Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Today we continue praying the Lord’s Prayer.  We will focus on the phrase “Give us today our daily bread.” First, the whole prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,
    Hallowed be your name.
    Your kingdom come.
    Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
      Give us today our daily bread.
    And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
    Save us from the time of trial,
    And deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and forever,
Amen.

Our Father in Heaven,

“Give us today our daily bread.” The United Nations says the world’s store of cereal grains is only 3-4 months supply.* That means the world is just three months from famine. In that narrow window, our daily bread depends on turning seasons, a shining sun, falling rain, and a dry harvest.

After harvest, our daily bread needs trucks to carry the grain to storage, mills to grind flour, cooks to bake bread, and grocery stores to sell it. And we need jobs or welfare cheques or food stamps to buy the bread, and a safe place to sit and eat it. This is our daily bread, “fruit of the earth and work of human hands.”**

Our Father, where are you in these cycles?  Are you a distant God who watches impassively as the seasons turn and the wheels of commerce run? Or, are you active in the process? Does it cause you grief as we subject the world to global warming, as we over fertilize and poison the planet, as we burn fossil fuels to make our bread? Does it give you joy when we eat in peace with family and friends?

Our Father, when we pray “Give us today our daily bread”:
– We ask you to participate with us in all parts of food production.
– We ask you to help us create a just and stable society where every person has enough food.
– We ask that if war or famine or weather interrupts the food supply, that you will be our refuge and strength.

We remember what Jesus said in Matthew’s gospel: “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). He also said, “I am the bread of life. Anyone who comes to me will never be hungry” (John 6:35).  Our Father, we pray to you because we have felt the hunger Jesus talks about. He has taught us that we are hungry for the bread of heaven.

But who will teach us where to find the bread of heaven? We are moderns looking for the scientific explanations, analyzing the chemical properties of bread, studying the biology of digestion. But  Jesus points us to the mystery of things, saying, “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25). At the Last Supper Jesus gave bread to his disciples and said, “This is my body, broken for you.”  We ask you to give us the bread that lives in the mystery of Jesus’ broken body.

Our Father, give us today our daily bread. Provide the bread that feeds our life on earth, and provide in Jesus the bread of eternal life.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me.”

*UN Food and Agricultural Organization  UN Food & Agricultural Organization

** Liturgy of the Eucharist.  See Litury Eucharist

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me.”

Today we come to a famous story in the book of Genesis (chapter 32) in the Bible: the story of Jacob wrestling all night with an angel. Whole books have been written on this story. So we won’t develop a scholarly interpretation, we will use it to encourage our prayers. Here’s the story.

God had made big promises to Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather.  These promises were passed to Isaac, Jacob’s father, who was supposed to pass them on to Esau, Jacob’s older brother. Jacob felt left out. He wanted in on the promises. So once when Esau was hungry, Jacob convinced him to sell the promises for a bowl of stew. Later, when their father Isaac was preparing to pass the promises to Esau, Jacob disguised himself as his brother and tricked Isaac into passing the promises to him.

When Esau discovered Jacob’s trickery, he threatened to kill him. So Jacob moved out of the country to live with his uncle Laban.

Living with uncle Laban, Jacob became a rich man with 2 wives, 2 concubines, 11 sons, at least one daughter, and lots of sheep and cattle and goats. When Jacob wore out his welcome with Laban, he headed home to Canaan. While travelling, he heard that Esau, the brother he ripped off many years ago, was coming with 400 armed men to meet his slow caravan of women and children and livestock. Jacob got scared and thought, “Genocide! If Esau is as angry as he was a few years ago, he will kill us all.” What to do?

Jacob decided to pray. He said, “Uh, God, I’d like to remind you about the promises that got passed on to me. One was that I would have lots of descendants. But now, it looks like Esau wants to wipe us out. God, you’d better intervene in this mess and prevent Esau from killing me, and make sure that you keep your promises.”

Hmm. That sounds like an edited version of Jacob’s story. Without the edits, he might have sounded like this: “Dear God, remember that birthright I stole from my brother Esau? And tricked Isaac into passing to me? God, I need you to start delivering on those promises. Now, already. You need to protect me, because I stole those promises fair and square. So it’s YOUR job, God, to save my life from a murderous Esau.”

If I were God, I am pretty sure that’s not a prayer I would answer. Don’t you think prayer should be a little more honest and a little more generous than that?

That night, as Jacob was camped out waiting for Esau, God showed up as an angel, and wrestled all night with him. At the end of the night, when it was not clear who was winning, God said, “What is your name?” “I’m Jacob,” came the answer.

That was an amazing moment, because Jacob finally admitted who he really was: Jacob the cheat, Jacob the liar, Jacob the manipulator, Jacob the thief. But also Jacob who desperately wanted the blessing from God and was prepared to wrestle all night to find it. God responded by changing Jacob’s name to Israel, which started a new phase in Jacob’s relationship to God. Perhaps in answer to Jacob’s prayer, or perhaps just because Esau’s anger had abated with time and success, Esau was glad to see Jacob. He hugged him and offered to help.

Here are our lessons from Jacob’s prayer and wrestling with God.

The first: God was willing to show up in the mess Jacob made of his life and give him a new start with a new name. Don’t you wish God would do that for you?

The second lesson: sometimes prayer is the process of wrestling through who we are and how we present ourselves. Sometimes we wear makeup or a mask, so we look civilized, reasonable, and honest. But part of prayer is letting God wrestle away the image we have created until we see the person we really are: full of envy, fear, distortions, or anger.

And the third lesson: God is big enough to receive and bless us when we tell him who we really are, acknowledging the good and the bad. In the end, God is for us, not against us, in our journey through life.

Dear God, we hardly know who we are, and how can we know you if we keep deceiving ourselves? Come into our lives, wrestle our hearts until we know and speak the truth, and bless us, oh our God.

Thank you for listening. I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with me”.

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

Today, let’s continue praying the Lord’s Prayer.  We will focus on the phrase “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” First, the whole prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
      Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial,
And deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and forever,
Amen.

Our Father, “Your will be done on earth as in heaven.” We thank you for Jesus, who came from heaven to earth to show us your will.  We learn what your will is by looking at what he did. Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry, set captives free, made the lame walk and the blind to see. Jesus preached the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven to the homeless and the forsaken and the sick and the outcasts.  May we follow his example of doing your will — caring for the lost in our society, healing the wounds and forgiving the sins of many.

Our Father, teach us to know the difference between our will and your will. Many of the things we desire are things you want for us: healthy families, success at work, a peaceful country, salvation for the world. These are things that would answer the prayer, “Your will be done on earth as in heaven.”

But other things you desire are not so evident. Aldous Huxley said that “Your will be done” is prayed by millions who haven’t the slightest intention of letting any will be done except their own.   Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me.”  I’m glad Jesus carried his cross, but I don’t think I want a cross of my own.  Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit and the meek and those who mourn and the persecuted.” I’m not sure I want to be poor and meek and sad and persecuted.

Our Father, I like it that you are king, and I like it that Jesus and I are sons of the king. But one night when Jesus lived on earth, he prayed, “Father, I’m not really excited about the direction things are taking here. If possible, can you change the plan?  Yet not my will but yours be done.” And it was your will that answered his prayer by sending him to die on the cross. Shall I pray as Jesus did, “Not my will but yours be done?”

But still we pray as Jesus taught us, “Your will be done on earth as in heaven.” We rejoice in your will when it brings hope and healing and riches and light.  We submit to your will when it brings a cross and death. With Jesus, may we lose our own will, and find your will on earth.

And with Jesus, may we find at last our resurrection to eternal life.

Our Father, your will be done.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me.”

Today is Book Review Day.  The book I’m reviewing today is  the most famous, the most often read, in fact the very best book on prayer that is available.  If you’re a Christian you probably own this book already. It’s not often published by itself — it usually comes as one book in middle of another book.  Today’s book is the Psalms, a collection of 150 prayers in the middle of the Bible.

The Psalms are not meant to be read straight through the way you read a modern novel.  They are meant to be prayed. When our daughter was 10 or 12, she asked what I was reading.  “The Psalms,” I said. “Oh, the Psalms,” she replied. “They’re all the same: ‘Help me Lord, my life is falling apart, I’m depressed, come rescue me.’ and then, ‘Oh, thank you Lord, you saved me.’” I said, “What a wonderful summary of the Psalms.  That’s why I love them. I think you’re just too young to appreciate them.”

The most amazing thing about the Psalms? If you’re not very good at praying, they give you words to pray with. They’re a gift for people who try to pray.  

Another amazing thing about the Psalms is the stuff people bring to God when they pray.  Here are some examples:

Emotions are big in the Psalms.  People speak to God
– about great joy and deep sorrow,
– about large hopes and crushing disappointments,
– about desperate loneliness and exuberant friendships,
– about debilitating depression and unrestrained happiness,
– about vicious hatred and deep deep love.

Relationships are big in the Psalms.  The pray-ers have friends who love and support them, enemies who hate and attack.  Sometimes friends become enemies. The only constant friend is God, but often the one praying is not sure if God is friend or enemy today.

Good and evil are big in the the Psalms.  The pray-ers often complain about the violence and injustice in the world. But they also confront the evil that lives in the human heart — in our own hearts — and they bring the evil to God.

One of the most important things the Psalms teach: We don’t have to get better to come to God.  We don’t have to dress up or pretend our lives are together. We can come to God and say our prayers just as we are, in any state of anger or depression or joy.

In the Psalms, God presents himself in many different ways.
– he is king and ruler and judge of the world in Psalm 2
– he is our rock and fortress and saviour in Psalm 18
– he is the creator of a beautiful universe in Psalm 19
– he is the gentle shepherd in Psalm 23
– he is the one who hears our cries of pain and distress in Psalm 42
– he is  the gardener tending a vine in Psalm 80
– he is the mother bird sheltering us under her wings in Psalm 91

In all of our need, all of our pain, all of our joy, God is there for us in the Psalms.

Author Eugene Peterson describes the Psalms in this way:
“Prayers are tools,
not for doing or getting,
but for being
and becoming….
[Prayers] are the tools…God uses to work his will in our bodies and souls.
Prayers are [the] tools…we use to collaborate with his work in us. . . .
The Psalms are the best tools….” (Eugene Peterson, “Answering God”, pp. 2-3) 

Dear God, today we need a teacher in the way of prayer.  So we pray to you with the Psalmist, “Show us your ways, Oh Lord, teach us your paths” (Ps 25). “Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Ps 90).   

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me.”

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Today we continue praying the Lord’s Prayer. Let’s focus on the phrase, “Your kingdom come.” First, the whole prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial,
And deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and forever,
Amen.

Our Father in Heaven,
“Your kingdom come.”

We pray to you as king, which seems rather odd in our modern world
where democracies elect presidents,
where dictators appoint themselves to rule,
where Big Brother watches us on security cameras and cell phones,
and where Kings and Queens are invested with great pomp and little power.
But you don’t call yourself dictator or president or Big Brother. You call yourself King — undisputed ruler over all that exists, because you created everything and you sustain it all.

If you are king, then why must we pray for your kingdom to come? Is it not already here? Where are you not already king?

We confess that you are not king in our lives, because we reserve control for ourselves. We cling to that bit of money, that bit of power, that bit of self-expression that is so important to us. Beside your big kingdom, we build little kingdoms of our own design. We pray your kingdom come, oh God, overruling our self-styled kingdoms and plans.

We confess that you are not king in our choice of entertainment. We amuse ourselves with relationship-destroying behaviour in movies, TV programs, video games and music. Your kingdom come, O God, that we may build and honor the life you give.

We confess that you are not king in our homes. Free us from being petty tyrants who rule by fear and manipulation. Free us from eating too much and exercising too little. May your kingdom come to our homes, that they may be places of health and relationship and life.

We confess that you are not king in our churches. These are human institutions
where we argue about styles of music and length of sermons;
where we want others to honour us;
where the church leaders vie for power and influence;
where we gossip and criticize and say all manner of evil against each other.
May your kingdom come to our churches, that our service will be done in love for you and others.

We confess that you are not king in our nation and in our world of nations. Our world is full of racial injustice, economic injustice, political corruption, and moral bankruptcy. Our greed causes devastating climate change. Bring your kingdom, O God, to our world, to politics and economics, to education and law-courts, to business and employment and morality and climate.

We remember Paul’s words, “The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Be in us that righteousness, peace, and joy, making our lives part of your kingdom, making them springs of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14).

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.