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Greetings and welcome to 2024! It is hard to believe another year has gone by… am I the only one that thinks they seem to go by quicker now? My prayer, for all of those who read this, is that you find a renewed spirit for worshiping our Lord and Savior this new year. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing verses, quotes and passages from articles that I am reading, as I look to #worshipmorein24.

“Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Matthew 6:9-13

 

In this passage, Jesus tells his disciples how they can pray and address our Lord. Remember, as we discussed last week, Jesus was teaching his followers that they could have direct access to God the Father through prayer. This would be something foreign and new to them. So, when they asked him, “teach us how to pray”, it was genuine.

Jesus starts by teaching them, and us, that WHAT we are praying for is not nearly as important as WHO we are praying to. Jesus begins the prayer by acknowledging that we pray to our Father, who is in Heaven, and how majestic…powerful…and mighty his name is.

When you pray, who or what are you praying to? Are you praying to some deity in the realms of the known world that may or may not respond? Are you praying to some sort of lucky charm, that you verbally bombard with a list of things you want or desire? Or are you praying to the Creator of all things…the Author and the Finisher, the Alpha and Omega, the Almighty God, that because of the blood of his son, we are privileged to call Father?  

As we come together to worship, or as you have a time of worship on your own, let us first come with the acknowledgement that we are worshiping and praying to our Father, who is in heaven, and how mighty He is.