Greetings beloved church of Steem the peace of Jesus in our hearts today I want to share with you a way to meditate on the prayer of the Our Father.
Our father...
The prayer that our Lord has taught us is recorded twice in the Gospels. Matthew transmits the family version, Luke gives a summarized version (see Mt 6.9-13 and Luke 11.2-3).
One may ask why among the evangelicals we are, the Our Father is often neglected, while we voluntarily proclaim, following the Apostle Paul, that all the Scriptures are inspired by God and useful to teach, correct and instruct in righteousness. And, as heirs of the reformers of the sixteenth century, we affirm that the Bible is our only rule of faith and conduct. Let's meditate together.
A KEY
When we pray: Our Father who is in heaven we recognize our identity. Our appointees to the community of the disciples and Father our filiation. My identity is defined by two milestones: God and the Church. God is using the Church, in one way or another, for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to come to me, then, by the Spirit, God makes me his son. So I have an identity: son of God and family: of the people of God. When Jesus uses the metaphor of the father to teach us to pray, he does not ignore the risk of this image: there are many good parents, but there are also unworthy, tyrannical, absent, unknown parents. Such situations leave deep wounds and the negative idea of the earthly father runs the risk of projecting himself on the celestial father. But our Lord uses the Our Father and the teaching given to the disciples in the ecclesial community to restore the image of the father by making known Him who is in heaven. This last term is plural, our Father is above all, above all, master of everything; Your home is the paternal home to which we walk. For heaven also marks its otherness, he is the Creator, we are creatures. Our Father who is in heaven, the key to our identity and his.
A DOOR
Our soul that rises in prayer, we pass through the door of the paternal house, saying: "Let your name be sanctified." In the Hebrew culture, that of Jesus, knowing the name is not simply knowing that this is what it is called, it is knowing intimately to that person, so Jesus said to his Father: "I have made your name known to men ... Jn 17: 6, that is, I have revealed you, I have manifested who you are.
To sanctify means to sanctify, the idea here is to make venerable. When we say: "Let your name be sanctified, we enter into the universal execution of praise led by the seraphim of Es 6.2, the life of Revelation 4.6.We unite our voices to the choirs of the angels, to the assembly of the firstborn, to the righteous ones who have attained perfection (Heb 12:22) Praise is related to knowledge, the fruit of the Spirit of revelation that makes the glory of God shine in the face of Christ Jesus, the true man, is the perfect image of the invisible God, that is why he said to Philip: He who saw me, saw father Jn 14. 9. That your name be sanctified is the door of praise.
A WINDOW
Your kingdom come This consultation is a window into the future, an eschatological window. It is the cry of love of the people of God. We know that the existing one (see Exod 3.14), the one that has no beginning or end, the designer, creator and preserver of the world is above all and above all. He reigns forever and forever is an assured fact. But we aspire to the manifestation of his reign because at present his sovereignty is not recognized by all, it is disputed, a cosmic struggle is being committed. The final triumph is true, but evil and death still ravage the earth. Currently, the only begotten Son, who has received from the Father the name that is above all names ... in heaven, on earth and below the earth. Ph 2.9, seat to the right of Father Col 3.1. It must reign until the last enemy, death, is overcome. Then he will return the kingdom to the Father, so that God may be all in all 1 Cor 15.28. Glorious perspective that we call with all our hearts and nurture the hope of the people of God throughout the centuries.
A PLACE
When in prayer we say: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we reach the place of concord, it echoes the cry of love before. It is the universal desire of the people of God, therefore, it must be part of the life of each of its members. Not my will, Lord, but yours, must echo us continuously in the prayer of our Lord in Gethsemane. We are called to subordinate our desires to those of our Father, to renounce our ways to follow theirs. Let cruel experiences be avoided when this is the case. Prayer is the breath of the Christian, it is rightly said; But what do we ask in our prayers? Why are there so many prayers without an answer? (See James 4.3) Certainly Jesus said: Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and you will see it fulfilled, Mark 11:24. Instead of concord, we are daily reminded that we must not dissociate this promise from the sovereign will of our Father. He only gives prayers according to his will (see 1 Jn 5:14).
ROOMS
Continuing the prayer we say: Give us today our bread today. Here we are in the halls of Providence. The bread symbolizes all our needs: physical, economic, emotional and spiritual. Better than anyone, our Father knows what we are made of, so the Word incarnate teaches us to share our needs. Through the mouth of one of his prophets, our Father invites us cordially to enter: Come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk, without money, without paying anything! It is 55.1. In the halls of Providence, there is everything we need, in personal prayer we take the time to expose all our needs to our dear Father. Let us take with joy and gratitude what he gives us. The halls of Providence are the Remains of the heart of God, we receive what is necessary day after day, while Israel gathered the manna in the desert.
A CROSSING
Whenever necessary, we come to the crossroads of reconciliation when we say: Forgive our offenses as we forgive those who have offended us. Two roads cross, the way of the Lord and ours, form a cross. It reminds us of the one in which the Father forgives our sins because of his Son. At this crossroads we must stop to recognize our mistakes daily. Some are obvious to us, we must confess them; But are they the only ones? We must let the Spirit search our hearts, bring that thought to light, remember forgotten words or actions too quickly; Sometimes the Spirit points out what should have been done or said, a feeling of compassion that should come from a pure heart. Too fast to cross the crossroads of reconciliation, we do not progress in sanctification. This examination of conscience, indispensable for our communion with the Father, is the first arm of the cross, the second concerns our relationships with our fellow men. Forgiveness is granted to us whenever we do it to those who have offended us. It is time to count the sores and wounds, and then forgive those who provoked them. Thus liberated, no root of bitterness poisons our lives and our relationships. Forgive our offenses, as we forgive those who have offended us, a crucial crossroads of reconciliation.
A gateway
When teaching us to ask: do not submit to temptation, our Lord knows what you are talking about. The Father never tempts anyone, he who knows all things can not be tempted by evil (cf. Je 1.13); but in the cosmic conflict with Satan, he may allow the tempter to test our faith (see Job 1.1). These tests, allowed by our good heavenly Father, are for two reasons: first, to demonstrate in the heavenly places the authenticity of the worship we offer to God, on the other hand to make us grow spiritually in the likeness of His Son. Fierce access to that temptation because we are all aware of our vulnerability, that is why we ask: do not submit to temptation.
AN AVENUE
We thus arrive at the last request: deliver us from evil. The evil is there, everywhere, carpeted in the door of our heart (Gen 4.7) and in the whole world where, by the will of our Lord, we are now called to live, let us illuminate in the darkness, grains of salt in universal salad, concrete signs of a truly new humanity, which carries a message of hope for our contemporaries. Deliver us from evil, sure avenue of victory in Christ, by whoever trusts him.
A SENTENCE
A prayer for each one to do the same, do not deprive yourself of this blessing. A prayer to meditate and do together with a sincere heart. For this, obviously it is necessary to know the Our Father and, if possible, to say it in the same terms. Some know for a long time, others have to learn it. If this is your case, choose the most popular version, so you can pray with your brothers and sisters, who are in heaven, wherever you are.
