with the book before I realized it was the study guide!  It is jam packed with great information