Have you ever caught yourself mindlessly reciting the Lord's Prayer, only to wonder about its deeper significance? Let Elizabeth and Kimberly guide you through its transformative potential and how to avoid the trap of empty repetition. We share stories exploring the prayer's ability to draw us into a family, a community of faith. Listen as we discuss the importance of recognizing God as our loving Father, while not forgetting His majestic power, and how this delicate balance should shape our approach to prayer.
The idea of God's kingdom can seem distant, something for the afterlife perhaps, but our conversation turns that notion on its head. We discuss how 'Your kingdom come' is not just a wish for the future, but a call to action here and now. Join us as we navigate the tension between managing our daily responsibilities and embracing our role in God's grand narrative. Be challenged to rethink how to bring the kingdom's values to life in every corner of your existence, from the mundane to the magnificent.
Wrapping up, we delve into the heart of alignment through prayer, asking for God's will to be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Praying these words isn't just a request; it's a commitment to setting aside our own agendas in favor of God's perfect plan. We encourage you to embrace this practice, not just as a routine, but as a way to transform your daily life. So come along, tune in, and let this episode inspire you to worship, trust, and align with your Father in heaven more deeply than ever before.
Have you ever caught yourself mindlessly reciting the Lord's Prayer, only to wonder about its deeper significance? Let Elizabeth and Kimberly guide you through its transformative potential and how to avoid the trap of empty repetition. We share stories exploring the prayer's ability to draw us into a family, a community of faith. Listen as we discuss the importance of recognizing God as our loving Father, while not forgetting His majestic power, and how this delicate balance should shape our approach to prayer.
The idea of God's kingdom can seem distant, something for the afterlife perhaps, but our conversation turns that notion on its head. We discuss how 'Your kingdom come' is not just a wish for the future, but a call to action here and now. Join us as we navigate the tension between managing our daily responsibilities and embracing our role in God's grand narrative. Be challenged to rethink how to bring the kingdom's values to life in every corner of your existence, from the mundane to the magnificent.
Wrapping up, we delve into the heart of alignment through prayer, asking for God's will to be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Praying these words isn't just a request; it's a commitment to setting aside our own agendas in favor of God's perfect plan. We encourage you to embrace this practice, not just as a routine, but as a way to transform your daily life. So come along, tune in, and let this episode inspire you to worship, trust, and align with your Father in heaven more deeply than ever before.
The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God. I'm Elizabeth Gunter-Powell.
Speaker 2:And I am Kimberly Roddy. Welcome to the Father's Business Podcast. We are so glad that you've joined us.
Speaker 1:Welcome everybody to this week's podcast. Kimberly and I had the opportunity to go down to Auburn, alabama, a few weeks ago and speak to the East Alabama Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which was a great time. While we were there, one of the things that I talked on was the Lord's Prayer, and that kind of got Kimberly and I thinking about wanting to have a deeper conversation about a prayer that can feel very formulaic. It can feel like we just pray it and wrote. I think if Kimberly and I started it by saying our Father, everyone else would start chiming in, because it's thankfully something a lot of us have memorized. But I think in the familiarity sometimes we miss the deeper essence, right, kimberly?
Speaker 2:Yes, elizabeth, there are some traditions that I know. The Lord's Prayer is something that's repeated every Sunday and is a part of worship, is a part of liturgy, and I know for some the Lord's Prayer is not that common, but it's definitely something that I know, we see, we've heard, we're aware of. To what degree probably depends on the tradition that you grew up in, the tradition that you participated. Now, in my opinion, it is something that I think we've all been exposed to as believers. Sometimes it can feel just like it's the old family Bible sitting on the table that you see. It's just there. It doesn't have a whole lot of meaning, it's just there, part of what's been, and I don't think that's true.
Speaker 2:I know for me, over the years, God has certainly brought much to life regarding the Lord's Prayer and the power that it has. I think part of it is we just have to remove our preconceived ideas, which some don't have these preconceived ideas, and that's great, but some do. So I think sometimes it's a matter of removing the preconceived ideas of a rote type prayer. But it was a prayer in the Gospels that Jesus said pray this way. I don't know if it's a command I'd have to look at the language there, but it was a directive, so to speak, and a model for how to pray holistically. So I think that's part of what we wanted to talk about today is what that means how to utilize that prayer in our prayers and how to think differently about, or think more holistically about, the Lord's Prayer and the power that Jesus meant for it to have in Scripture.
Speaker 1:I find it interesting, kimberly, that when the disciples said, teach us how to pray, that this is what he said. That's only been a recent thing that I've been kind of sitting and going of all the things that Jesus could have said. When you pray, pray this way. These are the words he chose simply because of what you're just saying. I grew up in a church and probably one of the first things I memorized was the Lord's Prayer, and even when you go to, say, civil ceremonies or other government functions or whatever funerals where not everyone there is a believer, you start the Lord's Prayer and the vast majority of people either know it and can say it with you, or they at least recognize it Also been turned into a beautiful song that is often sung at different types of ceremonies and celebrations. It is easy for it to become more formulaic, but I've been kind of sitting with and asking the question look at every phrase of this. And why did he choose that phrase? Because there's nothing that Jesus didn't do without intentionality and as I was sharing with the women down in Auburn, I get stopped at just the first two words our Father Because he could have said my Father or just Father, but I think he chose our as that first word because he wanted to make sure that he understood that one.
Speaker 1:All of us are beloved children of a Most High God, but also there's a very collective thing to it that it's not just those of us that are present in that moment, but it is the greater family of faith. It is everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord is a son or daughter of God Most High. There's such power in just the word hour. I don't know that I can even really describe it well, but there is this feeling of I'm not alone in this. I have a great partner, first in Jesus, as he is referred to as our brother. So if Jesus and I are both saying our Father, there is that position in Christ with him, but also the greater collective of the faith that is out there.
Speaker 1:And then for the next word to be Father. There's so much about identity in that word, one that he is a Father, that he's not just a God out in the universe somewhere who's uncaring, but he wants a relationship with us and because he is Father, that makes me his child and the safety and security that comes in understanding I mean you and I talk about all the time on this podcast, because it is the deepest thing we need to know is that we are the beloved child of a loving Father. It's something I've I mean, I'm over 50 years old it's something I have said for wrote for many, many years, but it's only been recently that I really have been hit by the fact that, of all the worst Jesus could choose, he chose those.
Speaker 2:Right, and when you think of that phrase, like you're saying, it's that our Father takes us to a place of communal living. Yeah, and it's a beautiful reminder that the scripture wasn't written to you, elizabeth, or to me as individuals. It was written to a group of people, and so there is a collective joining together. There's a heritage, there's a past, there's a family, like, over and over scriptures, the body of Christ, the family of God. Like you have these things, that it's not individualistic.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So the body, it's not just the hand, the finger, the toe, it's the body, it's a collective thing, it's the family, it's not just an individual, it's a familial thing.
Speaker 2:And so I think that, like you said, to pray our Father binds us together as believers and helps us remember that we're not alone. Like you said, it's not just me praying this. I'm not the first person to pray this, I won't be the last person to pray this. It's admitting that there are hundreds of millions, of billions of people around the world who are crying out to God, our Father, in a prayer, in a petition, as His children. And that's also like there's a few times I think I'd have to look it up, but like a few times in scripture that you see child, but more often than not we're the children of God. And so, again, it's a communal element. And so we talk about who you are in Christ and your identity in Christ, but we've got to also remember it's connected to a much bigger piece of our identity as children of God, and that he is our Abba, father. There is a tender relationship and also a holy relationship there.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like he's our Father, and you go to your Father in an appropriate, respectful way and you also have an endearment to a Father.
Speaker 2:And again that we can go into that whole, safe in the Father's heart journey as to all the things that Father can mean. But, in essence, when Jesus said this is how I teach you to pray, it starts, like you said, with our Father. Starting with the reason that we pray is because God is our Father and we have a right position in Him to go to Him, to petition Him and acknowledging that he is willing to bless us because we are in relationship with Him and that we need to ask Him to bless us because of the relationship we have with Him.
Speaker 1:Yes, kimberly, and I love that the beginning of this prayer invites my heart into relationship. I think if Jesus had started it with most high God or Holy One or whatever, there would be a part of my heart that would take a step back, because then he becomes almost like the big wizard in the Wizard of Oz that you're afraid to approach. To ask for something versus a Father is someone that I want to be embraced by, I want to be held, I want to crawl up in his lap and let him tell me it's going to be okay, and that is a no way to take away from the Majesty of who he is. Because I think you move on to the next phrase very quickly. It goes from our Father, which is a very relational thing to who is in heaven.
Speaker 1:I think that is a beautiful reminder of this.
Speaker 1:It's both and it's.
Speaker 1:He is intimate and relatable and so close to me, and yet at the same time, he is a mighty, holy Other than God, and he is in heaven. He is the Creator of the universe, he is so much bigger than we can even begin to imagine and he is the one sitting on the throne. So it's not that we just have a loving Father. We also have a loving Father who has all the power in the world and in heaven. He's even outside of time, and I think that is so good for me to be reminded of. Sometimes, when I am coming to him with a need, that I feel like there's no way, like this is impossible, this can't get better, and it's like but he's not living on the same plane you are. He's not bound by the same rules that you are as a human. He is beyond and other than, and he's the God of the impossible. So I think it's a beautiful way to weave together the intimacy of who he is, but also the majesty of who he is in that phrase our Father, who is in heaven.
Speaker 2:Right, you can think of it like that the hour speaks of the community, the Father speaks of that familial relationship and the in heaven speaks of the authority that he holds.
Speaker 2:He's the one who has the power to help me. We can pray to him because we know he cares for us as a Father. We're praying with others from the hour perspective, and so it is. It's that we don't. We don't have a problem that he can't handle. We don't. There's not a need in our life that he can't meet. He holds that power, and so it definitely sets the stage right.
Speaker 1:And that's this.
Speaker 2:This is the way to start your prayer. In the position and the posture of together our, we seek our Father, who we are in relationship with, and his position is in heaven with all authority.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean, he is, I am. He is outside of time. He is the same yesterday, today and forever, and all of the promises that he gave in the Bible so long ago are as if they were spoken today. They are still yes and amen for us and they're still going to be there in the future. And that's the other comforting part of this is that he's in heaven, yes, but that means he is outside, while still involved here on earth, outside the limits of verse. So therefore, he's already in my tomorrow and there's such a firm foundation that before we even get to because you know, later in the prayer you get to needs and wants and and here's what's going on in my life down here on earth.
Speaker 1:But I love how, so much of this prayer, we haven't even started talking about anything that we're trying to ask him for where we're sinning ourselves and who he is, who we are as the body of Christ, who the power of who he is, the intimacy of who he is, and and we're going to keep going. And we're still not talking about what we can't. You know, so often we think prayer is I come to him because I have a need and he does want us to share our needs with him, but we're we're way into this prayer before we ever get to anything about us. It's still us getting ourselves aligned with who he is, and so the prayer continues. Hallowed be your name.
Speaker 1:So oftentimes we talk about how the importance of knowing who God is and the characteristics of who God is so much of what's going on in my world on a on a daily basis can be solved if I remember who God is for me, in that, in that, in that circumstance or that situation that I have going on. That doesn't mean the circumstance changes or gets better, necessarily, but the peace that comes from knowing okay, yes, this is going on in my life, but this is who God is allows me to get re centered and realigned with him. And it doesn't matter. I mean, do I want my life to get easier, better? Yes, but if it doesn't, it's okay, because I know who God is.
Speaker 1:For me in these circumstances, it's not really because God needs to be praised. He does inhabit the praise of his people, but I don't ever think God commanding us to praise him is really about him. I think it's because he knows we need to be reminded in our frailty of exactly who God is and how majestic and powerful and wonderful and abundant he is for every need we have. There is something of who he is that can meet that need.
Speaker 2:It gets, like you're saying, to the nature of who God is. Again, if I go back just a minute, we've got the our father, we've got that positional who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. So there's the relational and the positional place and then when we look at hallowed be thy name, it is again leading into that we have to revere him with respect and utmost sacredness and holiness and it's recognizing that his name alone, like in the Old Testament, you couldn't even say, like they couldn't spell Yahweh with all the vowels and stuff because it was almost sacrilegious to do that and that's too simple of a word, but it was utterly disrespectful and you couldn't speak the name because there was so much holiness to it.
Speaker 2:And so I think there's something there about a name too. Like when parents give children names, it's for a reason. Either they just simply really like the name, maybe there's also meaning behind the name, sometimes it's a family name, sometimes they're named after someone who's had a significant relationship to them. But there's that and how it would be. Your name is a recognition that God Himself, yahweh, the great I am, is to be revered, and it's acknowledgement that you know. Like whenever we say someone's name, it connotates hey, listen, I see you, I know you, I recognize you, and so it almost feels like it's a hallowed be your name. It's like we're acknowledging that your name, god Almighty, is to be respected and revered. So the next line says thy kingdom come, your kingdom come. And I, elizabeth, I was. I told you a few weeks ago that this prayer had, over the years.
Speaker 2:My depth of understanding of this prayer had grown tremendously over the last 10 years or so, and it is these next few phrases that really have come to mean something different to me. I think your kingdom come is a powerful phrase. What's that really mean? It is an asking for something bigger, right, it's seeking something greater Like I believe that if you look at Genesis at the beginning of creation, that Adam and Eve were given rule and reign, they were given authority, they were given dominion.
Speaker 2:That's the phrase that we see in scripture you're given dominion over in rule and reign, and so we are as God's children, we are like vice regents and we get to rule and reign the kingdoms that he gives us here on this earth. And so we can get real caught up in that right, we can get real controlling of our kingdom, and I think this is a very large acknowledgement of it is about his kingdom and it is a pleading for his kingdom to come. I wake up every day typically thinking about my kingdom, not a bigger kingdom, which I think has a lot to do with just how I position myself in my daily life. So, elizabeth, when you think about kingdom, what are some words that come to mind for you, or what's the sense that you have when you think about that phrase, or when you hear that phrase like your kingdom come?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, let's all be honest. We, as much as we say we, are living with a kingdom mindset. Most days, like you said, kimberly, you wake up and you're thinking about your kingdom, my family, my work, my job, my school, my, the area in which I live, and it feels very much like this is my little corner of the earth that I have a level of control over that I do have influence over. Most days I wake up thinking it's up to me to take care of my kingdom.
Speaker 1:You know, kids have got to be fed husbands got to get to work, I've got to get to my job, like laundry's got to get done. There are things that have to be done that are on my shoulders, and so I think oftentimes we can shrink our kingdom down to that. And then, you know, you turn on the news and you hear about America and everything that's going on, politics and otherwise, and then that's another kingdom you think about. But even that, how? I mean, how quickly do we hear about something overseas and then just even forget about it Because we're not thinking with a big mindset where, like, what affects me, what can I control, what can I have an impact on? And that kind of defines what I think of as my kingdom.
Speaker 1:But that's not God's picture of our kingdom at all. First of all, I'm not in charge of the kingdom that God is talking about. He is, and it's about inviting all of who he is to come into. Wherever I go, wherever my feet go, wherever I impact someone through an email or speaking or even this podcast, kimberly, our kingdom is as far as God allows us to reach, and so I believe we are all supposed to be about bringing more of who God is and who we are in Him and His kingdom into this earth, understanding that there's also another layer of this right, Because when Jesus is praying your kingdom come, I think he is praying present tense, like more of who God is in this moment, right now.
Speaker 1:But there is also a kingdom to come and I think when he was praying this I mean I know, when he was praying this to the people he was praying it to they still had in their mind that Jesus was coming as their king and he was going to set up an earthly kingdom at that time and a lot of them were very disillusioned when that didn't happen. I often even think about what were the disciples thinking when Jesus told them to pray your kingdom come. I think they were very much like us, only thinking in the present tense rather than thinking in the larger continuum of all that God has been doing with those that came before us and those that are coming after us.
Speaker 2:Right. When you think of the whole of scripture, you think Genesis Revelation. It's a story right.
Speaker 2:It's a big story, it's not things that we piecemeal apart, but there is an establishment of the kingdom that God has been about since day one that looks different throughout the time of history. It doesn't look different in the sense of God is about establishing his kingdom, but it has these different seasons, so to speak, of how we get to see that kingdom. And so I think there is the coming kingdom. When we say, come quickly, lord Jesus, there is a plea for him to come again and to make things right, because we see how they're not right and we know that he will ultimately set up his rule and reign and kingdom in the future. And so we don't live in that yet. We're in the now, but not yet right. And so there is this essence of, in this prayer your kingdom come. Is that, I think, longing for the future kingdom? Longing for the future kingdom, it's longing for things to be made right, but it's also, like you said, this acknowledgement of well. It's also an acknowledgement of the present, isn't right?
Speaker 2:It isn't okay and it's the disappointment with that, but it's also an acknowledgement of what he has already established. He has established his kingdom and this is a reminder of that. I think, if we really understand, it it's that his kingdom has been established. It has been set up, he has conquered death. He is ruling and reigning, and I need to get in alignment with that.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely. And I think this part of the prayer for me makes me have a bigger mindset and pray a bigger prayer. Because, as I was saying, when I wake up in the morning, I'm thinking typically thinking very small. I'm thinking about my kingdom and what has to get done today. And God is inviting us through this part, your kingdom.
Speaker 1:Come to understand there is a far bigger story going on than just did you get to Walmart today and get the groceries that you needed. But as you go about your day, as you run those errands, as you go to the market and buy your food, how can you be a part of expressing the kingdom of God, even inside the supermarket? And it's a act of surrender as well, because if it's his kingdom, it can't be mine. So, things that I'm trying to control and things I'm trying to fix, and things that the weight that I feel that it's on my shoulders it's not. It's an invitation to a bigger place. It's also an invitation to surrender and say, God, I don't know what's going to happen today, but wherever I am and whatever ends up happening, more of your kingdom is what my focus needs to be, not on the list of to-dos.
Speaker 1:Did I bring more of your kingdom to whatever I was doing today, versus just simply did I get my task done? Because I can get a lot done in a day, but if I don't do it in alignment with Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I can leave a lot of carnage on the side of the road. I can be very productive, but I can also hurt people and I can also not see people. I can not slow down and hear what God wants to say to me. I can do a lot of it in the power of Elizabeth if I want to, because he's given me very strong leadership gifts, but that's not the point. The point is how much of God's kingdom did I invite and bring into whatever space I was in today?
Speaker 2:Right, which gets us back to what we were saying even earlier, from the beginning, of this being a communal thing, a bigger than just you and I thing, but that we get to be a part of it. During my years in Virginia doing youth ministry, we had a retreat we did twice a year because we had one time a year was for middle school and one time a year was for high school and the retreat was called Majnik it's the word kingdom spelled backwards, so we would talk to high school and middle school kids about what it looked like to live in God's kingdom. It looks backwards than what we're taught in the day to day. We have to remember that living in God's kingdom is different than living in our little independent, self-righteous earthly kingdoms. There's conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of earth. That's talked about through scripture.
Speaker 2:So when we get to go around, like you were saying, and we go to the supermarket and we go to the park and we go to church and we go to school and we go to work, wherever we go, we carry the kingdom of God within us and we carry we're a container for who God is and we get to express his kingdom in a way that others don't get to express it, but we are vice regents of a greater king, Jesus, and so we do get to express that, and there's also a sense of responsibility to do that, where we're commanded to go and be like Christ and to live out his kingdom in the world that he's given us. And so I think that everything that you were just talking about leads us to the next part of the prayer your will, so it's your kingdom, come, and then your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. I mean, what does that mean?
Speaker 1:I think the two go hand in hand. I think your kingdom, come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven are the two parts of this? Because, one, we're saying we want more of who you are to be present in our world, but in order for that to happen we need to step aside with our agenda. Both parts of this sentence of the prayer I have really started to embrace more and more. I am praying shorter prayers than I ever have. Part of that is because I have found myself. But then family and friends and situations there's so many situations that just feel impossible and you just sit I do in my little prayer spot in my house and go. I don't even know what to pray Like. This is so huge and so big that I don't even get it. And so I find myself more and more taking these things and just saying your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And part of that is me admitting God I don't even know. I used to be really good at advising God and counseling God and giving him suggestions, and if you would just do this, then this would get better. And the older and wiser I get, I realize I don't have a clue what God's up to, and also his idea is always better than mine, because God is a God of abundance, because he is a kingdom God. If I'm trying to run my kingdom, my resources are limited, but if I am allowing and inviting God's kingdom to come, all the resources of heaven, the abundance, the more of who God is, can be brought into these situations. And so, by praying, your will be done on earth as in heaven. I'm inviting more of that kingdom to come and trying to get myself out of the way and let God show up.
Speaker 1:So often times in scriptures we are told to stand and see God move, but my natural tendency is, no, I need to be doing something and then God, you're going to come along and help me do it. Versus, stand and see the victory of the Lord, stand and see him do these things. We even talked about it on our spiritual warfare podcast that you know. We think we're supposed to go out and fight and there are times that we are to pray in certain ways, but so often our job is to stand and allow him to be the one that brings victory. And so we've talked a lot about, in rock journey, prayers of alignment, of bringing all of who I am into alignment with all of who he is, and I believe these phrases your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven, is a beautiful alignment prayer where Jesus was trying to teach us how to bring all of who we are and everything that concerns us, into alignment with all of who he is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's praying against the things that aren't supposed to be but are that we see in this world right.
Speaker 2:Right, like all the brokenness, all the prejudice, all the injustice, all the warfare. It's seeking to ask that God's will be done here in our midst, in our presence, and that we can come into alignment with that and live out that here on this earth. Because when you think about I mean not a whole lot is talked about as far as what heaven is. But we know that there is alignment in heaven, we know that God is in heaven, and so that's the way Scripture talks about heaven. There's this your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So his will is being done in heaven. That means it's in agreement, it's in alignment, that means it's joyful, that means it's right, and so it's asking for those things to be done on earth. It's praying against the status quo.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, it's inviting all of his righteousness, all of his authority, all of his love, all his peace. You know, when people talk about heaven, they talk about it as a place where there's no more tears, there's no more death, there's no All of the consequences of the fall that we are living with aren't there. It's how we were intended to live If the fall never happened. Eden was a reflection of heaven, and so it is inviting all that God originally designed to be, not only in creation but in us. God didn't intend for me to live broken and with shame and with condemnation or bitterness or unforgiveness or all the things that happen in relationships on this earth, because we live in the not yet. That wasn't his intent that I have to. He intended for us to walk around, as you're saying, with joy and peace and hope and kindness, and so, whatever situations we see around us and we look at and that justice rises up in us and says this isn't right, this isn't how it was supposed to be. This is where God is saying yeah, you're right, as in heaven, on earth, and that is the desire of our hearts and I think by praying it we can see movement. Now are we ever going to get to perfection this side of heaven?
Speaker 1:No, I don't believe so. Until Christ comes back, everything's not going to be fully restored. But how can we be about, as a community, restoring more of what God desired to have happen in our lives and our families and our communities than it was yesterday, a year ago, and I don't think we're supposed to accept the status quo and just be like well, that's how it is. We live in a fallen world. Jesus came to make us more like him and that's, I believe, why. I mean, if there's no purpose in continuing to grow in him in this life, then why doesn't he just take us to heaven as soon as we become a Christian? There's obviously a reason we're still here, not only to share the gospel with others, but what he wants to do inside of us, internally. So how can I ask God for more of heaven on earth in me, my family and my community?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think of the phrase that we're agents of reconciliation, and I think of reconciliation as leading to righteousness. It's a piece that can lead to righteousness or to living rightly, being in alignment with his righteousness. And so, if we are agents of reconciliation, then we get to be about that in this world with the way that we live and the way that we interact as believers, and we also get to be about praying for that. And so I heard someone say one time that only the brave will pray your will be done, because those words have the power to change the world and to change our lives. To truly and regularly pray your will be done, like it is truly a praying for nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Lord Jesus, your will. It's praying against the rebellion that we see in this world, which is still under his rule and reign, but it's praying against that and looking for and hoping toward and acting toward and living toward his will being done.
Speaker 1:Thank you here, as it is in heaven, yeah and I think it's this part of the prayer is so helpful for me, especially when I'm thinking about my husband, my kids, other family members. Oh, because how much of my prayer life am I trying to tell God how he could fix them? And by fix them I mean make them easier for me to live with? Let's just be honest.
Speaker 2:You know or?
Speaker 1:I have an idea of how they should be living their life, and they're not. And so, god, I need you to make them live their life the way that I think I need it to live. And and so what if I am praying over my husband and my kids? Your kingdom come, your will be done in their life, as in heaven on earth, and that just gets my agenda completely out of the way. Allows God to Be God for them and speak to them, and allows me to love them where they are, knowing that God is still active and God knows how to speak their language, and God still knows their phone number, and he has the ability To reach them in ways that I can't even begin to ask or imagine. For. So we've gone through the first, about third of this prayer. I love one.
Speaker 1:This prayer is short when, when the disciples asked him, jesus teaches how to pray.
Speaker 1:It's, it's only 65 words, and and I love the simplicity, but yet the power of that, and I love that, at least the first third of it we haven't gotten to anything we're asking God to do specifically, and so I'm wondering for all of us, challenging myself first and then also Giving this challenge to everyone else, what if, for the next week, until our next podcast, we live in the first half of the of the Lord's Prayer. What if we approach our day not coming to him necessarily with specific needs, but coming to him first, enjoying him as our father, worshiping him and understanding his full authority? And then what if we, as a community Committed to praying this part of the prayer your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and just watch and see what he does? And Then next week we'll come back and we'll continue talking more about the Lord's Prayer and Get into the second half and why Jesus taught us to pray the way he taught us to pray.
Speaker 2:It's a great challenge. So we hope that this week you'll you'll pray, that we'll be praying it with you, and when you find yourself anxious and worried and fretful, this is this is this is where the for Jesus to do box comes into play.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, kingdom, come, your will be done right. I'm submitting it to you, jesus, and so it's, it's yours. So, lord, as as Lord of our life, we submit that to him and we seek his will, and so I think it's a great challenge. So we leave you with that this week, as we pray it with you, and we hope to see you next week to talk about more I.
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