“Give us this day out daily bread”. Just before Jesus started the Lord’s Prayer he told his disciples God already knew everything they needed. To pray then is to communicate with our father because we love him not because he needs to know our needs. We need to be reminded of our dependence on our father in heaven for everything. To ask for our daily bread is a reminder that our life depends on the Father. Our daily bread is a gift to us from our father in heaven. I’ve heard people bemoan their belief that they didn’t receive any gifts from God. Are you alive and breathing? If so, then you have received the gift of life from God. It is our choice to decide how we use the gift of life. Will we spend it seeking the abundance of God’s treasure or the treasure of this world? God will also give us our spiritual bread and sustain our spiritual life.

“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”. Our father sent his son Jesus to this earth to die so he could forgive us. Our opportunity to be able to choose an abundant life over death was given to us because God loved us enough to send his son to die for us. What does it cost us to forgive those who sin against us? Our pride is what stands in the way of us forgiving someone. Pride was the original sin of Satan and Adam and Eve believed it. They decided maybe the God they served wasn’t enough and they were missing out and needed more. But the more of this world which they chose brought them death instead of more abundant life. Without repentance sin creates a barrier between us and God. That is what sin is, a wall Satan builds between us and God to prevent communication with Him. When we sin against someone we generally try to avoid them. We see the wall of sin and it’s hard to see God and his forgiveness past the wall of sin. But repentance on our part and forgiveness on the part of God removes the wall and once again we can see the beauty of God. When we communicate with Him, He communicates His love to us and His love is what gives us the power to forgive others. Only with the pure love of God in our hearts can we forgive like he does. Unforgiveness is a heavy burden to carry and it dries up our heart. Forgiveness is an abundance of cool refreshing waters for a dry thirsty soul.

“Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”. Temptation is a lie Satan tells us. We have the choice to believe the lie he tells us or to let the truth of God deliver us from evil. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness..” 2 Corinthians 12:9 When sin comes knocking at the door of our hearts we have two choices. We can either run to the door and greet sin with a big hug or we can send Grace to the door who will send temptation away and deliver us. God gives us an abundance of grace to deliver us from temptation.

“For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever”. This is an admission on our part that we are nothing. This is our admission of humility. The kingdom belongs to Our Father. The power belongs to Our Father. All the glory belongs to Our Father. Forever. There is not one moment in time that any of it belongs to us. Pride causes us to seek our own kingdoms rather than the kingdom of God. Pride causes us to seek our own power. Pride causes us to seek the glory. But none of it belongs to us, ever. Because forever and forever it all belongs to God. With hearts full of love for him we are to seek to serve him as instantaneously as the angels in heaven. When we do we will see how beautiful and abundant life is when we communicate with our Father who loves us. When we communicate with Him all his power is at our disposal.

Prayer takes us into the presence of God. In his presence our hearts will change and we will reflect his desires. All of our life will be an outpouring of love to him and anything we do will be by his power and for His glory. During our communication of prayer with our father he takes away our worry, he erases our anxiety because we know who our God is. He is the eternal God of heaven and earth and we have nothing to fear. We have anxiety when we serve one of the gods of this earth. We can cling to them in our times of trouble but when they sink we will go down with them because they do not have the power to save us. God gave us the life of his son so we can have a life more abundant. More abundant than a pile of gold in our basements and a red Ferrari racing down the freeway. He gives us the power of the Holy Spirit who gives us the treasures of the fruits of the spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Let us choose our treasure wisely, because where our treasure is, there will our heart be also. We can choose to let our hearts reside in the light of heaven or the darkness of earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in to steal and destroy.

Praying the Lord’s Prayer is praying for abundance. Spiritual abundance. The abundance we need to seek is not of this world but the abundance that flows from the throne of God. Jesus showed us how to pray for abundance when he gave us the Lord’s Prayer. The abundance Jesus gives us is the abundance of joy and peace, love for others and an abundance of forgiveness. His kingdom is not of this world and it’s riches.

Let’s take a look at the first phrase of the Lord’s Prayer; “Our Father”. When we have a good relationship with a father we have good communication with him. When Jesus said, ‘Our Father’, he was inviting us to communicate with our Father in heaven. Jesus came to this earth to save mankind, to give us eternal life. A life more abundant. When Jesus said, Our Father, He was not only bringing himself before the throne of God, but reminding God of the people on this earth he had come to save. This is an example to us when we pray to bring with us the names of those we are interceding for. Living a life more abundant means we have good, open communication with our Father in heaven and we love others enough to intercede on their behalf.

“Who art in heaven”. Jesus father was in heaven. Can you imagine how much he must have missed his father? How much he desired his presence? Prayer was the only way he could communicate with his father. In John 18, Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this earth”. His kingdom, his home, was in heaven…so is our home in heaven, so is our father in heaven. If our home is truly in heaven and not on this earth than why do we think we need to stockpile this worlds goods? Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21; “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Notice that last phrase, “For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Usually we would think of it as the other way around; Where are heart is, there will our treasure be. Picture owning a big pile of gold. What are you likely to do? You would probably worry about it. How can you keep it safe? Your heart and your thoughts are with your money. On the other hand if you seek first the kingdom of God you will be more concerned about what God wants you to do with the money he gave you. Matthew 6:33 tells us to “seek for the kingdom of God”. I picture God giving us a treasure map and #1 on the treasure map is to find the kingdom of God because that is where the treasure he has for us is hidden. Abundance does not flow from a pile of gold hidden away in our basement. Abundance flows from seeking the heart of God and His will for us.

“Hallowed be Thy name”. Every child in a good relationship with their father believes their father has the powers of Superman. They believe their dad is the best and can leap tall buildings in a single bound. After Jesus greeted his father he told him how wonderful he was, how great he was, how thankful he was that he was his father. He praised his father. When we accept the eternal life Jesus gives us, when we accept a more abundant life, we will praise God too! We won’t be able to help ourselves because an abundant life automatically pours out positivity and praise.

“Thy kingdom come”. We are soldiers in Gods army. We are to bring God’s kingdom to this world by witnessing to others for him in any way he asks us to. Essentially we are to seek first the kingdom of God. (Matt. 6:33)  Jesus certainly sought first the kingdom of his father. He knew his kingdom was not of this earth, he didn’t need to seek the approval of the people here, he only needed to seek the approval of his father in heaven. When we seek first the approval of our father in heaven we will be walking the path he created for us. When we are walking on the path he created for us we do not need to worry because God will provide everything we need. What abundance! No worries. Instead we have peace and joy and are excited to share the abundance of peace and joy God has given us with others

“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. The angels in heaven do God’s will instantly with hearts full of love for him. If we seek first the kingdom of God a natural outcome of that is obeying the father with a heart full of love for him. When we have a heart full of love for our father in heaven we will automatically have an abundance of love for our fellow-man. Think how different your life would be if you loved everyone like God does. How eagerly you would rush to do his will. God’s love would flow out of your heart into the empty, hurting, hearts of others and joy would abound.

(To be continued)

“…I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 The text clearly says Jesus came so we may have life more abundantly. When we think ‘abundance’ we generally start thinking of the abundance of this world; in short money and everything it provides for us. But if we stop to think about it, what kind of life did Jesus come to give us? John 3:16 says he died so that we could have everlasting life. Now to simplify it, life is just that, life, and then life ends. But to have life more abundantly would be more life, i.e. everlasting life. What does everlasting life entail? Well Jesus died so that we could live with him forever in heaven. We know that sin does not exist in heaven. So in essence He came to take away the sin in our life. So Jesus is not talking about a new red Ferrari, he is talking about living life like he lives. A life full of the gifts of the Holy Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. A life lived with all these gifts is certainly an abundant life.

But you say God has promised to give us our hearts desires. Yes, he does, Psalm 37:4 does say, “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” When we read this verse the sugar plums start to dance in our heads and we are zooming down the freeway in our red Ferrari. But, Jeremiah 17:9, reminds us of this truth, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked…” God gives us everything we want when our hearts are so aligned with his that our hearts only want what he wants. I’m not saying money is bad. The Bible has stories of people who were wealthy, for example Abraham, Job, and Joseph. But, they did not look to their money to save them and provide them with joy and happiness. They trusted in God to give them joy and happiness and provide for their daily needs. They praised God, not their riches.

Riches are not found in money, riches are found in relationships. Only a relationship with Jesus will provide abundance in our lives. Spiritual abundance. Unless Jesus has changed our hearts, the wants and desires which flow from our hearts are deceitful above all things. Pride motivates us to seek the abundance of this world. More money, more shoes, more horsepower under the hood of our car, more square feet in our house and more acreage for it to sit on. More power at work, more gigs on our computers and phones. We think more money will give us more abundance. But looking to the kingdom of this world to supply what we want will not satisfy us with eternal happiness. Only the living water God gives us will provide true abundance of life no matter what the balance in our bank account.

Humility is not the antidote to pride. Peace is the antidote to pride. I like to picture a throne sitting in my heart. God’s throne. He created it. He has the right to sit there. But, more often than not over the years, I have been guilty of removing God from His throne in my heart and sitting there myself. It’s a big throne, God sized. When He sits there, He fills up the space. But, when I sit on His throne, it’s too big for me. In fact when I sit on the throne I feel a little lost and small, insecure would be a good way to describe it. It’s a big responsibility to be a god and I’m not really up to the job description that comes with sitting on the throne. But all the same I like to rule my world.

When God sits on the throne, He doesn’t lack anything. He is perfect. He loves perfectly, judges perfectly, forgives perfectly, and the list goes on. When I sit on the throne I have a hard time doing anything perfectly. So I try all kinds of things to make myself look better. I can get really really busy buzzing around doing things and looking like I fill up the entire space of the throne. When I sit on the throne I’m dwarfed by it’s presence so I want to stand out, have things that will make me better than my neighbor. Take for example the need to acquire the latest model iPhone the minute it is available. All of the things I accumulate create excitement and my pride hides really well behind the excitement…so well I don’t even recognize it.

Or other times in life when I am at work, or church, or school and the leadership or a co-worker doesn’t measure up, maybe they are always late, or they messed up a project, I immediately get caught up in the circle of people talking about the “offense.” My pride hides behind my obvious superiority because I am smart enough not to commit such an offense. But, my insecurity is still there. It’s a tough job being perfect and it’s hard to hide imperfection while deluding myself into thinking I am projecting perfection.

Matthew 4 tells the story of Jesus and his disciples on the Sea of Galilee during a storm. A storm so fierce the disciples were afraid they would die. While they trembled with fear, Jesus slept. How could he sleep? Because He had peace. He kept the will of His Father ahead of his own will. When the disciples woke him, He stood up and said, “Peace, be still.” The storm quieted and peace reigned. Peace calmed the physical storm. Peace will also calm your emotional storms. Peace rules over frustrations. Peace rules over the frenzied need to obtain the newest and latest.

Jesus said in John 14:27, “My peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither be afraid.” Jesus gives us peace. When He gives us peace, we will not be troubled or afraid. When we decide to stop trying to rule our own life and let God sit on His throne in our hearts, we will have peace and peace will silence the storms which pride creates.

Peace gives us strength, strength gives us victory, victory gives us joy, and joy and peace walk hand in hand.