“This is how you are to pray: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’
“If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” (Matthew 6:7-15)
Such a beautiful and all-encompassing prayer we all say but very few take seriously. Perhaps it’s because we begin the prayer with “Our Father who art in heaven.” The Father, therefore, seems distant and elsewhere – in heaven. But the Father is God, or at least the first person in our concept of God – the Trinity. God is with us on earth so we do not have to plead with a heavenly – perhaps absent Father – for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Too many of us think of the Father as a distant and punishing God. We then mirror that God by being distant and punishing to others including family members. We must focus on our loving God always present with us on earth helping us to do God’s will, not from afar in some place we call heaven, but close and nearby.
The Father’s Kingdom need not come. It is already here. We need not plead for its arrival. We simply must appreciate we already are its citizens with a duty to be truthful, right, and just. Otherwise, we are babblers waiting for us to be delivered from evil. That deliverance is something we should do ourselves using our faith and belief in Christ to accomplish that important task.
Waiting for a heavenly “delivery man (or woman)” takes the burden off our shoulders where it rightly belongs. In fact, the Father does not lead us into temptation. The Father helps us resist temptation always presented by the Tempter.
Deacon David Pierce
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