Jeremiah 3-5
1 Timothy 4
“Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to My brothers and tell them, “I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news…” John 20:17-18
If there is one thing that we could learn more or become excellent in, it would be prayer. During Jesus’s earthly ministry, the disciples would see Jesus come back renewed, purposeful and strengthened after spending time in prayer before the Father. This is why in Luke 11:1 the disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” If there was one thing the disciples wanted Jesus to teach them, it was to teach them how to pray. Jesus opened “The Lord’s Prayer” with “Our Father…” (Luke 11:2, NKJV). May we not underestimate the full weight of the opening statement.
When I (Sandra Ryan) was in Egypt last year, I learned the power and necessity of prayer. I saw how our brothers and sisters were engaged in such earnest ongoing prayer like a marathon. They were in such need of encouragement, strengthening and renewal that they were just praying over one another from morning until night. What I saw there was that if there was anything our broken hurting world needed, it was prayer. And if we can do nothing else in our generation, let us become a people of prayer.
Among the group gathered for prayer was a sister from Syria. Her own people had now lived through more than a decade of war. She had seen her people devastated by ongoing conflicts and natural disasters. As she shared with me, she asked, as the psalmist did in Psalm 13, “How long, O Lord? How long?” She told me, “Of course, I wanted to go back and offer encouragement and comfort to my people, so I returned to my community. As I walked through the streets, I saw so much devastation and pain in my people. I was like a dead person. I couldn’t even speak.” She just kept walking and walking until the third day, the Lord spoke to her. She heard in her heart the Lord speaking to her using the same words that the resurrected Saviour said to Mary at the Garden Tomb: “Do not hold on to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to My brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God’” (John 20:17). In other words, “I am not leaving you alone. I know that it feels like things are absolutely devastating and you have lost everything, but I’m going to the Father, My Father, and now, your Father—our Father.”
When we begin our prayer with “our Father” we are declaring together with Jesus that God is our Father. No matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, we have hope because God is our Father.
Dear Father, You know what I am going through—the pain, the hurt and the devastation. I bring them all before You because I know You care for me. Thank You, Father.
1 Timothy 4
“Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to My brothers and tell them, “I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news…” John 20:17-18
If there is one thing that we could learn more or become excellent in, it would be prayer. During Jesus’s earthly ministry, the disciples would see Jesus come back renewed, purposeful and strengthened after spending time in prayer before the Father. This is why in Luke 11:1 the disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” If there was one thing the disciples wanted Jesus to teach them, it was to teach them how to pray. Jesus opened “The Lord’s Prayer” with “Our Father…” (Luke 11:2, NKJV). May we not underestimate the full weight of the opening statement.
When I (Sandra Ryan) was in Egypt last year, I learned the power and necessity of prayer. I saw how our brothers and sisters were engaged in such earnest ongoing prayer like a marathon. They were in such need of encouragement, strengthening and renewal that they were just praying over one another from morning until night. What I saw there was that if there was anything our broken hurting world needed, it was prayer. And if we can do nothing else in our generation, let us become a people of prayer.
Among the group gathered for prayer was a sister from Syria. Her own people had now lived through more than a decade of war. She had seen her people devastated by ongoing conflicts and natural disasters. As she shared with me, she asked, as the psalmist did in Psalm 13, “How long, O Lord? How long?” She told me, “Of course, I wanted to go back and offer encouragement and comfort to my people, so I returned to my community. As I walked through the streets, I saw so much devastation and pain in my people. I was like a dead person. I couldn’t even speak.” She just kept walking and walking until the third day, the Lord spoke to her. She heard in her heart the Lord speaking to her using the same words that the resurrected Saviour said to Mary at the Garden Tomb: “Do not hold on to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to My brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God’” (John 20:17). In other words, “I am not leaving you alone. I know that it feels like things are absolutely devastating and you have lost everything, but I’m going to the Father, My Father, and now, your Father—our Father.”
When we begin our prayer with “our Father” we are declaring together with Jesus that God is our Father. No matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, we have hope because God is our Father.
Dear Father, You know what I am going through—the pain, the hurt and the devastation. I bring them all before You because I know You care for me. Thank You, Father.
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