Where Do You Find Buried Treasure?

In the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption, a banker named Andy Dufreyne spends nearly two decades in Shawshank State Prison for murders he did not commit. After years of painstaking planning and effort, he tunnels out of his cell, escapes through the prison sewer system, and heads to Mexico with a fortune he has embezzled from the corrupt prison warden.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie comes near the end when Red, Andy’s best friend in the prison, is finally paroled after 40 years of incarceration. Before he escaped, Andy gave Red specific instructions about how to reconnect with him after Red got out. Go to a certain farm outside the town of Buxton, Maine. Look for a field with a big oak tree at the end of a stone wall. Find a large volcanic rock that seems out of place, and look under it.

Don't Just Say Amen (The Lord's Prayer - Part Six of Six)

When I was in high school, I was one of the Smart Kids. Meaning, I was not cool. (And yes, we did have high school in colonial times. We just spelled it differently: Ye Olde Hye Schoole).  

Anyhow, as uncool as I was, you can imagine my surprise when "Tiffany," one of the popular girls, approached me between classes. She was all friendly and smiley and eye-lash batty, and I wondered if my nerdy soul had somehow been swapped into the body of Trevor, the Football Hero. Normally Tiffany would not have dripped her Fresca on me if I had been on fire.

So I was pretty excited. But, as it turns out, and I bet you would have seen this coming, my new potential girlfriend was only interested in my ability to write an English paper for her. Which, of course, I did. 

A few days later, as I handed over a complete research paper, Tiffany rewarded me with a great big “thanks” and a brief smile. After which we did not hang out or go the prom.

But from this sad story I offer a lesson on prayer: We should not treat the God of the Universe like Tiffany treated me.

I think that’s why Jesus included the last phrase of His model prayer: For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Matthew 6:13b, NKJV

Each part of the Lord’s prayer has a specific purpose: 

• Praising Him – Our Father in heaven, hallowed by Your name. 
• Rendering allegiance – Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 
• Asking for daily needs – Give us this day our daily bread. 
• Yielding confession of sin and forgiveness to others – And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. 
• Expecting guidance and protection – And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
• So this last phrase is about Re-focusing on Him - For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Many people draw near to God when they need something or when trouble comes, but then drop Him from their focus and obedience when they get what they want or the crisis is past. This is shallow and selfish behavior when directed toward a high school kid, but it is wicked and blasphemous when directed toward Almighty God.

He demands and deserves first place in our lives. We should not just "sign off" our prayers with a quick "Amen," without pausing again to admire His greatness. Ultimately prayer is not about getting everything we want, but about our giving Him all we have, in worship, submission, and obedience.

Lord, thank You for listening to me again. And may Your kingdom come in my life today. May Your power flow in my weakness. And may everything I say and do today bring You glory. Now and forever. Amen.

He Will Lead and Deliver!

One of the most sobering lessons I’ve learned about myself, and I don’t think it’s just me, is that, given the “right” (I mean” wrong”) circumstances, I am capable of all kinds of sin. Though I’ve been a Christian a very long time, I know that if I put myself in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong kind of temptations, I can and will fall.

One of the keys to my walking in victory is not getting close to the things that tempt me. I think this is why Jesus teaches us to pray in The Lord’s Prayer, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:13 

This statement poses a problem for some people, because the Bible teaches that God never tempts us to sin (cf. James 1:13). So why would Christ tell us to pray, “don’t lead me to be tempted?”

Jesus is teaching us to acknowledge that our God controls all things. Our path tomorrow, the people we meet, the circumstances we face, the opportunities and blessing, the trials and tragedies, the victories and triumphs, all are under His control. Were we to wander into the wrong place at the wrong time, we might stumble, to the discredit of God and our own shame.

Forgive Us, As We Forgive

In the last 24 hours I’ve had conversations with several different people who are each struggling with injustices done to them decades before. Sadly all three remain bitter and angry, unable to live a full life today or to plan for a fruitful tomorrow because of what happened to them yesterday.

It’s not easy to forgive. Yet if we don’t, the original offense done to us metastasizes, spreading poison through more and more of our life. To be spiritually healthy requires that we both receive and give forgiveness.  

Our Lord’s Prayer models this receiving and giving. In the acrostic I use for my devotions, P-R-A-Y-E-R, this is Y – Yield confession and forgiveness. Jesus said we should pray, and forgive us our sins, as we ourselves have forgiven everyone who is indebted to us (Luke 11:4).

“Forgive” means to send or put away. The debt of our sins is “put away” because Jesus paid it. The only basis for receiving forgiveness is the sacrifice of Jesus.

How to Pray the Lord's Prayer, Part Three of Six

Before we go any further with this post, take a moment and go look in your refrigerator. Seriously. Go ahead, we’ll wait.

You’re back? (Bonus points for any of you who actually looked in your frig. But deduct points if you brought back a piece of cheesecake. The rest of you who just kept reading, where’s your team spirit?)

Okay. Most of us who actually checked our refrigerator found enough food for a small army. Granted, some of it is old and turning an unusual color, but that’s because we decided not to eat it. We just made or bought some more.

So why did Jesus teach us to pray, Give us this day our daily bread? In the P-R-A-Y-E-R acrostic, this is A – Ask for daily needs.

But why? Why ask for something we already have in abundance? The majority of us have never had to miss a meal. Our major question at mealtime is about options. Should we get fast food? Reheat the chicken from last night? Order a pizza?

If you have enough food, and have always had enough, it’s easy to take it for granted. The same goes for clothing. (I could have asked you to go check out your closet, too). Or housing. Most of us don't have to worry about having a roof over our heads. We have the blessing of clean water to drink and relatively pure air to breathe.

So if we have these things, we may not pray for them. But we should. Jesus said so.

How to Pray the Lord's Prayer, Part Two of Six

I heard a sermon on prayer from a seminary professor who said that prayer is basically asking God for stuff. I think he's right,  but the problem is that most of us ask God for the wrong things.

If we’re honest, we treat prayer as a wish-list, a mixture of needs and wants, often centered around our comfort and security. Jesus’ pattern for prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, is like other prayers in that it does consist of a series of requests.

But what makes Jesus' prayer so different, and revolutionary, is that He teaches us to pray for what we really need. Last time I mentioned an acrostic summary of His prayer: P-R-A-Y-E-R. (I included a copy at the end of this post.) The P stands for “Praise Him,”and is actually the first request.

When we pray “Hallowed be Your name,” we are asking God to help us praise Him  Our request is that He might enable us to set apart, hallow, His name in our lives. The NET Bible puts it, “May your name be honored.”

Today’s post is about the second letter of the acrostic: R, which stands for “Render Allegiance.” Jesus teaches us to pray: "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." This, too, is a request. We ask that the Lord would rule over us and that we would bend to His will, rather than our own.

How to Pray the Lord's Prayer, Part One of Six

The only thing His disciples ever asked Jesus to teach them was prayer. Of all the spiritual disciplines they saw Him practice, prayer is the one that stood out to them. “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Jesus’ response to their request is what we often called “the Lord’s Prayer.” (See Luke 11:2-4 and Matthew 6:9-13). Some churches, like the one I grew up in, recite it every Sunday as a part of congregational worship.

I’m not a fan of just reciting it, because I think Jesus gave us a pattern to follow, not a rote prayer. And for a long time I have used “the Lord’s prayer” as an outline to guide and shape my daily devotions.

Years ago I came up with a simple acrostic, P-R-A-Y-E-R, to help me remember the specific focus of the different parts of Jesus’ sample prayer. (I’ve summarized this in a little chart, included at the end of this post). Over the course of the next several posts, I’d like to share this outline, with the hope that it might be helpful in your prayer life.

So the first part of the Prayer is the P: Praise Him. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.