{"id":121,"date":"2012-02-22T17:30:14","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T17:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thesupernaturallife\/?p=121"},"modified":"2012-02-22T19:26:04","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T19:26:04","slug":"praying-with-jesus-lent-days-1-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesupernaturallife\/2012\/02\/22\/praying-with-jesus-lent-days-1-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Praying With Jesus. Lent:  Days 1-7"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew 6:9-13<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur Father who art in Heaven\u2026\u201d Let&#8217;s start this Ash Wednesday on a prayer journey.<\/p>\n<p>We call it \u201cthe Lord\u2019s prayer.\u201d\u00a0 But actually, it is our prayer, taught to us by Jesus.\u00a0 It is a beautiful template to guide our conversation with the almighty, eternal God.\u00a0 Jesus begins the prayer with a radical call: \u201cOur Father.\u201d\u00a0 This is startling for two reasons.\u00a0 First, he says \u201cour\u201d including each of us in an invitation to address God as kindred.\u00a0 Further, we are invited to call God \u201cFather.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This was a startling invitation.\u00a0 The Jews would not even utter God\u2019s name.\u00a0 And here Jesus is inviting us to a level of intimacy we can hardly fathom.\u00a0 In Gethsemane Jesus goes even further calling out to God as \u201cAbba\u201d \u2013 the word the little Hebrew children used for \u201cDaddy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But prayer to God as \u201cFather\u201d is not always easy, especially if we had a difficult time relating to our earthly fathers.\u00a0 Awkward as it is, we are beckoned with this command.\u00a0 And in fact only in this relationship can we find healing from our hurts and disappointments from our own fathers.\u00a0 In God we find a father who is what a father is suppose to be.\u00a0 God the father is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The source of our life (John 3:3)<\/li>\n<li>Supplier of all we need (Matthew 6:31-33)<\/li>\n<li>The one who rightly disciplines us (Hebrews 12:5-11)<\/li>\n<li>The one who grants us an inheritance (Romans 8:15-17)<\/li>\n<li>The one who gives us abounding affection (I John 3:1, Luke 15:20-24)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some things to do:<br \/>\nWe being our prayer journey by addressing God, the maker of all, as Father.\u00a0 Through this week take time to speak out loud to him as \u201cFather.\u201d\u00a0 As you drive to work or wash the dishes or lie down to sleep whisper the word \u201cFather.\u201d\u00a0 And as the week moves on grow more bold in this. Try speaking to him as Jesus did.\u00a0 Say \u201cDaddy\u2026\u201d\u00a0 How does it seem?<\/p>\n<p>Some things to talk about:<br \/>\nWhy is it challenging for us to think of and speak of God as our \u201cDaddy\u201d?<br \/>\nWhat can we do to \u201cspur each other on\u201d to experience this reality more deeply?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Our Father, teach us to be comfortable with the truth of Your intimate love for us, to embrace You as Daddy. To receive our identity from You and You alone. And out of that intimacy and identity, to live the life Your Son died to give us, with His joy embedded deep within us.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Amen.<em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew 6:9-13 \u201cOur Father who art in Heaven\u2026\u201d Let&#8217;s start this Ash Wednesday on a prayer journey. We call it \u201cthe Lord\u2019s prayer.\u201d\u00a0 But actually, it is our prayer, taught to us by Jesus.\u00a0 It is a beautiful template to guide our conversation with the almighty, eternal God.\u00a0 Jesus begins the prayer with a radical&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[75,9,77,76,78,442,73,74],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent","tag-daddy","tag-heaven","tag-identity","tag-inheritance","tag-intimacy-with-god","tag-lent","tag-lords-prayer","tag-our-father"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Praying With Jesus. Lent: Days 1-7 - The Super Natural Life - prayers for strength, words of wisdom, daily bible reading<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesupernaturallife\/2012\/02\/22\/praying-with-jesus-lent-days-1-7\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Praying With Jesus. Lent: Days 1-7 - The Super Natural Life - prayers for strength, words of wisdom, daily bible reading\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Matthew 6:9-13 \u201cOur Father who art in Heaven\u2026\u201d Let&#8217;s start this Ash Wednesday on a prayer journey. We call it \u201cthe Lord\u2019s prayer.\u201d\u00a0 But actually, it is our prayer, taught to us by Jesus.\u00a0 It is a beautiful template to guide our conversation with the almighty, eternal God.\u00a0 Jesus begins the prayer with a radical&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesupernaturallife\/2012\/02\/22\/praying-with-jesus-lent-days-1-7\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Super Natural Life - prayers for strength, words of wisdom, daily bible reading\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-22T17:30:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-02-22T19:26:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jill\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Praying With Jesus. Lent: Days 1-7 - The Super Natural Life - prayers for strength, words of wisdom, daily bible reading","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesupernaturallife\/2012\/02\/22\/praying-with-jesus-lent-days-1-7\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Praying With Jesus. Lent: Days 1-7 - The Super Natural Life - prayers for strength, words of wisdom, daily bible reading","og_description":"Matthew 6:9-13 \u201cOur Father who art in Heaven\u2026\u201d Let&#8217;s start this Ash Wednesday on a prayer journey. 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