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Jesus gave a model of prayer in Matthew 6, because the disciples wanted to know how to really pray.  The Lord’s Prayer was not meant to be simply memorized and recited. It was meant to be to a guideline and outline on how to pray.

Please enjoy this devotional video, or stream/download an audio version below, or scroll down to continue reading.



https://soundcloud.com/christianunion/a-jesus-model-of-prayer

There are six parts to the Lord’s Prayer: Praise, Petition, Provision, Pardon, Power, and Praise.
 

“Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”  -2 Timothy 2:20-21

Working at one of the top schools in the world, I am constantly surrounded by incredibly gifted and hyper-competent people. For many of the students in this environment, their exceptional competence in their studies and extracurricular pursuits is central to their self-identity and their sense of self-worth.  Being in an environment with so much giftedness can make people highly competitive or seriously discouraged.

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”  – 1 Corinthians 13:12

When I was a teenager, my church went through a curriculum by Dr. Henry Blackaby called Experiencing God.  I still remember vividly the cover of that course packet with a portrait of Moses as he looked back over his shoulder toward the burning bush where he received his calling from God.  

Jesus loves food and drink. He begins His public ministry by miraculously crafting fine wine for a local wedding in Cana. He describes His kingdom as a wedding feast with an open invitation (Matthew 22:1-14). He even defends the fact that His disciples don’t fast while He is still with them (Matthew 9:15).

It is no surprise, then, that at a final feast with His disciples, Jesus gives us one final marker to remember Him with: eating bread and drinking wine. In this feasting, we remember our Lord, His coming, and His salvific sacrifice for us. And in this feasting we also point to the feast on the mountain of Zion that awaits the nations, “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine” (Isaiah 25:6).

I recently spent a week in a small village in Uganda. Manicured huts, but no running water pipes or electrical posts, lined the red dirt road. My teammates and I spent several hours a day with families in the village, and as we did we learned how many parents and children were coping amidst the hard losses of HIV/AIDS. I kept pondering the motto of one of the local ministries: “Hope does not disappoint.” When people do not hope, or rather, when they do not hope in the thing worth hoping in, they grow sick. Families in this village, though, were testifying to how hoping in God has changed their perspectives--and their lives. Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” - Galatians 6:2

My daughter, Ellie, is not old enough to form the interrogative sentences that begin with, “Why?”  However, I am looking forward to the natural onslaught of such questions that come when the mind of a child is developing. It is very normal for a parent to become overwhelmingly tired of the question, “Why?” when we seem to have reached the bottom of our knowledge. So we resort to the usually unsatisfactory answer, “Because I say so.” When we come to such a burdensome command from Paul, we must be like the child who digs so deep that it tests the depth of Scriptures’ wisdom. Asking, “Why?” uncovers that this command didn’t float down from Heaven without purpose or reason behind it. We don’t hear God say, “In the beginning, I told you so.” Asking, “Why?” takes us deeper, into the very nature of God.

“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted…for if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” - Galatians 6:1

What did you expect from your career, job search, marriage, marriage after kids, singleness, dating, homes, friendship, and Christianity? Expectations shape most of our experience in life. Some of our expectations can be spot on, while others can be completely off. I expect to have my demands for world-class, authentic Neapolitan pizza satisfied while in New Haven – spot on. I never expected to start the inevitable balding process at age 28 – completely wrong on that one. Like my balding head, most of our expectations will be challenged and changed in our lifetimes. Our expectations of what it means to be a Christian should be the same: continually challenged and undergoing change.

The author of Hebrews says, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:9–11).

The author of Hebrews says, “Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). Revelation envisions this Zion truly as the City of God since there will be:

“[N]o temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter into it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” - Revelation 21:22–27

For me, one of the most compelling reasons to pray is that prayer unveils reality. It presents things as they really are. This is especially important for me as I minister at Princeton where it is hard to ignore the precocious brilliance and exceptional achievements of students and faculty. Why would I want to ignore such things? Quite literally, Princeton changes the world, and many times, for the better. Not only does this invite me to respect this campus, but love it. I praise the Lord for its storied tradition and stewardship of God-given gifts.

Please enjoy this devotional video, or stream/download an audio version below, or scroll down to continue reading.



https://soundcloud.com/christianunion/a-pull-back-the-curtain-protim

However, to stop there would be to settle for an impoverished view of Princeton. Although “Old Nassau” is a place to love, it is also a place to hate. There is ugliness behind its aesthetics, injustice behind its intellect, and manifold pain behind its celebrated reputation. You just need to see it. Drawing near to God in prayer allows me to do just that.