He is Your Father
Matthew 6 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
A bit more of an excerpt than what I usually post but I needed to emphasize a point that Jesus is making here along with the obvious. I had not quite noticed this before and most of you accomplished scholars probably have, but God showed me this today and so I will share it with those, who like me, tend to be somewhat obtuse. Notice the many possessive pronouns before "Father." Jesus was making the point of incorporating us, into his family. He says it so many times. "Our Father." "Your Father." Not just his, but ours. Am I being overly obvious? Maybe. Is this very simple? Yes. But think about what it means. The son is including us into his family. Before his crucifixion. We can go into all of the God ramifications and the intellectual discussions about the God head and Jesus' supremacy etc. I do and will but now. This is/was personal and He meant it to be. He wants us to claim Him as our father! Make it personal. So what does that mean to us? It means that we are not just the creation of the most powerful being in and out of the universe, but we are His children. All of us have been children to human parents. Good or bad, we have/had parents. There is a natural and spiritual bond that occurs simply by the DNA connection. As such, we know that bond. Some of us have been blessed with the bond from the parent side of things but all of know the bond from the child side of things. So what am I saying? Well, remember in Genesis how God created us in His image from the dust of this world? He then breathed life into Adam. So on and so forth.
Man fell. We all know the story. Jesus comes along and tell us we are not just a creation, he tells us emphatically, if we believe, we become God's children not just his creation. We through Christ, are now part of God's spiritual, which is eternal, DNA. (I know DNA is a physical thing. Probably better than most. I am after all, a chemist. So forgive me if I meant it figuratively. Since DNA is the building block of who we are physically...)
I know this has been somewhat lengthy, but here is what I am getting at: Jesus, was trying to get us to believe and think of us as God's children. Almighty God's family. Let that sink in for a sec. Those of us who are parents know we screw up and all of us who are children know we screw up. GOD NEVER SCREWS UP. YOUR/OUR FATHER NEVER SCREWS UP! My family and I are going through and have been going through a long spell of frightening trials and I confess I have no clue what and why my Father is doing this. Jesus said in verse 10 Your will be done. This was not a telling God it is OK, it was an acceptance of the inevitable. Your will be done. Not my will. His will. The Fathers will, will be done. Regardless of how I feel. Sounds kind of cruel and at times feels that way too. Unfortunately, my definition of good is seriously inadequate and flawed. By the way, so is yours. God is good. He is our father. His will will be done. He works all things for our, his children's good. So while I have been feeling afraid and alone and facing hard things, I know, David and Paul knew, Jesus tried to show us even before he died, that my dad is perfect and powerful and sees things I cannot, or will not, or simply am being protected from seeing. His good is often and usually not, my good. So here is what I am saying what God was telling me. He is The DAD. Be His kids. Yell at him, pout, joke with him (appropriately), laugh with him, cry with him, accept your spankings, work for him, obey him, but above all else, love him and acknowledge him as your father. He has chosen to be that. Choose to accept it. Jesus has made that possible for us and has invited us into His family with the father. Thanks and Praise to Him! He is holy. His name is holy. We are His children. Ask yourself what does that make you?
2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
A bit more of an excerpt than what I usually post but I needed to emphasize a point that Jesus is making here along with the obvious. I had not quite noticed this before and most of you accomplished scholars probably have, but God showed me this today and so I will share it with those, who like me, tend to be somewhat obtuse. Notice the many possessive pronouns before "Father." Jesus was making the point of incorporating us, into his family. He says it so many times. "Our Father." "Your Father." Not just his, but ours. Am I being overly obvious? Maybe. Is this very simple? Yes. But think about what it means. The son is including us into his family. Before his crucifixion. We can go into all of the God ramifications and the intellectual discussions about the God head and Jesus' supremacy etc. I do and will but now. This is/was personal and He meant it to be. He wants us to claim Him as our father! Make it personal. So what does that mean to us? It means that we are not just the creation of the most powerful being in and out of the universe, but we are His children. All of us have been children to human parents. Good or bad, we have/had parents. There is a natural and spiritual bond that occurs simply by the DNA connection. As such, we know that bond. Some of us have been blessed with the bond from the parent side of things but all of know the bond from the child side of things. So what am I saying? Well, remember in Genesis how God created us in His image from the dust of this world? He then breathed life into Adam. So on and so forth.
Man fell. We all know the story. Jesus comes along and tell us we are not just a creation, he tells us emphatically, if we believe, we become God's children not just his creation. We through Christ, are now part of God's spiritual, which is eternal, DNA. (I know DNA is a physical thing. Probably better than most. I am after all, a chemist. So forgive me if I meant it figuratively. Since DNA is the building block of who we are physically...)
I know this has been somewhat lengthy, but here is what I am getting at: Jesus, was trying to get us to believe and think of us as God's children. Almighty God's family. Let that sink in for a sec. Those of us who are parents know we screw up and all of us who are children know we screw up. GOD NEVER SCREWS UP. YOUR/OUR FATHER NEVER SCREWS UP! My family and I are going through and have been going through a long spell of frightening trials and I confess I have no clue what and why my Father is doing this. Jesus said in verse 10 Your will be done. This was not a telling God it is OK, it was an acceptance of the inevitable. Your will be done. Not my will. His will. The Fathers will, will be done. Regardless of how I feel. Sounds kind of cruel and at times feels that way too. Unfortunately, my definition of good is seriously inadequate and flawed. By the way, so is yours. God is good. He is our father. His will will be done. He works all things for our, his children's good. So while I have been feeling afraid and alone and facing hard things, I know, David and Paul knew, Jesus tried to show us even before he died, that my dad is perfect and powerful and sees things I cannot, or will not, or simply am being protected from seeing. His good is often and usually not, my good. So here is what I am saying what God was telling me. He is The DAD. Be His kids. Yell at him, pout, joke with him (appropriately), laugh with him, cry with him, accept your spankings, work for him, obey him, but above all else, love him and acknowledge him as your father. He has chosen to be that. Choose to accept it. Jesus has made that possible for us and has invited us into His family with the father. Thanks and Praise to Him! He is holy. His name is holy. We are His children. Ask yourself what does that make you?
When I first started reading the verses, I thought you were going to post something about the ALS Ice Bucket challenge... :) but I like where you went better. So just wondering one thing here. When Jesus teaches us to pray, "your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven," how do you derive from that, that God's will is always done? If God's will is always done, why would Jesus teach us to pray for his will to be done, like his will IS already done in heaven?
ReplyDeleteBen,
DeleteYou make a valid point. But Jesus said pray like this. It was not an asking of thy will be done it was an acceptance to and a submittance to His will. The spoken word is powerful. When we speak out loud our desire to be aligned with His will as Christ instructed us to do, we engage our wills with his. His will be done. We know his will is done in heaven now we are acknowledging it here on earth as well. If it is his will to allow us a choice, we get to choose. If it is not a matter of choice we can try to stand in the way of his will, (I have, it was not pretty) but either way His will be done.