“When
you pray, say ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom
come, You will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day
our daily brad, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is
indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from
the evil one’.” Luke 11:2-4 NKJV
The
Freedom from Religion Foundation, based in Wisconsin, has been a thorn in the
flesh for many. Maybe even more aggressive than the ACLU, this group sets
its sights on anything religious within the public realm. I personally
find their tactics and their arguments shallow at best, and I personally think
those who contact this group to complain about being “offended” by Christianity
or Christian practices in public will find something else to complain about if
they manage to successfully drive Christianity completely out of public.
I can easily say this, however, because I am a Christian.
Something
occurred to me this morning, however. By the way the text is written,
Jesus seems to be asking His followers to commit this prayer to memory when He
tells us to “say” it. No harm in memorizing Scripture. The Lord’s
Prayer is (or should be) a significant part of worship liturgies, but I think
there is much more to this Prayer than just being able to recite it from
memory. Like most Scripture passages we commit to memory, we do more harm
to the spirit of the passage when we remove it from its context or if we do not
look more closely at the passage itself to find even deeper meaning than what
is only in the words themselves.
In
the case of The Lord’s Prayer, there is much more than a memorized portion of
worship liturgy. There is a principle being conveyed to Jesus’ disciples
(then and now). We are being asked not to merely “say” the words; we are
being challenged to fully submit to The Lord. We are asking The Lord for
mercy as we extend mercy. We are asking The Lord to provide for our
needs. We are praying for The Kingdom to come, and we are asking that The
Lord protect us from evil’s influence. The principle of the whole passage
strongly suggests we must be prepared to fully submit to the sovereignty of the
One who can provide all these things – and – that we are willing to put self
aside in order for our prayer to bear fruit for the glory of The Lord.
What
happens to the principle, then, whenever we pray strictly in defiance of those
who propose to silence us? What happens to our hearts if we are not
earnestly seeking The Lord’s “will be done” but are instead expressing our own
will only because we can? The prayer itself then becomes an act of
political protest rather than an earnest plea. We are not submitting to
anyone or anything but are, more often than not, simply bucking for a
fight. We are still “saying” the words, but the principle of fully
submitting to The Lord is lost on us.
This
is not to suggest we should be afraid to pray in public (incidentally, there is
no law that prohibits praying in public) nor should we ever refrain from
calling upon The Lord for help, for guidance, for strength, or for mercy.
What must be considered, however, is what we intend by our public prayers.
Is our primary purpose to stick a finger in the eye of the ACLU or the Freedom
from Religion folks, or are we fully prepared to submit to The Lord’s sovereign
authority? Like by showing mercy even when mercy does not seem
warranted? You see? The Lord is asking much more from those who
claim to trust Him than from those who do not know Him at all.
“Pray
without ceasing”, indeed, but let us be fully about calling upon The Lord
“without ceasing” and earnestly being prepared to abide by His Will rather than
our own. Our God “shows no partiality”, so we should not expect The Lord
to show us favor if we only invoke The Holy Name to serve a political purpose.
To merely “say” a prayer is not quite the same as being fully prepared
for how The Lord may answer our plea.
Blessings,
Michael
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