January 23, 2012
Today’s Text: Read Matthew 6:9-13
As we start this third week of our study, take a moment to ask God to speak to you through His Word this week.
Did you do it? Great! This week’s focus is on this idea: For us to be faithful servants of God we have to have a stewardship perspective. A steward is a manager of someone else’s property and affairs. In the Bible we find this kind of perspective all over the place. For the first three days of this week we’re going to examine Jesus’ model prayer that He taught His disciples how to pray. This perspective of stewardship can be seen throughout Jesus prayer. Let’s look at it phrase by phrase.
“Our Father….heaven”– Jesus addressed God as His Father, and taught us to do the same. The word “Father” refers to God’s relationship with us and His authority over us and all of creation. He resides in Heaven, a place outside of and superior to the sin-cursed world that we live in.
“hallowed be thy name”- God’s name is “hallowed” which means Holy. The name He has chosen, like God Himself, is holy and separate from those of us who are not holy in our practice.
So here are a couple of questions to help us think about how this relates to stewardship:
Both of these phrases refer to a similar idea: God as the authority over all the earth and God as the owner of all of the earth. Of course the attitude reflected in this model prayer helps us to know that it includes us as well.
Here are some questions to help you think about how this applies:
- How does the reality that God is the authority impact your view of your role in your relationship to Him?
- How does the reality that God is the owner of everything change the way you look at your stuff?
- How does our behavior and attitudes in regard to God not reflect these two realities?
- How does knowing that God is the authority and owns everything relate to my attitudes towards giving and generosity?