June 19th, 2024

A few weeks ago I wrote to discuss how God interrupts our lives with joys, sorrows, hardships, and victories to call us to Himself in prayer. The Triune God is always present even when we are“distracted from distraction by distraction.”** This week, I want to talk about how the first half of the prayer Jesus taught us can help us out of distraction. In Matthew 6 Jesus taught his disciples saying, “pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” 

 One of the things I love about Jesus’ teaching here is how the Lord’s Prayer models the right priority of things. It often happens that when I sit down to pray, all the internal clutter and unresolved issues of my life rise to the surface. If I’m not paying attention to what is happening, what started as prayer ends up looking more like a problem-solving session, a rant about something or someone that offended me, or a pity party about how I wish things were different. I end up praying, but only in the sad sense that I ask God to fix things in my life, for my sake, and hopefully on my timeline - maybe you can relate. 

 Jesus’ teaching about prayer cuts through all of that by reminding us of who we are in the world and kingdom where God rules as a Creator and Redeemer King. When we have a sufficiently accurate view of who God is in relation to our needs - the internal clutter will likely quiet. If God created us, and ordered the world to our provision and good - surely the roof is not the most important thing to address. If God is our redeemer, surely we can forgive others and find peace. If God is our King, surely we can trust that his plan for this world and kingdom is under his control - even when we don’t understand it. 

**“Burnt Norton” from Four Quartets by TS Eliot

Sweet Hour of Prayer - Trinity Hymnal #634

—Matt Allhands