Lord’s Prayer
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen.”
Matthew 6:9-13

Why is it that when it is easy, we coast.  We revert to old habits, and we forget the source of life and growth, and then begin to take credit for our successes?  I don’t know if this is old school thinking from generations made of stronger genetics or just a West Texas mindset, but it always cracks me up when someone is diagnosed with a physical disease or ailment and the response to the treatment is, “I hope it’s not addictive,” or “I hope I don’t have to take something every day for the rest of my life.”

Well, addictive in the fact that you will need it tomorrow just as you need it today?  Or addictive as in your body will crave, desire, or need the treatment that suppresses symptoms of your long-term disease?  Does it matter?  Your body isn’t functioning correctly and needs help . . . every day for the rest of your life.

If we struggle this much in the physical, no wonder we struggle with the dilemma of needing God daily.  In the same way we’ll need meds for a disease the rest of our physical lives, we need to quit being afraid that we will need to rely on God daily for the rest of our lives.  When He gave us the Lord’s prayer, it said, “Give us this day our DAILY bread,” not weekly, monthly, or even worse ‘as you see fit.’

As long as we have a terminal illness, our physical bodies, our spirit will need that continual refreshing and nourishment just like medicine.  If anyone is like me, we take our medicine, then in a week or two, we forget how painful life was without the medicine, or we think we’re cured.  It’s not the medicine, I’m doing better. I was able to overcome, so I can quit taking that ‘addictive’ medicine my body needed.  Try stopping your medication for a bit and see what happens.

When we do this spiritually, we begin to think that we, our flesh, is good.  We have become patient.  We’re full of love and hope, but the reality is that the less we rely on Christ, the more our ‘terminal’ disease (or fleshly bodies) starts to kill our spirit.  We slowly begin to get more selfish.  Our old resentments come back.  Our patience starts to get shorter and shorter.  You get the picture.  Without Christ in our lives, our spirits, the part of us that is meant to be a reflection of some part of God, slowly begin to die.

What’s the solution?  A complete and total understanding that no matter how many times we bend our knees at the cross and beg for Christ to build us back, we’re always built back with Him, not by ourselves (Ephesians 2:8-9).  AND we are not maintained without Him.  In Acts 17:28 it says that, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being. . .”  Any time we’re patient, or see the world through His lens of love, it is because He’s guiding us.  We’ll never be separated from the need to have Him in our lives, because our lives are a daily relationship with Him.

– Written by Kati

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