I remember when I was 16 and learning to drive.  When I got my license I felt that, since I had logged quite a few hours behind the wheel and since I drove more or less the same roads most of the time, I pretty much had this driving thing nailed.  Then I pulled out in front of another driver on a residential street because I’d stopped being so diligent about looking at everything—everything—around me.  For several minutes I had to wait for my heart to stop racing.  I could hear the driver’s horn echoing in my head long after he had gone.  I thought I was a better driver than I was, got a little cocky, and it nearly got me into a wreck.

The same cockiness can creep up on us spiritually too.  Let’s face it: relishing the presence of God, basking in His goodness and light, offering ourselves to His provision, confessing and being forgiven—it can go to our heads.

That arrogance can lead us to take chances we shouldn’t because we think we’re stronger than we are, or more mature than we are, or immune to temptations that once would have thrown us.  All sorts of problems can come our way when we think we’re better, stronger, more mature than we really are.  We forget to stay dependent; we forget to abide in Christ (John 15).  We rush on out ahead of Him and think more highly of ourselves than we ought.  Next  thing you know, our lives are a wreck.

Maybe your situation is different than mine; maybe this part of our prayer—lead us not into temptation—means something different to you.  So be it!  If you feel led to take a different tack with this part of our reflection, go for it!  This shouldn’t be a hard and fast formula—let it fit your own life and circumstances.

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION

And now, having confessed our sins, received of Your abundant mercy, and entered into the freedom of grace, shield us against the pride of thinking ourselves better than we are.  Give us grace to remember how great was our sin and how prone (and how eager) we are to fall into it again.  May we remember Your great love that separated our sins from us as far as the east is from the west, as far as the heavens are above the earth.  “How great the Father’s love for us!”  Let us walk by faith that fine line between not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought and marveling at the stupendous heights to which we have been called—to think we are now the very children of God!

Do not throw us—or let us blindly plunge—into waters too deep for us, but let us always cast ourselves upon Your everlasting arms.

[Where are you most prone to get “cocky” about your own abilities and forget God?]

Once we’ve been offended or violated in some way, the walls begin to go up pretty quickly, don’t they?  And walls don’t normally appear out of nowhere; they arise one small brick at a time.  Most of us, when thinking of forgiving those who sin against us, think of the big sins, the criminal offenses that no one could blame us for harboring grievances over.

I suspect, though, it’s really the small, petty, boring sins that are the greater threat to our souls.  More often than not, the temptation to squirrel away a little resentment here and a little bitterness there is hard to resist—it even feels natural.  Before you know it, though, we’ve built for ourselves a wall.

Ironically, the very barriers we erect to protect ourselves from future harm also isolate us from intimacy with others in the present.  That’s the nature of walls:  they don’t merely keep enemies out; they keep everything and everyone out.

However, when we work forgiveness into the daily rhythm of our lives by recognizing and naming the smaller sins committed against us, we can re-purpose those bricks.  We find that we can use them to pave a smoother road of reconciliation and community than to erect a wall of isolation.

AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US

It would again be foolish and short-sighted of us to cry out for our own forgiveness while neglecting to forgive those who have sinned against us.  Make us mindful, Lord, of those against whom we hold grudges and resentments; make us courageous enough to face the wrongs done to us, whether intentional or not.  Let us fools bear with the foolishness of others.  Let us acknowledge the seething hurt, disappointment, anger and resentment that reside within us because of others’ sins against us.  These have birthed in us judgmental spirits and hardness of heart.  We offer You our wounds, O Crucified One—we refuse to cherish or nurse them.  We surrender our desire for vengeance and retaliation; enable us, Faithful God, to see our very own face in the face of those who have sinned against us, so that we can remember how prone we ourselves are to wound others.

[Call to mind specific sins committed against you or wounds you have suffered at the hands of others, large or small, intentional or unintentional.]

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader C.S. Lewis relates the story of Eustace Scrubb, a young boy who becomes “hard” due to his greed and meanness toward others, and so he turns into a dragon.  (You’ve met some of these yourself, it’s just that they don’t look very dragon-ish on the outside!  You may even be one–yikes!)  But Eustace cannot strip off his hide one layer at a time, it’s not so easy as that.  In order to be set free of his dragon-hide, Eustace needs Aslan to strip it off–and he has to go clear down, through the whole thickness of the hide.  But first, Eustace will have to consent.  (It’s a great story–read the rest of it sometime!)

In just the same way, forgiveness isn’t a road we can walk entirely on our own–it requires grace.  Just as when we pray for the Kingdom to come just “as it is” in Heaven, we’re looking for the Kingdom that already IS in Heaven to be established here on Earth where it IS NOT, at least not fully (or we wouldn’t have to pray for it!).  Here too, when we pray to be forgiven, we do so knowing not only that we need to be forgiven, but that our forgiveness rests on our forgiveness of those who have sinned against us (more on that, of course, tomorrow).

The road to wholeness is the road of repentance.  John the Baptist’s message was to “prepare the way of the Lord.”  We can understand this in two ways: first, John is himself preparing the way by preaching his message of repentance, but secondly, it’s the people of Israel he’s speaking to!  They are to prepare the way of the Lord into their own hearts and lives by repenting, rejecting the trajectory they were on and aiming instead for the Kingdom.  Repentance is the road to be traveled, and no one finds their way to the Kingdom apart from that road.

So as we reflect on this petition today, let’s be courageous enough to let God show us our hearts (Psalm 139:23-24).

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

Let’s allow God to show us our hearts, so we can have our own dragon-hides removed, and so we can clearly see where and whom we need to forgive.

AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES

Many times we have shown ourselves foolish and have fallen prey to weakness, temptation and pride.  We have thought of ourselves over others and even sought out ways to satisfy ourselves at others’ expense.  We have judged others, indulged our biases and prejudices, acted in proud and selfish ways both for our own “benefit” and in our neglect of others.  And we have failed to act, we have failed to step in on behalf of the poor, the downtrodden, the victims, the weak and the powerless.  We have come up short in our families; we have not been the husbands, fathers, wives, mothers, children and siblings we could have been and should have been.  We have missed opportunities daily for serving and loving those precious others you have made in Your own image because we have been pre-occupied with our own lives and circumstances.  And even in our prayers to You our minds and hearts have focused on ourselves over others.  In daily and countless ways we have sinned against You, Creator of heaven and earth and Father of all.  Have mercy on us, O God.

[Name specific personal failures and relationships that need healing because of your own sin, neglect and/or hard-heartedness.]

Here we are, Day 8, and this is the first time we’ve prayed for something personal!  Have you ever noticed that in the Lord’s Prayer we never pray for ourselves individually?  All we see are plural pronouns: us, we, our.  This is a profound lesson for 21^st century American Christ-followers.  We are members of one another, and our lives intersect and overlap one another’s in ways we may never see.  When you flourish in your endeavors, struggle against despair, or cave in to temptation, in some sense we all have a share in that.  In some mysterious way, we truly share a life together.  Your struggle with pornography or your secret generosity really affect your brothers and sisters in Christ; all you do affects the spiritual health and temperature of the Church.

Well, back to today!  When we pray for “our daily bread” we are, of course, praying for far more than just food.  Food is a poor substitute for truth.  For genuine sustenance, for nourishment not just of our bodies but our souls, we need to feed on God’s word.  Jesus replied to Satan’s temptation in the desert with God’s word from Deuteronomy 8:3:  “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Ahead of us today are all sorts of trials, temptations, worries, concerns and opportunities.  As we walk through the day in His Spirit, let us be mindful of Christ’s provision for us in every encounter, every smile, every tear, every challenge.  He is our daily bread, our bread of life.

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

And even as You fill our hearts with visions of glory, even as You in the person, presence and power of the Holy Spirit lend strength of will and purpose to those whom You have made, give us all we need to walk our road in this present age, in this our one earthly life.  Give us all the resources we need to follow You fully, devotedly, and passionately.  Mindful of Your eternal power, goodness and love, we offer ourselves and our ways to You, for we are but dust shaped by Your divine hand, with life breathed into us by You, the Author of all creation.  The Author of all creation, who spoke worlds into existence, has breathed life into our bodies and souls.  We are Your humble creatures, inspired dust, God-shaped clay, utterly and wholly dependent upon You.

We do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from Your holy mouth.  Give us this day all we need in order to join forces with you, to be your image-bearers, those who act in accordance with your will and purposes, for we are not men and women capable of such.  All we have we owe to You, and therefore we ask for the courage, faith, boldness, hope and vision of Jesus in the living out of our daily lives.

[What are the specific challenges or responsibilities you need grace for today?  Make them your offering today.]

Who can even imagine Heaven?  The best we can hope for is a good analogy, so how about this:  Heaven is like a musical composition.  If you try to write it all down, capturing every instrument’s part and every nuance of musical dynamics, the end result looks endlessly complex–you see a lot of pieces, but you lose sight of the whole.  But when you hear the piece actually played as a single composition, it’s unified, seamless, an immersion in beauty.

We’re so blinded by the world we do know, we cannot even conceive of Heaven—and yet when we pray for God’s will to be done on Earth, we ask for it to be modeled upon what exists in a realm we cannot even imagine—now that’s boldness!  As the Apostle Paul wrote: “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

So we may not be able to pray with precise words for God’s will to be done “as it is in Heaven,” but we can rely on the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, to intercede with us and to speak through us, so we listen in on the music of Heaven instead of getting lost in the individual pieces.

AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

This very moment You reign supreme—over the angels in heaven, over the sun, moon and stars, and over this Earth.  You reign, indeed, over all You have made.  But in the heavens Your rule is established in all its fullness.  You reign in the eternal present where nothing is past, nothing is yet to be, but all simply is, and is as it ought to be.  That rule, that reign, is the deepest longing of our hearts, and we yearn for it to be established among us even now.  May we be emissaries of this Kingdom and act for its fulfillment.  Give us a vision of Your kingdom as it is so that we may surrender our goals and aspirations to Yours.  May You be our vision of all that can, should, and ought to be.  Let Your glory reside in and emanate from all You have made.  And as Your glory fills us, and all of Creation round about us, may we be transformed as we wait for the Day on which You will return to us.  Correct and train all our imaginings.  Fill our hearts and minds not only with the vision of Your kingdom established among us, but with longing for it as well, so that our wills may be joined to Yours.  Raise us up to You as You indwell us.  Grant that our imaginings and longings will be loftier, nobler and holier than they could otherwise be.  Transport us into the heavenly realms so that, descending to the here and now, we may, like Moses, bear the light of glory on our faces and live in such a way that Your heavenly kingdom be established here on Earth just as it is in Heaven.

“Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the Earth”

                                                                                                ~Psalm 74:12 NRSV

So why pray in one breath for God’s Kingdom to come and in the next for His will to be done?  Aren’t they essentially the same thing?  Simply put, God’s Kingdom is where He rules, but God’s will is what He intends.  What does He intend for the world?  And if He met with greater faith in His wanderings through the world, what exactly would He be doing?  Rest assured it’s more humble and less cutting edge than you think!

And what about you?  Does He rule in you?  Are you aware of what He intends for you?  I mean, beyond some vague, nebulous sense of being meant for eternal life, do you know what He intends for you?  How would your life be different if you were more that person than the one you are today?

Dallas Willard said in The Spirit of the Disciplines that the nearest and best synonym for “salvation” is “life.”  So what would more abundant God-life look like if it were manifest in you and in the world around you?  Can you enter into that life?  Can you be a vessel of that life today?

This Christ-life is meant for now.  It’s about far more than just holding on until He returns—as if the one aim of life was holding on until we get to eternity!  Eternity is now, friends!  You are not far from the Kingdom of God!  He has already invaded this world in Christ.  It’s rather like D-Day:  once the Allies established a beachhead in France the war was essentially over, but there were a whole lot of battles yet to be fought.  Ever since the Resurrection of Jesus, the war is over, but yes, there are indeed a whole lot of battles yet to be fought.  Merely holding on until we reach Heaven is no way to live when God’s Kingdom of love, joy, peace, grace and strength are near to us right now!

THY WILL BE DONE

Lord, as Your kingdom comes, as Your reign is established, let Your will and purposes be accomplished therein.  May all those who are called by Your Name bend the knee in allegiance and devotion to You.  May “the obedience of faith” be our hallmark.  We surrender to Your will, sacrificing our own wills on the altar of obedience.  As You come and indwell us, rule in us to accomplish Your purposes.  Give us the grace to join our wills to Yours as we offer them in Your service.  Send forth legions of angels to do battle in the heavenly realms so that Your people’s way would be leveled.  Then let Your people wage their own battle to enter fully and joyfully and readily into the Land that is Promised.  Lord, let all this world’s systems, all nations, all governments, all rulers, all people, all families, and all of nature itself be what You have ordained them to be; let Your will and Your purposes be accomplished everywhere and at all times.  And may Your people, Your Church, stand for Your purposes and protect, honor and defend them with boldness, courage, faith and hope.  May we love Your purposes and, led by Your Spirit, enjoy the grace to work with You until all their clarity and brilliance is established.  Have mercy upon us as we set about Your work, for it is You who are at work in us.    And we recognize as well that you are about purposes far larger and far beyond than ourselves.  May these larger purposes of Yours be extended and fulfilled throughout all Creation.

[Beginning with the most global concerns you are aware of, invite God to accomplish His purposes in those places and/or issues.  Then think nationally.  Then of your community and neighborhood.  Then, not least, pray for the unity and purity of the Church—not just your local church, but the entire Church of Jesus Christ.]

When I was a boy, my mother used to say, “Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it!”  When we ask for God’s kingdom to come, do we really know what we’re asking?  The implication of praying for the coming of His Kingdom is the realization that His Kingdom is not yet here in its fullness.  Don’t you feel a thrill of excitement when Jesus says, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” or “The Kingdom of Heaven is near to you.”  His Kingdom is poised to break into our world—indeed, has broken into our world.  It falls to us to allow that Kingdom’s sway to be broadened and deepened, to run free and unhindered, not only in us but through us.

Living in a democracy, though, the notion of individual rights and freedoms dominates our vision of “the good life.”  But what if we’re not made for a democracy but a kingdom?  What if the highest and best we can be has more to do with obedience than independence?  What if we’re meant to enter into an already-established order that we don’t get to invent or approve of?  Living under His reign means letting go of our own rule and entering into His—once in Christ we are no longer our own.  We want to live in His Kingdom, but how sincerely do we want Him to be King?  Is there a part of me that resists that?

As you pray today, stop for a moment and see with your mind’s eye the reign of God being established in the world.  Where do you see a need for His Kingdom to be extended?  See His rule being established in you.  Pray for His Kingdom to be established in you so that it may be established through you.  Where are the “hot spots” in your own soul? Throughout the rest of the world? How can God do that Kingdom work through you today?

THY KINGDOM COME

Lord, let Your kingdom come.  Let the fullness of Your rule and reign be made manifest here and now, in this world, this nation, this community, in these Your people, Your Church, in me.  Come in Your holiness, bend Your knee, stoop to those who are Yours in order to reign over us.  We surrender all that we are and have to You alone, to You who are holy and good.  Take up Your throne.  Take up Your scepter.  Order all You have made.  Come in all Your fullness to Your own, to those who are called by Your holy Name.  May every knee bow and every tongue confess in worship of You.  Let Your sovereignty be our everlasting joy.  Let Your majesty overwhelm all those who would supplant You.  Cause all who would contend with You to fade into obscurity, into a mist that burns off in the light of day.  Cause Your light to shine upon us and all that You have made in order that Your love and care and rule would fill our hearts.  Break into this world.  Until Your kingdom comes in all its fullness on the Day of Christ, do not send it from above or raise it from the earth, but bring it in through that which already is, so that what is is not obliterated but transformed.  And do not merely dwell in us but rule in us, fill us, transform us into creatures who bear more truly and clearly Your image and Your glory.  O You who alone are holy, make us holy who serve, honor, love and obey You.

In Days 1 and 2 we’ve already begun to dwell on the holiness of God.  Here at the outset of Day 3, though, God’s holiness takes center-stage.  We cry out, “Hallowed be Thy name!”  But do most of us have any idea what “hallowed” even means?  Just this:  holy, revered, set apart.  Words cannot express holiness—it is beyond comprehension, beyond imagination, beyond all words, all thought, all artistic expression.  Down through the centuries, every attempt to express God’s holiness, the most sublime music, poetry, sculpture, literature, all of our human attempts to express it, however uplifting, look pale and haggard in the light of God’s majestic Other-ness.  All of our prayers and reflections before God should begin as we’ve begun in these first few days.  We’re too eager to rush into our laundry list of requests for God to meet for us.  But if we begin here, with the Fatherhood of our holy God who dwells in the heavens, we will come to see our needs, concerns, anxieties and requests in the shadow of His glory.  Then we can lift those to Him with far greater wisdom, clarity and humility that we otherwise would.

As you pray today, notice how your own desire for holiness is heightened when thinking of His.  What does God’s holiness lead you to long for?  How would His holiness, more fully realized among us, transform our view of the world and the way we live in it?

“HALLOWED BE THY NAME”

Lord of All, You are holy.  Nothing that is not holy can dwell in Your presence.  You are the high and holy One.  Your Name, You who called all into being by the power of Your Voice, is higher than every other name.  Your Name is holy.  Your Name, O great Speaker-Into-Being, is that which we, Your created, hardly dare to speak.  You are high above all, holy and separate in all Your deeds, inscrutable in Your ways, mysterious in Your movements, subtle in Your plans, and majestic in Your person.  Every thing owes its existence to You and cries out praise from its very being, through its very being.  All of creation vibrates with the anticipation of fulfillment in You.

I love that we began yesterday with thoughts on the Fatherhood of God.  It really is crucial for us to see Him as Father and not just as Parent.  While our mothers nurture and protect, our fathers are meant to affirm, to call us out from the safety and protection of mother into our own identity and purpose.  He names us and affirms us.

Did you know that infants don’t even know they are separate from their mother?  The father’s voice calls the child out into his or her own identity.  The same is true of our heavenly Father.

Even though many of us have been challenged on that front because of issues with our earthly fathers, the grace of God can lead us into the very Presence of our Heavenly Father, who fills and heals that void and delights over us as not even the best earthly father can.  (I owe a huge debt to Leanne Payne for teaching this truth to so many!)

Day 2’s reflection continues in the same vein, but broadens the scope to focus not only on who God is in relation to us as Father, but who He is in His transcendence over all creation.

…WHO ART IN HEAVEN…

You dwell in the heavens, Father, in the high and holy places.  Your ways are not our ways.  Your thoughts are not our thoughts.  You are not of this world, but You exist in eternity, outside time, so you know all things and see all things.  Nothing is hidden from You.  All of creation is naked before You.  You know every blade of grass, every stalk of corn.  You know every drop of rain that falls to the ground.  You drench all of Creation with Your presence.  You fill the earth with Your grace and favor.  You see all, and Your purposes are at work in all that we see as You extend Your will and focus Your eye on all You have made.  You are eternally exalted, transcendent over all You have made.  Nothing in all creation can contain You—no mountain, no sea, no wood or valley—not even the sky, either by day in its single-starred brilliance or by night in its crowded and glorious host.  Though none contain You, all speak of You and point the way to You, for though You dwell in heaven, and Your creation knows You and resonates with the memory of Your calling-into-being Voice.  We ring like a struck bell, we testify to the One who lives on high and before Whom every knee bows, in order that You would be exalted to an ever higher place.  Glory to You forever, Lord God of the heavens!