Tuesday 1/29/13 When You Pray

Good "Spring-like" Tuesday morning to you, my dear brothers and sisters.  I pray all of you are in good health and doing well.  By the way, if any of you need help from Carry The Light Ministries, please let me know.  Please keep praying for Patsy and Burt Emig.  Also please pray for Barbara Paulas and again I ask for prayers for our president.  Once again today he has OUR big jet in the air as it is most every day, flying halfway across the country to "make a speech."  Please pray that what he says in  his speech he runs past our Lord Jesus first.  Please keep praying for his soul.  We need to win this man for Christ.

Yesterday I started messages on prayer, and I want to study the Lord's prayer some.  I don't know about you, but I got into a rut and would be saying the prayer and not praying the prayer.  Jesus gave us this prayer, and there is lots of good stuff in it.  Let's get going ... and yes, we are going to start with the Lord's Prayer.

1/29/13 When You Pray, Day Two.

Matthew 6:9 - This, then, is how you should pray:  "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.  Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen."  (KJV)

Now I also asked you yesterday as I did today if you pray the Lord's Prayer or just say the Lord's Prayer.  Let's take a look at it and see what it really means as we pray it.

"Our Father."  The first word, "our", meaning all of us, for He indeed belongs to all of us, He is our Father, He is our Heavenly Father.   He indeed did make all of us, and He loves us all, He even loves the people who hate Him or say He does not even exist.  The second word, "Father", spelled always when we refer to God as Father with that capital "F".  Also known as "Father God", who is the one referred to in Genesis 14:19 as the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and this leads us right into the next line.  But before I go there, I just want to talk to you about those people who say God is female or does not have a gender.  The Bible tell us "Father" and although our dear "Father God" will hold us and love us like a mother, He indeed is our Father and should be heading up all of our households, including yours and mine.  I can say this truthfully that God heads up our home, can you say that today?  Can you say and be stating the truth that you let God lead at your home?  I know you can do this, I also know you may do it, but my question today and I ask it because I love you all very much.  Do you let God lead your life and that of your household?  Now for that first line in the prayer that comes after "our Father" ...

"Which art in Heaven" - We are praying to our Father, not our earthly father, but our Father who resides in Heaven, with Jesus, who is our Lord and Savior.  Heaven, the place where we are going if and only if we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and we put Him above all others and all else.  Heaven, our place where we will live forever and ever, and a place where we will have a mansion and have streets of pure gold.  Heaven is also according to Matthew 5:12 where we will have great rewards.  In Matthew 3:2 we hear the voice of John The Baptist calling us to "REPENT, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near."  In Matthew 4:17 Jesus tells us this.  "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near."  And in Mark 16:15 Jesus tells us to take the Good News of Jesus to all the corners of the earth, and that part of that Good News is just this.  And we need to remember this.  God, our Father in Heaven, should be exalted even above Heaven ...

Psalm 57:5 - Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let Your glory be over all the earth.  (NIV)

Our Father in Heaven stands above all else, ALL ELSE, and we should never forget it and we should be telling others.  Tomorrow we pick it up on Hallowed.  Let's pray, and of course all this week we are going to be praying the Lord's Prayer.  And please really think about it as you pray it.

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.  Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen."

Now brothers and sisters, please go forward, talking to our Father in Heaven through Jesus His Son, and please share your blessings.  God will pay you back, and I know that for a fact.  God is good, brothers and sisters, God is good.

I love ya, Pastor Dan.