"Draw Near to Jesus"

Good Morning!

"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." James 4:8a

When we don’t pray, we allow our hearts to harden toward God and our thoughts and desires fall out of tune with God. And in so doing, we rob ourselves of being more and more in harmony with our Lord and Savior. But when we do draw near to God in prayer, something happens in our hearts, and to our faith.

I encourage you to read "The Lord’s Prayer" over and over again, ask the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart through the reading of this prayer. Jesus gave it to His disciples as an outline to use when praying.

The seven petitions that Jesus taught His disciples to pray [Matthew 6:9–13] run against the grain of our culture at every turn. It’s strange to plead “Thy kingdom come” while living in a country that long ago rejected monarchy in favor of popular sovereignty. It’s conflicting to confess “Thy will be done” in an age that celebrates autonomy and self-determination. Jesus confronts us with a subsistence prayer in a culture of affluence, a commitment to forgiveness in the face of outraged polarization, and preservation from temptation in a landscape defined by desire and indulgence. The Lord’s Prayer challenges our notions of what’s truly desirable; and that’s precisely the reason we need to pray it so desperately.

See the Lord behind the Lord’s Prayer. Each petition points to the character of Christ.

The Lord’s Prayer is much more than a handy guide on what to pray when no other words come to mind. If we ask the Holy Spirit to open our hearts to understand each petition, we will discover each petition serves as a moral compass that reveals the best way to go before the Father in requesting His guidance, provision, and protection.

The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to revere God, accept His will, know His Word, acknowledge His provisions, love each other through forgiveness, and resist evil.

Much love and care,

Pastor Pat

Greece Assembly of God

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