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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion Saturday, March 6, 2004 Prayer - A Dedication |
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Frontline Devotion for
Saturday, March 6, 2004, Brenda Kessler
Scripture: Luke 11: 4 “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who
sins against us.” – The NIV Study Bible
“If we want peace, justice, and reconciliation, we can rest confident in the
faith that God makes these possible, “ said The Rev. James Miller, PhD, at the
last session of a five-week lecture series entitled, “Toward a 21st Century
Faith: In Search of a Faith that is Theologically Faithful, Scientifically
Credible, and Practically Effective.” He also added, “What is missing is our
committed effort to accomplish them. So, our prayers should not be petitions
that God bring these about but rather prayers of dedication of ourselves to
their accomplishment.”
Sounds like quite a challenge, doesn’t it?
When I think about peace in Iraq, for example, my first thought is, “What can
little old me do to bring about peace in Iraq?” And then I am reminded of the
fourth verse in the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of Luke, “Forgive us our
sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” When our Lord gave us
a model for prayer, The Lord’s Prayer, he did exactly what Jim said. He gave us
a model that says, “Dedicate yourself to accomplishing the prayer.”
Using the Lord’s Prayer as a model, we can start by forgiving those who sinned
against us. Perhaps it’s somebody in our families who offended us. Perhaps
it’s a neighbor whose barking dog drives us crazy. Perhaps it’s a group of
people who upset our nation when they flew planes into the World Trade Center,
the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. If we are to be forgiven, we can
start to help accomplish God’s answer by forgiving those who sinned against us.
Then, when we pray for peace in the world, for example, we will begin to look
for ways to bring peace to the world. We will learn more about the people of
Iraq, the people of Haiti, the people of the Middle East, etc. We will keep an
open mind when we listen to them. We will listen to their needs and not our
wants. We might become active in a church-wide effort to bring about peace. We
might invite others not like us to worship with us. We might worship with them
in their houses of worship. We will look for ways to dedicate ourselves to
accomplish God’s answer to our prayers.
“Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.”
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that you call us to pray even when you already know
our needs. Help us to dedicate ourselves to helping you answer those prayers.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
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