The Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s prayer has become a political football in the Ontario Legislature. I find myself unable to muster the requisite amount of outrage over this. I was actually surprised to find out that the Lord’s prayer was still a part of parliamentary procedure. The way things have been going the last several decades maybe we should be grateful it held out this far.
Let’s imagine for a minute that we “win” this battle and the Lord’s prayer is saved. What then? I think it would just continue as perfunctory ritual. Big deal.
The power in the Lord’s prayer is when we live the prayer. I’m currently reading Jesus Creed by Scot McNight. He writes that the Lord’s prayer is something we ask God for, but it is also something that God asks us for. He asks that we would make his name “hallowed”. That we would bring His kingdom, that we would do His will, that we would rely on Him for our needs. That we would repent and seek forgiveness and forgive others, and that we would give him the glory.
I think a real victory with the Lord’s prayer will be when we start living it.
Tags: jesus creed, politics, prayer
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Hey Geoff;
I couldn’t have said it better myself. The worst part of all of this is that our generation is surprised when we see that prayer is still allowed in places like legislature or schools etc. Our parents’ generation were outraged when this happened but then allowed it, so that this type of injustice seems normal to us. It has been this way for too long and now I think that it is never going to change. North American Christians have spent so much time over the last few decades making sure everyone else is not offended that we have lost our own battle. You are so right that we need to live the Lord’s prayer and teach it our next generation.
God bless you,
Tasha