Monday Meditation – Matthew 6:9-13

Today’s Meditation Verses:

Matthew 6:9-13

9 Our Father in heaven,

may your name be kept holy.

10 May your Kingdom come soon.

May your will be done on earth,

as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today the food we need,^a

12 and forgive us our sins,

as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

13 And don’t let us yield to temptation,^b

but rescue us from the evil one.^c

This is the Lord’s Prayer as translated in the New Living Translation.  Most of us can quote it from the King James Bible, but I wanted to use the NLT because is brings the prayer into today’s simpler language.

For some reason this prayer has been resonating within me lately.  Often when I pray these words seem to rise up within me.  So, I’ve begun praying this prayer often.  Because of that I’ve also begun mediating on the words of this prayer and just exactly what I am praying.

Verse 9 acknowledges the holiness of God and prays that His name will be kept holy.  As we enter into His gates in prayer remembering God’s holiness is of supreme importance and will center us in our faith as we do remember.

Verse 10 asks for God’s kingdom to come soon.  For years I’ve heard that we should not wish for the end times as there are too many people who still need to come to Christ.  But as I was meditating on this verse I realized that what Jesus is instructing us to do is request that the end times hurry along so that God’s kingdom here on earth can be reestablished.

Verse 11 asks for our daily food.  We know that there are ample scriptures about God’s abundant provision and that we have no need to worry about it.  But here it does show that we are to continue to pray and request that provision.  However to be fed by daily bread may not just mean literal bread but spiritual and emotional nourishment as well.

Verse 12 shows us to ask for forgiveness as we forgive those around us.  We are perpetually forgiven, but if we want to put a kink in the pipeline of grace which rains that forgiveness down on us then all we have to do is not forgive others.  Note verses 14 and 15.

Verse 13 asks God to help us with all the daily temptations that will most assuredly come our way and also asks that He will run interference for us with the enemy, protecting us through out the day.

The preceding verses to this prayer talk about not needing to babble on with long lengthy prayers.  I love the simplicity of this prayer that covers so much in such an efficient manner.  Learn this prayer and its meaning and then you will have no longer have the excuse that you have no time to pray or that you do not know what to pray.

Meditating on the meaning of these prayer verses will bring reflection to ours lives.  Use this prayer to kick start your prayer life today.

Each Monday we are going to be having ‘Monday Meditations’. We hope to bring to you each Monday a verse to mediate on for the week. This is not for memorization, but to think about and to dwell on. The word meditate, in the bible, means to mutter. So this week as you go about your life, mutter to yourself the verse for the week and think about how it applies to your life. Meditating on a verse will bind it to your spirit and it will become part of you! The more of the Word you meditate on, the more it will transform you into the image of Christ!

No matter what your beliefs are, we want to thank you for visiting our Christian blog!

DAY JOB LINKS…
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Monday Meditation – I Kings 17:1-3

Today’s Mediation verse…

I Kings 17:1-3

1Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe^a in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

2Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: 3“Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.”

5So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

Where does your trust lie?

I have seen the fear of ‘not having’ drive good people to do things and believe in things that I never thought possible.

Monday Meditations – I Corinthians 12:9b

Today’s Meditation Verse:

I Corinthians 12:9b
9b) …and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,

This week I will be writing about the ministerial gift of the Spirit, the gift of healing.  As I have been saying during this study of the gifts of the Spirit, there are gifts that are given to all for personal benefit, but here in this passage Paul is referring to the ministerial gifts of the Spirit.  The ministerial gifts are defined as those used for the common good, as in verse 7 of this chapter.

We know that one of the gifts that was bought and paid for on the cross was the gift of divine health for all who receive Christ and believe in Him.

Monday Meditations – I Corinthians 12:9a

 Today’s Meditation Verse:

I Corinthians 12:9a
9) to another faith by the same Spirit…

We’ve been discussing the gifts of the Spirit and this week I’ll be writing about the gift of faith.

Monday Meditations – 1 Corinthians 12:8b

Today’s Meditation Verse:

1 Corinthians 12:8b

… and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit;

Last week I talked about the Word of Wisdom.  This was the first of the ministerial gifts of the Spirit which Paul referred to in 1 Corinthians 12.  This week I am going to talk about the Word of Knowledge.

As a ministerial gift a Word of Wisdom and a Word of Knowledge often go hand in hand, coming at the same time.  You may receive the Word of Knowledge about a situation and then a Word of Wisdom about what to do with that knowledge.

Monday Meditations – I Corinthians 12:8a

Today’s Meditation Verse:

I Corinthians 12:8a

For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit…

For the next few weeks I want to take a closer look at the ministerial gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Last week I introduced them to you with encouragement that we all need these gifts as it is our duty as Christians to minister as part of the body of Christ. 

These gifts are not exclusive to the five-fold ministry or those whose vocation is ministerial in nature.  They are for all of us and we should seek them earnestly.

Monday Meditations – 1 Corinthians 12:4-7

Today’s Meditation Verse:

I Corinthians 12
4) Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5) And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6) There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 7) But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

I truly believe the key to becoming the New Testament church that God desires, is dependent on how we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, both as an individual and as a body.

The Holy Spirit is the giver of gifts.  He gives gifts for the spirit, soul and body, but there are some gifts that are strictly set aside as ministry gifts.  Now before you check out and say that you are not in a ministry so this does not pertain to you – don’t.

Monday Meditations – Ephesians 4:30

Today’s Meditation Verse:

Ephesians 4:30
30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

I have felt very impressed over the past year to express in my blogs the importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We easily talk about God and especially Jesus.  But when it comes to the Holy Spirit we are a little tentative.  He is somewhat of a mystery to us and we tend to shy away from what we do not fully understand or know.

Monday Meditations – 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Today’s Meditation Verse:

2 Corinthians 3:17-18
17) Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18) But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

I love these two verses.  Just before them Paul is talking to the Corinthians about how a veil covers those who are unbelievers so that they cannot perceive the Word, but when we receive Christ the veil goes away and we understand.

Monday Meditation Colossians 4:5-6

Today’s Meditation Verse:

Colossians 4:5-6

5) Be wise in the way you act toward those who are outside [the Christian faith]. Make the most of your opportunities. 6) Everything you say should be kind and well thought out so that you know how to answer everyone.

I once had a very dear mentor in the Christian faith who told me of a time when she was in prayer and saw a vision of herself and Jesus.  She said that He had taken her to the edge of a great pit to view it from above.  This pit was hell, but instead of the absolute darkness she was able to see all those there.

As she stood there and looked, Jesus said that those people over there were here (in hell) because of what Christians did not do.  Then He motioned and said that these people there were here because of what Christians did do.

That was a sobering thought and one that I have carried with me for 30 years.  Christians sociably can be quite proud and arrogant that they have found ‘the way the truth and the light’.  They are so ecstatically happy because of the love of Christ in their lives that they often fail to see that their words become condemning and condescending to others.  And this is not love.