As we start to study prayer we look at the Lord’s Prayer and
how it starts at Matthew 6:9 with:
Your prayers, rather, should
be simple, like this:
Our Father
in heaven,
let Your name remain holy.
Jesus opened this “model” prayer with honor and glory to
God. What is being said is focus first on God and make sure the focus is not
inward. So acknowledge God first in your prayers to Him, let Him know you
understand His position in the world.
Genesis 1:1 is considered the most important verse in the
Bible:
In the beginning, God created everything:
the heavens above and the earth below. Here’s
what happened:
Think about it, God created the heavens and earth. This one
act shows God is above nature, since he created it. In today’s world this is
being chipped away and dismissed by scientists who can show models of creation
being a random event. If verse 1 of the Bible is shown to be untrue the
conclusion made by science is the rest is a “fairy tale”. So is God number 1
and above all or is He just a figure for stability in life?
Jesus wanted us to focus on God first in all our prayers. We
need to remember that God is above all and worthy of our worship and praise,
since we often forget. At least I often forget as life’s problems happen all
the time. The mistake I tend to make is I start focusing on the problem and
sometimes blame God. In reality life just happens and we tend to try to figure
out how God is in it.
Now this will get many to turn me “off” but follow this
logic. God is above all, but is not causing everything around us. No life has
been given and the whole system has been set up, but free will and random
events are not always in God’s control. I know that is not proper “theology” in
which we are taught God is in control of everything. I tend to believe He is
aware but is not the puppet master of life, no life just happens.
This world was created and the ball was started. I look at life
more as a “Pachinko Machine” than a play God wrote. With the “Pachinko Machine”
the ball is started by the player and then what happens after the ball is
released is all in the ball. Hence free will, now if we start a path that needs
correcting God may pop a pin in the way which will help guide us back to the
right path, but it’s our decision on which way to go in the end. Now don’t get
me wrong, God does intervene often as when I died.
My point is if we look at the path we are on we can see
times when we follow our own direction and times when we follow God’s. We can
see the times when pins are placed in our path that change everything. While
life is a “Pachinko Machine” and random to a point, The Eternal, God, is above
it all and can “help” our way through life’s landmines. Sure some things seem
unfair and difficult, but it’s not God pushing his thumb down on us, but rather
life just going the wrong way. The key is recognizing when God places those
pins and to give Him the GLORY!!