Day 33...A Manly Perspective- It's Not About Me

We have studied, meditated and prayed our way through the Lord’s Prayer over the past several days. If you've applied it, you've undoubtedly improved your prayer life. We have learned how to use it as a pattern for powerful praying. We have seen that a balanced prayer life includes:

1.God’s Praise (Our Father in heaven, holy is your name)

2.God’s Priorities (Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done). This comes before-  

3.Our Petitions

for our physical needs (Give us this day our daily bread)

for our spiritual needs-

          for pardon-(Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us)

          for protection- (lead us away from temptation, deliver us from evil).

This brings us to the end of this perfect pattern of prayer. Or does it? Some Protestants (The name given to those who protested against the Catholic church in the 1500s sparking the Protestant Reformation) grew up in churches where a beautiful doxology (praise) ended the Lord’s prayer- “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. (As a boy, I even heard those words sung many times.) It seems fitting that the Lord’s prayer should end with such majestic words of praise. But where did those ending words of praise come from. Answer: The King James Bible, which so many Protestant pastors preached from. But why does the King James Bible include that ending and the modern translations don’t? Great question! What if your future protégé hit you up with that question and you didn’t already know the answer? That’s when I want you to Google it. Don’t get me wrong; I love to field Bible questions, and so do many coaches. But we want you to learn to dig for yourself. The answer to the King James Version (KJV) question can be a long and complicated one, depending on which site you land on. But a short answer to the short endings in a few different passages of the NT is at- http://www.gotquestions.org/missing-verses.html. Please read this over now. I want to recommend gotquestions.org as a “go to” site. It’s got a lot of short but sweet answers and articles. There’s beauty in brevity.

The Pulpit Commentary (published in 1890) has some glowing words to say about the ending three part praise to God’s kingdom, power and glory. “By our praise to him it induces in us the remembrance- that it is to God's kingdom that we belong, having him for King and Source of law; that it is by God's power that we live on earth and stand freed from Satan's grasp; that it is for the furtherance of God's glory that all has been done for us, all wrought in us, all these petitions are now made and all our hopes and aims are directed.”

One day when our King returns, all of the Lord’s prayer will be a doxology- praise. German Bible scholar, Johann Bengel (1687-1752), imagined how we might then pray the Lord’s prayer as pure praise- "Hallowed be the Name of our God. His kingdom has come; his will is done. He has forgiven us our sins. He has brought our temptation to an end; He has delivered us from the evil one. His is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." 

G.a- Speaking of God's kingdom, power and glory, there is one book that highlights such more than any other- the book of Revelation. Though it can be complicated in spots, it is also loaded with beautiful passages of praise to God's kingdom, power and glory. Thumb through it and pick a verse or phrase and share it to also give us fuel for the fire of our praise of God. 

G.b- Write out on your MP3 card a portion of what you picked out above and enjoy meditating on it, praying and praising it back to God and passing on to others.

G.c- How many individuals or groups did you share the riches of your MP3 card with since you posted yesterday?

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