Matthew 6: 1-18
To participate in the Kingdom of God is to be
transformed. Kingdom living is a commitment to ongoing personal and community change.
This cannot be emphasised enough. Often becoming a Christian is presented as a
one off realising that we meet our own needs our own way and this has led us
into a state of alienation from God and our community; we turn to Jesus making confession of this sin and earnestly
seek His forgiveness. It all sounds so simple and on one level it is simple and
beautiful. However is misses the mark of
the realisation and commitment to ongoing change and the day by day and moment
by moment prayer of the acceptance of Jesus not only as Saviour but as Lord. It
is true to say, that we often miss the power of discipleship change because we
do not seek and accept Jesus as Lord. The solution to powerless living is
following Jesus; putting into practice His words and patterns of life. Being a
follower is not so instantaneous and straight forward as becoming a believer in
Jesus. Jesus called this following of Him the practice of ‘piety’ in verse 1 of
our passage. There are three ‘whenevers’ (2, 5, 16) in the passage related to
this ‘piety’; giving, praying and fasting. These are all to be practiced but in
a new genuine God loving and neighbour honouring way. The power to live and be transformed is
through living out this Kingdom way of life. Prayer in Jesus terms becomes the
way of living out our communication to God and about God. Personal and community transformation is
driven by ‘prayerful living’ and Jesus teaches His disciples to pray, that is,
to live in a very different way to the cultural norm of His day. In this
‘disciple’s prayer’ the key emphasis in on genuine commitment of our life to
being known as a people who in their lives reveal who God is. Our lives should
be characterised by generosity not avarice, forgiveness not revenge, inclusion
not exclusion and the ongoing recognition of our vulnerability to relapse into
old life destroying patterns of behaviour. The disciple’s prayer is short there
is as much silence as talking, simple, to the point, heartfelt and personal.
Personal prayer is the genuine communication of the heart to a loving common
Father of all; the opportunity to express our deep seated desires,
vulnerabilities, interdependencies and fears. In Jesus teaching on prayer we
have the private genuine personal communication with God our Father and the
public living out of God’s sovereignty in our everyday lives as revealed in
scripture. Discipleship prayer, the way Jesus taught is the personal commitment
to transformation. I have witnessed
this transformation in people’s lives; Kingdom living works in the here and
now. However I have also witnessed people holding on to the old rituals of
prayer as if it’s a job that just needs to be done; a means of accumulating
personal merit to make us good enough for God. Jesus way of praying that is,
living life His way, is the breathing of
the body of Christ; we have to pray and live life His way or we stop breathing
with the obvious consequences. Paul emphasised this in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 16 Rejoice
always, 17 pray continually, 18 give
thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ
Jesus. Let us pray and let us be transformed.
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 do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.
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 do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.
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