Many of us contemplate heaven
and the reward for our faithfulness, obedience, loving our neighbor, displaying
the Gifts of the Spirit, etc. However, as I read the Lord’s model prayer it occurs
to me that we don’t have to wait until heaven…the Father’s kingdom and His will
can be done on earth. Jesus said, “This, then, is how you should
pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your
kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give
us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have
forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from the evil one’” (Matt 6:9-13 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----The Psalms and Proverbs are full of encouragement to work righteousness. It is said that the righteous will be blessed. There is a lot to be said about making one’s own “luck”. Char and I enjoy watching Joe Kenda on Homicide Hunter. We’ve noticed the overwhelming majority of those cases on his program and others like his involve tracking the victim’s recent movements through a bar, or a wild party, or just the befriending of some rotten character. Events and situations are like stepping stones. None carry you across the river single-handedly; each has a stone in front and behind it. Together they all lay a course of “luck”. We build our own situations out of the things we do, say, think, and feel. When we do, say, think, and feel righteously our “luck” becomes built of it.
-----This is where prayer comes in. If it weren’t for the “…Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…” part of prayer, then I wouldn’t be putting quote marks around “luck”. For the other half of what positions stones in the river and makes varieties of opportunities available for our choosing to engage in doing, saying, thinking, or feeling is the will that the Lord works into our situations. So it is kind of a partnership going on. When you get in tune with what your Partner would make of a situation, then things in your life will get pretty efficient.
-----God leads a person to where He’s prepared him for serving His purpose. Even if we have chosen the ways of righteousness throughout our lives, His purpose is not always for our comforts. Sometimes our great joys are found in the midst of difficulties and pain. But even in them is this “heaven on earth” thing to be found. That we long for His will enough to pray for it earnestly is our shelter amidst turmoil. Being righteous in thought and deed to the best of our abilities makes our prayers effective. Having been praying for His will we can know that some present difficulty is precisely the position in which He needs us to be. Nothing is better than being where He wants us to be. We can locate the next stepping stone with that mentality. So, even in the midst of trouble we can feel connection with heaven.
-----But that’s only sometimes. The blessing God pours onto righteousness worked usually comes from the stones put in good order by it. Righteousness does not drag us through bars and wild parties for entertainment. It does not find for us rapscallions for companions. Choosing our steps carefully for their righteousness leads us through places in the river where the stepping stones are laid more like roadway cobbles. In fact they are often laid so orderly that one can almost see God’s fingerprints on them. Then we realize that what Paul said about the kingdom of heaven is great insightful for picking our way across the river: the kingdom of heaven is righteousness, peace, and joy. The more we pray “Thy righteousness, peace, and joy come, Thy will be done,” and the more we work that kingdom into our doing, saying, thinking, and feeling, the more heavenly will our perceptions be, even if everything of our present situation has just gone to pot.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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