Yesterday we learned why prayer works - the Father must be true to His character and glorify His name - and today we get to learn how to pray, but the great joy is that all of this ultimately boils down to a revelation of the heart of the Father. And as He reveals His heart to us, we realize that He is also drawing us closer to His heart through that knowledge. And in that, we realize that EVERYTHING serves to draw us closer to His heart. I sort of said this in commenting on Barlow's post, but I love how interconnected all of this is and how all of it points to the central truth of Abba's identity.
After reading this morning, I spent some time in prayer just working my way through the Lord's Prayer, and after every petition I heard the echo of yesterday's sermon saying "How could I not?" Father, glorify Your name - How could I not? Father, bring the kingdom - How could I not? It's the same voice that echoes in John 12. Father, glorify your name, and He says "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again."
And if you want to really come full circle to the fact that it is truly finished, we can affirm that His name has been glorified perfectly and eternally in the cross, and it's only in light of that that we get to ask Him to glorify it again and again in small ways in our world and in our lives.
Guys, He is just TOO good.
Sorry for being so long-winded, but here's one more thing that beat me over the head today: the miracle of all the "us" clauses in the prayer. Sometimes we delude ourselves by thinking "Yes, it is good to remember the 'You' clauses first, to realign our perspective", but we forget that God is not at all obligated to allow the "us" clauses at all! There's no reason that He should desire to know our requests, but He DOES.
Pearl, the first paragraph of your post over joyed my heart. Yes that is it - this thing (following Christ) is meant to be a shared experience, the Father, Son, and spirit share their experience with us and we can't help but in turn do what they do! hope that made sense!
ReplyDeletePearl, yes. And please don't apologize for being long-winded when you're speaking so eloquently. Love you. Love this. Love Jesus.
ReplyDeleteSo good, Reid, so good. Totes Experiencing the Trinity status... sharing in the community and experience by entering into the relationship already formed between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as we center ourselves with the same hearts and purposes thus becoming co-lovers, co-readers, and co-learners with Him.
I like your appreciation for and focus on COMMUNITY. Prioritizing community is a very wise decision. Isolation is a spiritual killer. Seeking community is such a wise move.
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