Our Father

I’m not sure about you, but sometimes I pray the Our Father without really thinking too much about it.

On Sunday at the 8h00 service, we had a closer look based on Luke 11:2-4 where Jesus teaches His disciples to pray:



Father: Jesus defines the relationship that God wants with us i.e. as a parent who loves, disciples and provides for us.

Hallowed be your name: Jesus now defines the boundaries within the parent/child relationship. God is our loving parent but it is based on God as Holy and Righteous, All knowing, All present and All powerful.

Your Kingdom come: God has a plan for His creation and that means you and me. The more we surrender to the will of God in our lives, the more we become aware of His plan and our part in it.

Give us this day our daily bread: We simply ask God to be our provider.

Forgive our sins for we also forgive those who sin against us: Quite a thing! Allowing ourselves to become more Christ like : humble and servant hearted and it all starts and ends with forgiveness.

And lead us not into temptation: In all this we need to aware of the potential of ourselves and Satan to lead us away from a fulfilling relationship with God.

Awesome, when you think about it!!!

Open Yourself

How open are you to new ideas?

I think for most of us, it remains a struggle. Change raises our fears, takes us out of our comfort zones and generally makes us edgy.

Yet we find in Scripture that change is unavoidable. Jesus asks us to give up our things that make us comfortable. He also challenges us to keep growing as Christians and to do so requires change.

So, then how can we overcome our fears, doubts and complacency?

One way is to trust God. I mean really trust Him.

Trust that He has a plan for your life, that when you let go He will catch you.

Easy – no!

But rewarding – yes, becoming the person that God knows you need to become.

Amen!

No matter where you find yourself, a long way down the road, just starting or just a little faded…

Start each day with these words: Lord into your hands I place my Spirit today…

Tattoos

I don’t know about you, but when I first heard of tattoos, I was intrigued mainly because my parents forbade any one in our family to have one.
Tattoos are permanent; they don’t just wash off, in fact to get them off takes more hassle than getting them on! They are also usually have to do with something important to the tattoo'ie (or so I’m told).

Vulyelwa spoke on Sunday night about a new covenant that God made with His people i.e. Christ was the sacrifice upon which the new covenant is based. More so, the new covenant would be written on our hearts. She used the analogy of the new covenant being like a tattoo!

Awesome!

We need to think of God’s new covenant as permanent and special to every person.

So do you have a tattoo? Do/have you received God’s covenant into your life?

If you would like to, then click on our Tell Me About Jesus link and pray with us.

Setting Ourslves Up

One of the most amazing things we do is to set ourselves up!

Either for failure or success.

But fear can prevent us from being successful: fear of failure or fear of success.

It may sound strange but fear of sucess can be a factor in our lives.

One of the most helpful things we can do is to ask ourselves which one is preventing us from living to our full potential.

If its fear of failure then we can deal with it by not taking ourselves too seriously and living for the moment but if it's fear of success, it's a little harder because it sounds weird (or at least it will make us sound weird to our friends and family.)

You see, Jesus knows our potential and allows us to live free the fear of failure and free from concerns about becoming the person God knows we need to become.

So take some time this week and reflect on whether you are living to your full potential.

If not, then ask Jesus to help you do so and if you are, then ask Him to continue to help you to live to your full potential.