FRONTLINE SUNDAY 4 WHOEVER WE ARE
MATTHEW 6:5–14
Whoever we are – however insignificant we feel – we make all the difference in the world because we are on our frontlines, first as a son or daughter of the King; a child of God. Our value, our worth, our significance, and our life on the frontline flows from this identity. This is liberating.
The Lord’s Prayer can be so familiar that we skate through it not stopping to think too much about what we are praying, and even less about what it means for us as God’s people caught up in what he’s doing in the world. The wonder about the prayer
is that it starts with an assurance of our identity.
Praying to be established in our identity as children of God
Our Father in heaven
The Lord’s Prayer starts with an assurance of our identity as children of God. It
aligns us with his purposes in the world. It reaffirms an attitude of constant reliance on him for sustenance, forgiveness, power, and protection. Serving God is not about ‘trying harder’, but about allowing God to work in and through our lives.
It’s life changing to know that we’re first and foremost sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. Whoever we are, we’re loved with all wisdom and understanding. There will be times in life when this will be the main anchor in the storm, the key that unlocks our prisons, the truth that brings us the greatest joy. Our Father in heaven is also the gateway to purpose.
So:
Recognise who he is, give him honour, worship him
Pray through the Alphabet with words to describe him
Go through the Psalms underlining words about his character
then listen to him
Praying for our part in the Father’s business
Hallowed be your name
When we become Christians, we can act as though we’ve enlisted God for our lives: our concerns and causes. However, when we begin to pray this prayer, we’re reminded that what’s actually happened is that God, through Jesus Christ, has co-opted us into his purposes. We align ourselves with his cause and his way of doing things and so glorify him. And of course, his ‘family business’ embraces all things – it’s global, it’s redemptive, it’s liberating – and it includes us and our daily contexts.
So:
cleansing, consecration, recommitment, confession
Wash my mind, Guard my eyes, ears, mouth
Go through every part of your body
Confess – little things unconfessed become big things!
Give thanks for the blood of Jesus
ask for forgiveness for everything that the Lord reveals to you.
No hiding sin. If you hide sin the Holy Spirit is grieved. Be afraid of not grieving over your sin
Praying for regime change
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
Change can be challenging. Safety, security, and comfort can seem very attractive. But followers of Jesus are called to pray for regime change – that God’s will would be done, here and now. This Kingdom clashes with alternative ways of life. When Jesus first taught this prayer there was an all-powerful empire. The Jewish people were working out what it meant to be the people of God under these difficult conditions. Some believed they should concentrate on personal piety, some thought that they should accommodate the political powers around them, some took to the desert to withdraw completely, whilst most ordinary people just tried to get on with life. But Jesus came and declared that the Kingdom of God had arrived in and through him. We join in that prayer for our times and places.
So:
Intercession
His Kingdom has come and one day he will come again.
May your kingdom be extended. May your Kingdom be seen.
He gives us thoughts and impressions to guide our prayer.
Do not complain about things rather we must pray into them
Do not be afraid of anything but pray for it.
We get to pray ‘Your Kingdom come on earth!
no crime! no unemployment! no covid! coz they’re not in heaven.
God wants us to carry his heart for the places and people as we go
Praying for today’s needs
Give us today our daily bread
Praying for today’s bread suggests an attitude of constant reliance on our heavenly Father. It’s a description of our relationship with him and affirms our significance to him. This can present a challenge to those of us who like to feel in control.
So:
Practical, physical, spiritual.
Finance and Fruit
Pray for the infilling of the Holy Spirit
Our Father in heaven loves it when we come to him and ask “Give me”
Praying for mistakes
Forgive us our sins, as we also forgive those who sin against us
This is a prayer that Jesus gave the disciples when they asked him to teach them to pray. Jesus recognised that there would be some things that would need to be dealt with regularly – we would need to be forgiven and we would need to forgive. We’re not as good as we think we are and people around us are not as good as we wish they were. Jesus breaks the cycles of failure with forgiveness: between us and God, and between each other.
So:
Forgiveness sets the heart free
The deeper the wound the longer the healing process
If we are slow to forgive the wound gets deeper.
Praying for our walk and ‘work’
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one
Jesus seems to think that we shouldn’t be too confident about our own ability to keep going as disciples. There’s an enemy who wants to seduce us away from the ways
of the Kingdom, and so times of testing will come and here we are called to pray for protection and deliverance. We don’t go onto our frontlines alone but the powerful, protecting, life-giving presence of God is with us.
So:
Warfare Eph 6 – put on the whole armour of God
Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Show me lies, show me traps, show me the land mines
Prayer is the place to gain awareness of the devil’s tactics and schemes
God produces Faith, belief
the devil’s warfare is conducted in our minds. he only has power when we believe the lie.
Serving God on our frontlines is not about ‘trying harder’. It’s about learning to allow the resurrection power of God to work in and through our lives as we embrace the things that God has asked us to do. But it begins with a clear sense of our identity.
- 2 Look at the ‘job description’ again. What changes would you make if it starts ‘son of my heavenly Father or daughter of the King of the universe’, who is also…? What difference would it make to how you reflect on your day, how you pray?
Yours is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory
Declaration
I am aligning my life, my passions, my dreams to your will
Then we are Commissioned
2 minutes or 2 hours, it is a doorway for us.