Protection

We are now in the final verse of The Lord’s Prayer; Jesus’ response to His disciples asking how they should pray to God. Even though The Lord’s Prayer is a great prayer to say word for word, I strongly feel it can be simply used as an outline for how we speak to the Father at any time. Matthew 6:12 shows us we should ask Dad for protection from the future, as well as helping us from not falling back to bad habits.

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

The fist portion of this verse is pretty cut and dry. We are asking God to help us not stumble as we look toward the future and to keep our path aligned with the path of righteousness. Knowing that we are fully human, we are prone to missteps. Because of that, we seek wisdom from Dad that will let us avoid or bounce back well when we make mistakes.

I strongly believe that asking for us to be “delivered from evil” is asking Dad to allow us to be stronger from our past mistakes and help us avoid relapsing. We ask Him to continue to bring us further and further out from where we have been. We should be making ourselves, and others, better Christians every day. Matthew 6:12 shows us that we should pray to God for the opportunities to avoid those missteps of yesterday.

This concludes the prayer series. I hope y’all have gotten something out of it. I know I have just through writing about it. I also pray that you can have a stronger connection to our Father every time you communicate with Him. The best way to get better at praying is to continuously do it whenever you can. I will admit, this is something I still need work on and I’m committing to pray every time I have an opportunity.

Confess & Forgive

Let us review the point Jesus made about prayer in Matthew 6:9-11. Adoration of our Father, worshiping His power and position, and provision for daily needs are all things we should include in our prayers. In Matthew 6:12, Jesus show us that confession and forgiveness should also be an integral piece of prayer.

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

The beginning of this verse clearly shows that we are to confess our sins to our Dad. It is not news to Him when we speak of our screw-ups. He knows everything we have done and will do. Rather, this kind of confession is to remind ourselves that we fail everyday and Christ’s sacrifice for us allows us to still have the promise of heaven. Dad is not a vengeful God, but one who has already forgiven our sins.

The second part of this verse is the hardest to truly put into practice in this entire prayer. We can always say we have forgiven those who have hurt us, but He knows when, and if, we sincerely mean it. Through this, we can give the gift that was given to us by Christ dying for us; the gift of grace. Forgiveness is not for the other person, but more for us. It is up to them to change their heart for God, but your giving them this gift allows Dad to do the same for you. Matthew 6:14-15 peers into the heart of forgiveness.

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Remember, our heavenly Dad will forgive you only when you truly (and I mean TRULY) forgive others of their wrongdoings towards you.

Prayer for Provision

Matthew 6:9 teaches us to pray with adoration.  Matthew 6:10 focuses on praising Him in our prayers. Now lets look into Matthew 6:11.

“Give us this day our daily bread…”

Jesus teaches us here to pray for our desires and provisions. We need to ensure that we are bringing Dad our needs and not our selfish desires. Even though He knows what we want, we need to discuss with our Father these things in faithful prayer to keep a daily connection with Him. This also develops a trust in Him to provide for us.

When we pray the phrase “our daily bread”, bridges a connection to all other Christians. The bread, Jesus’ body, was given to each of us for the forgiveness of our sins; something we need on a daily basis. That means this verse can also remind us to pray for others, Christians and nonbelievers.

As we continue to dive into the Lord’s Prayer, pray to Dad when there is quiet time to meditate with Him. Sometimes you don’t even need to say anything.

Praising the Father

Matthew 6:9 showed us that Jesus wants us to adore God with a father-son relationship, as well as establishing respect for Him because of Him being “hallowed.” Let’s look at how Matthew 6:10 and how The Lord’s Prayer instructs us to praise God.

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

It is common knowledge that we are in a spiritual war every day. God versus satan. Heaven versus hell. Good versus evil. Light versus dark. He is in the trenches with us because He is always beside us. “Your kingdom come” is where we accept this war. We reaffirm to ourselves and God that we are on His side. God is always at our side. Through prayer, we end up reminding ourselves that we are on God’s side as well.

We already know that He is “hallowed”, the ruler of everything around us. “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” is when we acknowledge that He is the ruler of both heaven and earth. We are accepting and endorsing His will. Even though we ask God for things, we need to remember and accept that His choice is final and is truly the best for us. Remember, we do not pray to God to make Him do what we want. That is “Paganism Christianity”. We do not pray for God to do our will but we ask for His help in accordance with His will.

Hallowed Father

Jesus starts His response for the disciple’s question of how to pray with Matthew 6:9.

“Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name.”

God is the Father, but what is our relationship to Him? Does your communication to Him seem more like a employee to employer or an actual son to his father? I feel like my conversations with God have been enriched since I changed my view of Him to that of an actual Father with His children. Once viewed in this light, the Father will be easily accessible for communication. A child is very comfortable being able to ask for advice or help from their worldly father. We should be able to do the same with our spiritual Father.

The second part of this verse brings even better news than viewing God’s relationship with us as a parent. He is hallowed. Our Father is the supreme power with respect to anything in our lives. He is the King of everything that has, is, and will impact our lives. It is a very sobering idea yet wonderful feeling to realize that God, the One who you have this new bond with, is the ultimate commander of the universe. That should make you feel at ease.

Matthew 6:9 teaches us that we pray humbly and child-like to Him. You do not need to “sugar coat” your prayer in ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ or by adding unneccesary phases and words to your prayer. He will always listen to your words. God desires that we have a relationship with Him, often praying throughout our days in addition to a time of daily quiet focus and reflection. Remember that He is a Father as well as the King of all. What a gift we have been given.

The Lord’s Prayer

Sorry for missing out on a post last week. I was busy and the little free time I had was used to enjoy the Alaskan Wilderness on a couple of hikes with my beautiful wife and adoptive daughter (black hair, two feet tall, brown eyes, four legs, and a tail).

It is really amazing when you find something that will bring you to a point of total humility and praise to God. That is the outdoors for me. The same hike, drive, or ATV ride will always render a new experience that leaves you completely awestruck in view of what God has created.

I truly hope that you are able to do the same. Find a place where you can worship God and make a habit out of it. For many people though, the problem is that they do not really know how to pray and/or what to pray for. I ask you not to take this the wrong way. I am not a ‘professional prayer’ nor am I completely knowledgeable on how to speak with God. You need to talk to Him how you are most comfortable and how you believe you are connected to Him.

In the next five posts I will discuss and break down the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus responds to His disciples when they ask Him how to pray with what we find in Matthew 6:9-13:

“Our Father in heaven, hollowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Even though some of us pray this prayer almost weekly, Jesus set this prayer up to be the blueprints for what to pray. Memorizing and praying the Lord’s Prayer is a great way to connect with God. However, I strongly believe that Jesus was giving us a general outline for some overall points to hit on when speaking with Him. Again, I am not a professional prayer coach or anything of that sort. I am just sharing my feelings of how I view prayer and hope that it may help reach out to those of you who may need/want a new/different perspective prayer.

Spiritual Attack

I apologize for the late post today. Something happened to me last night that sparked me to push this week’s post for next week because I felt the need to write about this occurrence. I apologize for it being a novel, but this was the most powerful spiritual attack I have ever experienced.

Last night, I found myself incredibly bored and upset that the gym was closed. I had to do something, I thought, but I just didn’t know what.

Then it hit me… Summit Mount Baldy.

Now, fast forward to the parking lot.

Everything is ready to go for the journey. Pack fully loaded. Properly clothed for ascending an Alaskan mountain on a February evening. Sophie, chomping at the bit to get started. Deep breath to get that cold air into the lungs. Pull the slide back on the Glock 29 to chamber a round and off we go.

With my headlamp on and not a single sound other than Sophie sniffing the snow, it seems like the beginning to an eerie horror film. Not for this guy. I am at peace. This is my place. These hikes are where God and I have our moments. Time stops and anything outside my ten-foot bubble doesn’t exist. The higher and deeper I get into the wild, means the closer I am to Him.

A mile into the hike, we hit the pond and three cabins. My mind starts to become distracted. I have no clue why.

Then a warm and very fowl wind blows right in my face. Sophie stops and lowers herself immediately to the ground.  Her fur stands straight up on end. She snarls and is foaming at the mouth. This is not like her in any situation. I look up to the cabin about 25 feet away. I find nothing. I grab her collar, draw my Glock and look up again.

There it stands. A lone wolf, white as snow, with possessed, blood-red eyes. Those eyes will haunt me. It stands there, just growling. Fighting to hold on to Sophie I yell, “GO AWAY!”

It begins to walk towards me. I hear it say in a low voice through its growling, “My work is here. This is my place. You cannot have this place.”

“STOP!” I yell. It stops and stands there with the same ferocity.

Sophie is now done at this point and just wants to go home. I look down briefly to put her leash on, then back up. No wolf. Not even a paw print in the snow where it stood (I would later recall this before trying to fall asleep).

We back off slowly. Sophie is tugging on her leash to head back to the car. We retreat back to the car taking twice as long now, because I am back-stepping the whole way to ensure an accurate shot can be made if the wolf decides to show up again.

Finally, what feels like an entire day, takes thirty minutes and we arrived at the car. I throw Sophie in along with my bag and myself. Look up, look down at the ignition to insert the keys and start the car. Saying a quick prayer of thanksgiving for safety, I flip the lights on and look up. There it is. Sitting in the snow at the trailhead. White fur and those blood-red eyes.

“Never come here with Him again,” I felt it say.

I blink.  It’s gone.

Dumbfounded and scared, I sit there in total awe. I look at Sophie and she looks at me. We are both thinking the same. What the hell just happened?

Then it hit me… Maybe hell just happened?

After some deep breaths and solitary praying, I realized that I was under a heavy spiritual attack. The worst one I have ever experienced. But why me?

The enemy enjoys denying our connection to the Father. The enemy denied me from enjoying what I do to connect with Him. A battleground has just been made out of where I connect to God the most.

I have been doing a lot of hikes lately. My wife can attest to that. Maybe, just maybe, this is a plan for things to come. Am I doing so well on the straight and narrow path that the enemy wants to push me off this balance beam? Is the enemy trying to deny my time with God and connection with Him in the future? Or maybe I was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, in a dark place of the world and I crossed paths with a demon at work. I can not tell you at this moment, but I will say I did not just randomly cross a lone albino wolf that is so lightweight that it does not make prints in the snow.

Remember this, there is a spiritual war happening all the time, both around and within us. It gets harder and more noticeable when big things are coming in His name. The enemy tries to smother us and derail us. Pray and remember, He is with you always. Even when things get tough.

The scripture for this week will be Psalm 23:4.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Remember that God is always with you. Be wary of attacks from the enemy. They know how to get to you, but He will protect you if you allow Him. Find comfort in Him because He is the way to salvation. Be about His work.

It is a humbling experience to see first hand that God and the enemy are fighting over you. Help Him by continuing to pursue Him. I pray that you upset the enemy every day, but that you never experience what I did last night.

A smile comes across my face when I find I am angering the enemy to the point of having to attack me like this. I can’t wait to go on another hike or two next weekend.

Failure

Sorry for the late post. It has been a heck of a week.

I am sitting here watching the Olympics and have seen moment after moment of athletes who fail to medal. The looks on their faces tell a story of so much work, dedication, and time given to their respective sport all for what seems like for nothing at that moment. Those that will win gold in four years will be the ones who, the following day, open their eyes, peel themselves out of bed, know what they need to change to better themselves, and execute.

99 percent of us will never be Olympic athletes, but we all fail. It happens. It is what we do with that opportunity that sets us apart from being human and being a failure. Earnest Hemingway said “Man is not made for defeat”. God created man to always be better than he was yesterday in all walks of life. He has always wanted us to be better. Just look at his track record for leaders He has chosen.

Moses murdered and Egyptian and fled into the wilderness for 40 years before God called upon him to deliver His people out of Egypt. David, after becoming King of Israel, committed adultery with his best friend’s wife and would also order the same man’s death shortly after. He lost his son but had another that would eventually build the temple in Jerusalem.

Then look at Jesus’ disciples and those He spent time with. Matthew was a tax collector for Rome who was hated by Israelites because his occupation showed him to be a betrayer to his fellow countrymen. Mary Magdalene (though this has some speculation to it) was a prostitute that would be forever changed to follow Jesus and eventually preach His word after His death. Peter and Simon both failed Jesus when He was praying in the garden to keep watch for guards. Peter then denied Jesus three times from the Last Supper to the time of Jesus’ death. Time after time again we see Jesus surrounded by people who have fallen, but they are risen by Him to become better men/women.

God choses those who fall to be his biggest leaders. Look a Saul becoming Paul. A man who first hunted down early Christians and eventually wrote over half of the New Testament and died for spreading Jesus’ word. Are there moments in your life where you fell and it made you turn/return to Christ? I will admit that it has happened to me more than once.

Proverbs touches on a lot of various parts of life. A verse that speaks to me about failure is Proverbs 20:30.

“Blows that wound cleanse away evil; strokes make clean the innermost parts.”

How will you look at struggle/failure this week? I challenge you as I will challenge myself to see it as a refining moment and not a defining one.

Equals

Is it just me, or do others catch themselves subconsciously thinking and acting as though they are the center of the universe? Someone cuts you off on the road and you get upset, and this happens while you are tailgating the person in front of you because they are driving too slow for you. Or the line for checkout is going too slow and you only have a few items to checkout, but the next time you don’t offer the person with just a gallon of milk behind you to jump you in line because they only have one item. One of my biggest ones (not anymore, to my wife’s excitement) was that I used to get openly adjitated when there were unclean dishes in the sink, but that’s where I would put them when I was done eating and not think anything of washing them myself.

So it is safe to say that I do. All the damn time.

Do you?

We should all act like we are equals, because we are equals in the eyes of God.

This is not me trying to say that we should all live in the same looking house, with the same number of cows, and the same number of children. Trust me I’m not a socialist, you can ask anyone who even knows a little about me. What I am trying to say is that we are all equal on a spiritual level. This is because we are all God’s children, and he does not play favorites. Yes, some of us are wealthier, some of us are healthier, some of us are luckier, some of us have what others can only dream of having, but these are not God’s gift to us. God’s gift to us is that He gave us His only Son, who is Him, and who was without sin to die a sinner’s death so that we do not die but live with Him in eternity.

All of you who have siblings have sometimes wondered who your parents favored the most. I know the feeling, there are some times that the thought still crosses my mind to this day. This is not a bad wrap on my parents. If you know anything about my parents, you know that my brother and I are some of the luckiest sons in the world.

But, I have great news for you. Though your family matters, the most important member of your family loves everyone in your family (and the world) the same.

In Acts 10, Peter is about to baptize the first Gentile. He is a Roman Centurion by the name of Cornelius. At this moment, Christianity is about to become a religion for anyone of any nation. God’s people are the people of the whole world that He created.

To extinguish any people who would resist Peter baptizing Cornelius, Peter says what is Acts 10:34.

Truly I understand that God shows no partiality.

When we look up partiality, the definition is: an inclination to show favor over one party or ideal.

So there you have it. You have won the spiritual race because there never was one to begin with. God loves all of his children equally. All you have to do is say yes to Jesus, and know and accept that He was sacrificed for your sins.

You are not the center of the universe, nor is anyone else. God does not favor the Israelites, the rich, the powerful, the blue collared family, your next door neighbor, the meek, the sick, the smart, or any race more or less then anyone else. He loves us all.

And for that person that cut you off, say a prayer for them. They might be rushing to the hospital for anything from the birth of their first child to seeing a loved one for the very last time.

And if I’m behind you at the grocery store with only a gallon of milk, I don’t care anymore if you don’t let me in front of you (he but I would not object either). God loves you and God loves me. That’s all that matters.

A Nation Divided

It seems in every major idea or belief (political, religious, sports, etc.) there is an ever opposing group of people who disagree with whatever it may be, and in today’s world many of these groups loathe the idea, almost to a point of near violence, that they disagree on. Look at the Superbowl today. People spend almost the same amount of time tearing down one team and its players rather than praising their own. Look at Obamacare and many other political arguments. There seems to be no middle ground on any of these subjects, and neither side will ever see common ground. Look at religion. There will always be groups (I am not saying the entire religion) of extremists and hardcore believers that would do anything, to include sacrificing their own family and themselves, to destroy another religion or culture.

Do not take this the wrong way. I am not saying “do not support your idea”, but we do need to work on taking an unbiased view (as hard as this may seem) at the other side. After we do that, a lot of evil begins to dissipate from both sides of the argument.

I am also not saying that we cannot disagree and not come to common terms, but I implore you to not destroy the other side of the coin. There are things you should strongly and unwaveringly stand for. For instance, my religion. No one will change my mind on who my Lord and savior is, and I will die for that. Same with gun control. No one will come into my home and take my weapons from me and put my family and friends in harms way by doing so.

But there are things we can find common ground on. Look at sports. There would be much less negativity in many people’s lives if many put the same amount of time uplifting their team that was put into them finding and uprooting the wrong or issues of the other. Not only that, but you would be a much better ambassador for your own belief/team/stance by doing so.

People try so hard to argue against your belief, and people have made it common practice for the response to this to just be to disapprove and argue the other side. Why not put the time in to studying, knowing and loving your side even more? What if, as Christians, we spent the same amount of time that people do to trying to disprove the Bible by reading, studying and memorizing scripture? We would not only be able to counter their arguments, but we would be much better diplomats for Christianity in the process.

Jesus tells us in one of His teachings that we must not destroy each other. There is too much of this going on in the world today, and not only on a global scale, but our countries, our communities, our churches, and our households are effected by it too. Mark 3: 24 – 25 gives us a very simple teaching from Jesus about this matter.

If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

To be totally transparent, this is an area I have always struggled with, especially on politics and sports. As I memorize this scripture for the week, I will look into my own life where I see that I reach out to harm others with opposing views rather than solidify my own belief in them. God made us different. Do not be a Christian that hurts other’s thoughts/beliefs/ideals, but one who is strong in your own beliefs. Anyways, the only belief that truly matters at the end of the day is that Jesus came as the innocent Son of God and died for our Sins so that when we pass away we do not die but can begin the life God intended for us in heaven. The more we act like Him, the more we can save.