This morning those of us still in the offices at Wycliffe Bible Translators met together to pray. Eddie led us through the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6. For those of you who have forgotten, the prayer goes something like this…
9“This, then, is how you should pray:
” ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
One thing that I’m still pondering is the fact that the words of this prayer imply community. Nowhere are we taught to pray for, ‘my daily bread’, or to, ‘deliver me from the evil one’. Instead it’s our or us; we should be praying this for others as well as for ourselves.
What do you think?
Jesus’ teaching was in the context of his group of disciples. That doesn’t prohibit us from praying personally. Maybe we’re getting too hung up on this ‘community’ thing.
Sometimes Paul asked others to pray for him. Most often he was praying for the believers. Let’s support one another, for our growth in grace and for faithfulness in witness. Let’s pray for God to turn the hearts of men to him. Let’s pray for our government, for justice and truth.