Date: 22-06-25
Preacher: Ps Colin Wong
Title: Living the Lord’s Prayer

Living the Lord’s Prayer

This morning’s biblical reference was taken from Matthew 6:9-13.

Ps Colin gave the background how the Lord’s Prayer came about before unpacking it for the congregation. The Lord's Prayer originated from a request by one of Jesus' disciples who asked Him to teach them how to pray. Jesus responded by providing the Prayer as a model for believers.

Ps Colin unpacked it into 6 parts, each corresponding to a major theme of the Prayer.

1. Living in Relationship - “Our Father”
   This establishes our identity and relationship with God as one between a father and his child. It is a familial one where there is ease of commune.
2. Living in Reverence - “Hallowed Be thy Name”
   We are to live in reverence to God’s holiness, that is, to transform our ordinary moments into sacred encounters. It thus affects our conduct and transform every act of ours into acts of worship. We are to treat our work in the secular world likewise too. To honour God’s character we are also not to use His Name frivolously.
3. Living with Purpose - “Thy Kingdom Come”
   We have to align our purpose to God’s. Here Ps Colin made a telling remark, and that is often when we pray, we align God’s purpose with ours. And so we have to make adjustments, for instance, to share the gospel as soon as possible. It is akin to bringing Heaven to earth and gives us an opportunity to serve others
   and how we look at our own problems too.
4. Living in Trust - “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
   We get to live moment by moment depending on God and to trust Him with all our needs. Ps Colin said this does not mean we don’t need to prepare for our tomorrows but most of us in our zeal to do that, forget about our todays.
5. Living in Grace - “Forgive Us …As We Forgive ..”
   Here we need to constantly confess and forgive. Ps Colin made another telling point here by saying that while most of us want God to forgive us quickly we ourselves take a long time to forgive others. The key is to keep short accounts.
6. Living in Wisdom - “Lead Us Not Into Temptation”
   Here Ps Colin shared a few examples of not wondering into temptations and as we are often faced with choices, we have to pray for wisdom and protection too.

In conclusion I find Ps Colin’s homework for the congregation meaningful. It is reproduced below:

Choose one phrase from the Lord's Prayer to focus on this week.

• Let "Our Father" remind you of constant access to God.
• Let "Your kingdom come" guide your decisions.
• Let "forgive us" keep your heart clean before God and others.