Tuesday, August 01, 2006

The Model Prayer


Mood: Curious

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. Amen.
Matthew 6:9-13

Have you ever thought about this model prayer and what it truly means?

"Our Father which art in heaven" - That's pretty self explanatory right? God resides in heaven.
"Hallowed be thy name" - I just looked up hallowed and it means to make or set aside as holy and to respect or honor greatly; revere. So he tells us to respect his name right? Well what's His name? I guess that question is up to interpretation and religion but it seems that He has a name just like you and I do. If he wants us to respect, sanctify and make his name holy within us, why don't Christians call him by His name?
"Thy kingdom come" - So this means that His kingdom is coming. Most people think His kingdom is coming after Armageddon right? Ok. Well what about this question. Where is His kingdom coming? Well, when you say the word 'come', doesn't it usually mean that whatever it is will work its way towards where you are? So if it's coming to us, then does that means that it's coming to the earth? God's kingdom is coming to the earth....? Well that's makes sense if we look at the next sentence...
"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." - So if God's (or Jehovah's) kingdom which is in heaven now is coming to the earth in the future (do we believe that yet?), than of course Jehovah's will is going to be done here on the earth. He wants whatever's going on in heaven (which is basically a paradise rule by Him) to be done here on earth as well.

Let's stop here. Interesting stuff right? Within those three sentences, we learn or speculate a lot. God's kingdom is going to come to the earth! Well I looked up earth in the back of my Bible and I came across these verses.
Genesis 1:28 "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it..." God's purpose for the earth is for us humans to fill it and to bring it under cultivation. Do you think His purpose is the same for the earth or has it changed?
Psalm 37:29 "The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever" This tells us that the land or the earth is going to be populated by righteous people forever and ever. So this brings up and interesting issue. How does this correlate with the viewpoint that all righteous people are going to heaven? hmm...
Matthew 5:5 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" So the inheritance for meek ones is the earth. What time frame are we talking about here? Well when you think of inheritance, don't we think of after someone dies? So how do we figure this one out? After a meek one dies and is resurrected, they come back to earth?! hmm...

So what's all this talk about earth? What about heaven? Hmmm.... Research people. Research!It's amazing what you can find out when you really read and dissect the Bible.

3 comments:

T.a.c.D said...

I am LOVING this...because it goes back to all the stuff that I am learning in my Bible Study...I feel like a little child learning my ABCs and my 123s....its so EXCITING...I still have some, no a LOT of research to do...but I am ON IT!

jendayi said...

It IS exciting! I love learning about this stuff. It's the only knowledge that really matters ya know?

Anonymous said...

You ain't the only one, Tiff! I was into Revelation's pretty deep a couple of years back, and after all the different perspectives I've heard regarding the end times, based on different biblical verses, and different historical events, I've come to the conclusion that I'm just going to live my life right and see what the Almighty does when He does it! I've even heard different spins on the same verses! Then I did my own research. Still, nothing was clearer.

I dunno, aren't prophecies supposed to be cryptic until the events happen? Well at least those regarding Christ were. Otherwise the enemy would've done everything he could to make sure he kept Christ from being born. Well he actually tried. That's why they had to flee to Egypt among other things. Again, it's one of those things I just don't know.

Something to think about though guys. You mentioned "Hallowed be thy name." Take that in combination with the commandments of not taking the Almighty's name in vain or bowing to idols or worshipping false gods. We should be careful how much props/praise (another meaning of the word, but feel what I'm saying)we give to "stars."

I'm not sure if you're aware of it or not, but Jay-Z calls himself "Hova" because he considers himself "J-Hova, God of rap." If that's not taking the Almighty's name in vain, I don't know what is! He said it in Blueprint. I forget which track. Just something to be on the lookout for.

Peace,
Kep.

Related Posts with Thumbnails