Matthew 6:9-10 (NLT) Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
This is a prayer that Jesus taught, and we must indeed pray as He taught us. Yet at the same time, we must practice what we pray. James, the brother of Jesus, tells Christians to show our faith and our works and not just our faith. We must live out God’s will so that it will be fulfilled in our individual and corporate lives in the church.
Let us learn the Biblical Principles and by His wisdom as we acquire His knowledge practice the practical applications of what the Bible teaches. This is especially so in the handling of money and possessions, relationships, living well and as citizen of Heaven. Many people pursuit Treasures (Money) and Toys (Possessions) instead of pursuing God, the Creator and Owner of everything. These people find peace and comfort in exceeding wealth and possessions but when poverty hits them and that is often so since nothing is certain in life, they get discouraged, mentally drained and emotionally empty and even may question their faith.
For some, they think that since they give to God, they assumed that God has an obligation to bless them because of their donations or generosity. They think it is their rights from God. It is true that the Bible teaches that we are indeed loved by God and for those who accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord, we are truly His people but His will for each of us are different. For some, we are destiny for financial prosperity and for others, it may be financial poverty.
God knows our abilities and as stated in the Parable of the Three Servants in Matthew 25:14-30, He gives us “bags of silver” for us to stewards so that we would have the opportunity to show that we are faithful. Then as Jesus stated, He will give us more responsibilities in the kingdom of Heaven as we celebrate His goodness.
We pray that studying the Word of God would be a movement of God’s people in LFE Church as we gathered to encourage and engage with the Biblical truths given by our Heavenly Father. It is a place where we can learn from one another from the Bible.
Jesus following portion in the prayer in Matthew 6:11-13 is about meeting needs, forgiveness of sins and not yielding to temptation.
Matthew 6:11-13 (NLT) Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation but rescue us from the evil one.
Desiring to be rich is more than needs and there is a great possibility of sinning. Many in desiring to be rich suffers the sin of love for money which is the root to all evil and it leads to temptations that cause people to sin against even their loved ones. Love for money allows the Evil One to tempt us to go against the commandments of God like what Eve and Adam did in Genesis 3 when they already have more than enough.
May God help us to learn from this prayer of Jesus! Blessings
Pastor Vincent