A few weeks ago, I was at a Tuesday Prayer Night with my church. It is a small group that gets together to connect, grow, and pray for others. My pastor was the speaker that day, and he had us go back to read and meditate on the Lord's prayer, and in doing so, I was given so many refreshing reminders of God's character and our role in this world. I really want to take the next week or so to soak and steep ourselves in pieces of this rich passage.
The Lord's Prayer is as follows:
“9 Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 ‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’”
I want to focus on just the first part of verse 9: "Our Father". When I began to think of this part of the Lord' prayer, there were so many words and phrases that resonated out of these two words.
“Our Father
We are on the same team.
One heartbeat, one accord, one place - suddenly
No competition, no score-keeping
Enemies are sisters and brothers”
God is "our" Father not just my Father or your Father. He is our Father. The plural pronoun, "our", indicates and determines the solidarity and connection we all have. We are on the same team, same family. I think too many times in our relationships we see everyone else in a "us versus them" mentality. We should be able to genuinely celebrate one another and genuinely grieve with one another.
We are all human with the same heart that beats. If only we could live at peace with one another, striving for something more beautiful, more loving. God works in unity, when we coexist as one heartbeat, one accord, one place - suddenly. I truly believe that there will be a lot more "suddenlys", spontaneous forms and outcomes of love, if we would just unify.
God is our Father, so if you win, I win. If you lose, I lose. I think if we truly saw each other as team-mates rather than rivals, we could make this a better place to live. No competition, no score-keeping - the tallying up of how many times that person has crossed you the wrong way. We have no idea or clue of the breadth and depth of what people go through every day.
We are human, so we all go through struggles and crappy seasons. When we begin to see God as the Father to the fatherless, the mender of the broken-hearted. We can see our enemies as so much more. If we accept that God is "our" Father, we cannot deny that those around us, strangers, friends, acquaintances, enemies, are connected to us. If God is the Father to all, our Father, we are all connected. We can let go and let God be the Father to those that have hurt us, shamed us, blamed us. God begins to replace our heart of stone with a heart of flesh; enemies are sisters and brothers. No longer does anyone owe us; we are free to live and love with the security that God is the ultimate parent that does not abandon or neglect.
TAKE AWAY:
1) God is our Father.
2) We are all more connected than we even know, so lets treat each other with that kind of compassion and consideration.
MEDITATION:
“5 A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows,
Is God in His holy habitation.
6 God makes a home for the lonely”
“3 He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds.”
DAILY CHALLENGE:
1) Meditate on "God our Father" for the day. Journal what feelings or reflections come your way.
2) How could you treat others with more compassion and consideration especially those that you tend to score-keep?