Our Father Who Art In Heaven

JOKE: A man dies and goes to heaven. There he meets Saint Peter who says, "Welcome, before you can enter, you have to answer a question."

The man says, "Go ahead."

Saint Peter asks. "What is God's name?"

Without hesitation, the man says, "Oh, that's an easy one. Harold!"

Confused, Saint Peter asks, "How did you come to that conclusion?"

Well, the Bible says, "Our Father, who art in heaven, Howard be thy name..."

(Yes, it is a stupid joke, but's it's ok to laugh.)

Now on to the serious stuff.

I was thinking about the Lord's Prayer a couple of days ago.

Matthew 6:9-13 9 Pray then like this:  “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen

God is in heaven.  Heaven is a place of humility, submission, servanthood, joy, encouragement, love and more!  More to the point, it isn't anything like life here on earth.

But Jesus teaches us to pray, " . . .  your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven . . . "  In other words, we are to make it our desire for our place here on earth to be more like heaven.

We often teach that the phrase, Give us this day our daily bread, is about our day to day needs.  This is true.  But I question if we really know what our needs are.  Sure they can be needs of a desperate nature.  But isn't humility a daily need?  What about patience?  Isn't serving others a daily need?  Love? Joy?

If we are going to ask heaven to come down and be present here on earth shouldn't we then lead with the character of God and heaven?  

PRAY: Dear Jesus, I am asking heaven to come down to earth.  I am also asking for Your character and life to rule and reign in my heart today too.  AMEN