Life's Mission

[Matthew 6:9-13]

Pray then like this:

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed 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 also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil..."

{Dr. Michael Oh}

I grew up praying the Lord's Prayer. I would pray and then wait for blessing... This prayer is beautiful. But often we ramble on through it without thinking about it.

So what are we missing? Tremendous insight into the essential foundational Christian life. What is your life for? Prayers are about what is within our hearts. So when we look into the Lord's Prayer, we see what is in the heart of God.

"Our Father"

This is a shockingly personal & direct reference to God. Jesus includes us in this reference. We are directly and personally connected to God.

"in heaven"

God is otherworldly. He is mighty and powerful. He is so much more than us.

"hallowed be your name" - worship

Worship is what we are called to do. May God's name be treated as holy. God is to be treated as nothing else in our lives. The worship of God is to be in stark contrast to all the other affections and things in our lives.

"your kingdom come" - kingdom

God's purpose is global. It is not enough that God is to be worshiped in our lives. But we should have a holy dissatisfaction with the lack of worship of God in other people's lives. This is not a statement, but a request. We should be asking God to expand His kingdom.

"your will be done" - obedience

The end of this prayer should be our obedience to God's will.

What is the purpose of life? It is the praying for and pursuing of the global and eternal worship of God.

The second half of the Lord's prayer is for provision for the purposes of the first half.

"give us today this daily bread"

This is for our daily provision. This request is not needed for American Christians. So why does God have us pray this? Perhaps to consider how many days of bread we have...

"forgive us our debts"

It is to remind us that we are sinners. We need the grace of God through Jesus.

"lead us not into temptation"

What is this? It is the desire to hallow the provisions of God. Like Israel's keeping of manna beyond the day... sitting and rotting. Or the idolizing of God's love and comfort. How we are glad to NOT be THEM.... But it is by the grace of God that we were born into our own situations. It could have been that we would've been born a child in the slums, or the child of a Shinto priest. To become our own God... to let our own will be done. The provisions of God are not for our own. The provisions are for the first section. They are provisions of war. They are provided for the spiritual war described in the first section.

So what then?

Repent of our sinful desires, lifestyles, and missing the purposes of God.
Pray the prayer of God. Pray the Lord's prayer. Pray for God's kingdom.
Everything that you enjoy should be enjoyed for God.