Reverend Justin Danielson, Parkview Christian Church
Many of you, like me, may think of Matthew 6:9-13 when you hear reference to the Lord’s Prayer. “9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Perhaps a better title for this passage is “The Model Prayer” since this is how Jesus was teaching the disciples how to pray.
This scripture has significance to me. During a youth group Christmas party in high school, my minister and his wife invited me to stay a little longer after the other youth left. I immediately thought that I was in trouble, but come to find out they had a gift for me…the NIV Student Bible, which I still have. At night I started memorizing The Model Prayer before I went to sleep. This was a great tool to use as I learned to pray, but I’ve learned so much more since then.
We find the Real Lord’s Prayer in John 17. Here, Jesus is praying not long before He would give His life on the cross to be our once and for all sacrifice. Jesus prays in three different parts. We can use these examples in our prayer life as well.
Part 1: Jesus prays for Himself (John 17:1-5). Jesus’ first example is to lift up our eyes to heaven. We are called to seek God in and through prayer. Jesus did it often throughout the Gospels. Jesus knew that He needed to seek out and talk with God through the avenue of prayer. In these first verses of John 17, Jesus knows His time is near.
For the complete column, see this week’s edition of the Centralia Fireside Guard.
