The Secret Wireless

Thus far in the Lord’s Prayer we have been praying for what God wants: His name hallowed, His kingdom growing and advancing, His will being accomplished.   Once we have prayed for all these things, Jesus leads us in a slightly different direction.   He teaches us to pray: “ give us this day our daily bread .”                 Daily bread?   Really?   Jesus wants us to pray for food and stuff?   We just got done asking for God to rule and transform the world.   Now we ask for bread?   Does God, who has the eternal salvation of the universe on His shoulders, really have time to care and see to our daily physical needs?                 Yes.   Yes He does.   Your physical needs are important to God because He created them and redeemed them, and He Himself will eternally fulfill t...

  Jesus teaches us to pray, “ Our Father in heaven…Thy will be done. ”    But what is God’s will?   What does God want?   What are His desires, His purposes, His aims in the world? This question is especially relevant to those facing major life decisions.   High school seniors ask, “Where does God want me to go to college?”   New graduates ask, “What sort of job does God desire that I seek?”   Who should I marry?   Where should I live?   Should I take this treatment or that treatment?   What choice is the right one, which one is in line with God’s will? These ideas become very debilitating.   We can begin to be crushed under the weight of constantly trying to divine the will of God from our feelings and thoughts, trying to read all the signs that we think we are seeing.   And what if we make the wrong decision?   What if we are not living in line with God’s will? God, in His wisdom, makes it v...

  Jesus teaches us to pray: “ Our Father in heaven…Thy kingdom come .”                    What does it mean for the kingdom of God to come?   To understand this we need to think of the kingdom, not in terms of boundaries or geography, but in terms of a person.                 To the Jews Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is at hand…the kingdom is in your midst.”   How can that be?   When we think of a kingdom we think of geographical boundaries where a certain king has authority to rule.   That is sort of the right idea, you just have to cut out the part about geography.                 God’s kingdom is wherever Jesus is, wherever His Word is taught, wherever the Holy Spirit is present through the work of the ...