Gratitude Must Be Taught

Call it providence.  When Pastor Jeff sent out an email asking for someone to lead our EM in prayer tonight, there it was: prayer of thankfulness.  This is exactly what’s been on my mind for the last couple of months as I went through the Lord’s Prayer in the gratitude section of the HC.  When I started reading Ursinus’ HC commentary this week, I was struck by his concluding paragraph on Lord’s Day 1.  He writes this:

Objection.  It is not necessary to teach that which follows of its own accord.  Gratitude naturally follows a knowledge of our misery and deliverance.  Therefore there is no necessity that it should be taught.

Answer.  There is here an incorrect course of reasoning, in supposing that to be true generally, which is so only in part; for it is not a just inference that because gratitude follows a knowledge of our deliverance from misery, that the manner of it must necessarily follow.  We are, therefore, to learn from the Holy Scriptures, the nature of true gratitude, and the manner in which it should be expressed, so as to be pleasing and acceptable to God.  Again; the major proposition is not universally true; for that also which follows of its own accord, may be taught for the purpose of increasing our knowledge and confirming us therein.  And it is in this way, that is, through the revelation and knowledge of his Word, that God awakens, increases, and confirms in us, true gratitude. (p. 22)

When you think about this, it shouldn’t be striking, but it was to me.  I always tell Jacob to say, “Thank you,” when it’s appropriate.  I think nothing of teaching him to do so; it’s just something I need to do as his dad.  Then why does it shock me that gratitude needs to be taught (to me)?  Yes, a huge part of me thinks it should come from the Spirit’s work in the overflow of your heart.  But, Ursinus is right.  It needs to be taught explicitly and directly, because fools like me don’t think they need instruction on gratitude.  Naturally, then, I cease to be thankful if I abandon its instruction.  Ursinus is right: my thinking and reasoning are way off.

So yes, thankfulness must be taught from the Word, because our sinfulness blinds us to God and His goodness.  Gratitude will only overflow where the Word of God is the authority.  There is no growth apart from the Spirit’s use of the Word and the Word of God is saturated with our gratitude towards God.  This we must be taught.

LD 0: Heidelberg Catechism Introduction for 2011

Thankfully, I’ve already made my way through the catechism’s concluding section on the Lord’s Prayer, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now it’s on to the rest of the catechism where I should have begun from the outset (I couldn’t wait to properly start in January so I just had to pick it up mid year in September 2010).  Well…

• If you’re rusty on your Christian doctrine, then stick with me each week.  If at the very least stop by just to read the Heidelberg Catechism for a refresher; trust me, that alone will be worth a weekly glance.
• If you’re new to Reformed Theology, then my brief surveys of the Heidelberg Catechism’s Lord’s Days will give you a good primer on what I’m convinced is the most biblically faithful theological system.
• If you’re new to Christianity, then you’ll get a firmer grip on what the Christian gospel is.  I can’t give you anything better in this life than a clearer picture of the gospel.

Hopefully it’ll be worth your time.  Now on to an overview of the HC:

Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude

Guilt, Grace and Gratitude (or Law, Gospel, and Sanctification) sum up the Heidelberg Catechism. This is also the cycle the Christian will repeatedly experience all the days of his life until he goes home where he will experience eternal Glory. This threefold partition of the HC takes you through the entire calendar year. HC#2 structures the remainder of the catechism for us:

2. How many things are necessary for you to know, that in this comfort you may live and die happily?

Three things: the first, how great my sin and misery is; the second, how I am redeemed from all my sins and misery; the third, how I am to be thankful to God for such redemption.

So here’s the catechism’s self-determined outline:

• Lord’s Days 2-4 (#3-11) concern our Guilt before God
• Lord’s Days 5-31 (#12-85) concern our Grace from God
• Lord’s Days 32-52 (#86-129) concern our Gratitude towards God

The HC is tidy and clear, perfect for reflection and instruction. This is why the catechism has been front and center at my site; perhaps a more appropriate tagline over the present “deacons likewise must be…” should be “gratitude through reflection and instruction.” My goal is to serve as a deacon out of the overflow of the Spirit’s work in me through His Word. A Deacon’s Life was always meant to be both reflective and instructional.

If guilt, grace, and gratitude, don’t tug at your heart, then how about looking a little deeper into outline of the HC? Broken up another way, here are the major sections:

FIRST PART OF MAN’S MISERY

SECOND PART OF MAN’S REDEMPTION

• THE APOSTLES’ CREED
• OF GOD THE FATHER
• OF GOD THE SON
• OF GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
• THE SACRAMENTS
• OF HOLY BAPTISM
• OF THE HOLY SUPPER

THIRD PART OF THANKFULNESS

• THE LAW OF GOD (TEN COMMANDMENTS)
• PRAYER (LORD’S PRAYER)

I get excited at how far reaching the HC is. Wouldn’t you like to have a firmer grasp on all these topics (like the Apostles’ Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer)? All of this never gets old to me; I read it over and over and over again. Many desire to memorize all the questions and answers, but few actually do. Unfortunately, I’m a part of the many, but I hope to change that one day and be a part of the few. Still, this is pretty much my passion, even if I’m awful at memorization.

I would challenge you to take a good look at the HC for 2011 (actually every year for that matter!). For this reason, I recommend Kevin DeYoung’s The Good News We Almost Forgot. It’s basic and brief, so it won’t be too much to handle.

Here’s the author’s dedication:

To Ian, Jacob, Elsie, and Paul,

Daddy loves you more than you know.

I hope you grow up to like the Heidelberg Catechism half as much as I do.

Nice little coincidence that Jacob and Paul are members of his family. You have no idea how much I wish this upon my family too! Join me this year.

LD 52: The Sixth Petition and Amen!

Merry Christmas All!  To the catechism of comfort we go…

There’s much here in the final week (as there is every week) of the Heidelberg calendar as we close off not only the Lord’s Prayer, but the entire catechism too.  I’m excited that this completes the teaching section on prayer but even more thrilled to get to the beginning of the Heidelberg Catechism.  Lord willing, I’ll make my way through the whole catechism this year.

I’m encouraged by how significant the theme of gratitude has been throughout the HC’s teaching on the Lord’s Prayer.  I do hope that my life will become an overflow of thankfulness to Him, so much so, that if an epitaph were written, it would simply say, “He was thankful to his Father.”

Anyway, I’m unsure of how to synthesize these three final questions (#’s 128, 128, and 129), so I’ll give separate (but brief) attention to each of them.

#127
The sixth request is so significant.  Just praying for this petition is a reminder that all of life is spiritual warfare.  I don’t think of life in this way enough.  What I think of is merely the daily American life; go to work, take care of the family, and play.  It’s very shortsighted and consequently, my attention is often misdirected.  Rather life is a fight against the flesh and our wills, the world, and the devil.  If we don’t specifically petition for God’s help to keep us from temptation and evil, then our silence is suggesting that we believe ourselves to be superior to these spiritual struggles or worse yet, we fail to acknowledge the actual existence of these realities.  I fall into both the former and the latter.  Yet everything Scripture teaches regarding our natures is the opposite–that we are in desperate need of the Spirit’s work.  The sixth petition, then, is a plea for help and a sober reminder of our weakness in this ongoing spiritual fight.  Our weakness in ourselves, while our strength is in the Spirit.  This is the essence of biblical prayer and the point of the sixth petition, realizing and proclaiming your desperate need for your Father in Christ by the Spirit’s work.

#128
Although it seems as if, “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever,” may not have been in some of the original manuscripts as a conclusion to the Lord’s Prayer, attributing this to God as a final statement in prayer is fitting and proper.  In this conclusion, we explicitly affirm:

• God is our King and we live under His reign.
• God is all-powerful and we live by His strength.
• God is all glorious and we live for His glory.

Attributing this threefold praise to God is a natural response to the six petitions the Lord’s Prayer teaches to its prayerful recipients.  When the Lord taught His disciples to pray this prayer, these three praises had already implicitly made their way into the six original requests.  With that in mind, this is a great way to conclude and provide summary to the petitions.

#129
More certain than the desires of my heart is the comforting fact that God hears my prayers.  No matter how much I may want something, what is more sure than those wants is God’s complete understanding and knowledge of those desires.  A God who hears me and knows me in Christ is the ultimate comfort.  As surely as He hears His Son, He hears me.  That little word “amen” attests to this.

We say “amen” because the Spirit’s work in prayer is a true work.  Hopefully, by the time we have gotten to the end of our pray, the Spirit has already so worked in our hearts that our wills have changed according to His.  In this way, praying “amen” is a way of acknowledging what is true of God’s will (and hopefully not our wills).  Though this is not always the case, and our prayers may often be wrong, the ongoing act of prayer will ultimately conform our wills to His.

Finally, “amen” is the first word Jacob has learned to pray.  I hope it’s the first of many words he uses in prayer.  I love saying “amen” with him after every prayer.

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Lord’s Day 52

Q & A 127

Q. What does the sixth request mean?
A. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” means,
By ourselves we are too weak to hold our own even for a moment.  And our sworn enemies—the devil, the world, and our own flesh—never stop attacking us.  And so, Lord, uphold us and make us strong with the strength of your Holy Spirit, so that we may not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle, but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory.

Q & A 128

Q. What does your conclusion to this prayer mean?
A. “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” means,
We have made all these requests of you because, as our all-powerful king, you not only want to, but are able to give us all that is good; and because your holy name, and not we ourselves, should receive all the praise, forever.

Q & A 129

Q. What does that little word “Amen” express?
A. “Amen” means,
This is sure to be! It is even more sure that God listens to my prayer, than that I really desire what I pray for.

LD 51: The Fifth Petition

…ahh, the beauty of the gospel and its promise of the forgiveness we have in Christ!

It’s been almost a week since LD 50 now, and I can’t think of anything better to write than what was preached last Sunday.  That’s a good problem, one for which I’m thankful.  Why?  Worship is the highlight of the week, so it should have a lasting influence.   I can’t think of anything else, because the sermon we heard was so fitting and perfect for this fifth petition.  Here is the passage Pastor Jeff preached on in Luke 23:32-38:

32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” (emphasis mine)

Right there in the middle of His humiliation as Christ is stripped, mocked and beaten, Jesus calls on his Father in prayer.  This is the first of seven sayings Jesus made on the cross, where He would very soon thereafter receive the worst part of his humiliation–death on the cross.  Humiliation is Christ’s bearing the curse of God’s broken law on our behalf.  Every curse he bore should have been ours.  This is what theologians describe as His passive obedience to His Father which lasted from the time just before He wore swaddling clothes in the manger to the time just after His garments were divided according to the cast lots.  The entire duration of Christ’s life can be understood as Him obediently bearing the full curse of the law for us.  Jesus deserved none of this, and we deserved all of it.  He bore all of it, and we bore none of it.  Even more outrageous is the transaction of polar opposites that takes place: we give him ALL our sins and He gives us ALL His righteousness.  We are clothed with His righteousness fit for heaven, and He is made naked with our sins fit for eternal wrath in Hell upon the cross.  2 Corinthians 5:21 sums it up well:

²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

All this to make forgiveness ours.  How great is the work behind our forgiveness?  This is the context in which Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  Jesus knows full well what He is asking of His Father.  Behind His request to the Father is that:

• The Father is completely holy.
• All sin must be punished.
• He himself would pay the eternal punishment of sin committed against the Father that His prayer request requires.
• This was the same prayer request our Lord taught His disciples to pray earlier in Luke, but He would now establish the grounds for its fulfillment.

In His ever unchanging holiness, God cannot bypass and overlook sin.  Furthermore, Scripture is clear that everyone is a sinner.  This is the great chasm: the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man.  All sin must be paid either by the offender or by someone who stands in the offender’s place.  This is the eternal difference between the Law and the Gospel.  You can take it upon yourself and see if you meet the Law’s perfectly holy expectations; in other words, you can try to save yourself by your own (not so) good works according to the Law, where even a single sin seals your destruction, because the standard is perfection.  Or (and it’s a big “or”).  You can leave it to someone who has already met the Law’s perfect expectations… Jesus.  In other words, He saves you by His works according to Law, so you rest in His eternally satisfying obedience through faith.  This is the Gospel.  God’s grace of  forgiveness in Christ is greater than the chasm our sin has wrought.  Where the Law asks you to look at yourself, the Gospel asks you to look at Christ and His merits.  Christ is the One who bridges the gap between His holiness and our sinfulness.  This is why He is called our Mediator; He has fully merited that honor.

In this petition, we cling on to the blood of Christ, asking our Father to not hold any sins against us.  Not a single one.  What we are asking then is to have the Father look upon His Son’s already paid punishment of our sins, instead of looking at our ever-present, guilt-incurring sin.  Jesus satisfied the Father’s anger for our sins and we thank Him for that work every single time we pray this.  So if this forgiveness is great (which it is), then our response in gratitude should be to forgive others as freely as Christ has forgiven us.  We petition for the same heart of forgiveness that the Father has.  The prayer is essentially:

Father, thank you for forgiving me, a poor sinner, in Christ my Mediator.  Help me in gratitude to forgive my neighbors with the same heart of forgiveness which Christ displayed in Luke 23:34.

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Lord’s Day 51

Q & A 126

Q. What does the fifth request mean?
A. “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” means,
Because of Christ’s blood, do not hold against us, poor sinners that we are, any of the sins we do or the evil that constantly clings to us.  Forgive us just as we are fully determined, as evidence of your grace in us, to forgive our neighbors.

LD 50: The Fouth Petition

“Give us today our daily bread,” is so comprehensive.

DeYoung’s title for Lord’s Day 50 is Prayerlessness is Unbelief. I’ve thought this for a long time now, and when I saw his title for HC#125 I couldn’t have agreed more.  I’ve thought much about this, because over the years, my prayer life has not kept pace with my increased understanding of the faith.  Consequently, I’ve also been increasingly bothered by my growing sinful negligence in prayer.

Prayerlessness is Unbelief really is a perfectly stated title for Lord’s 50.  Prayer is the clearest, most immediate fruit of your faith.  If faith is an absolute dependence upon the object of your faith (Jesus), then prayer is the rightful expression of that dependence.  In faith, you realize your utter sinfulness before God and cling on to Christ’s perfect righteousness.  You look away from your sinful self to Christ’s obedience.  Prayer is the same: after looking at yourself, you express your total dependence upon Jesus, looking to Him alone for all things.

HC #125 gets into some of these things…

Necessity, dependence, and gratitude sum up of the fourth request of the Lord’s Prayer.  With the fourth petition, “Give us today our daily bread,” our Lord teaches us that we should be prayerfully dependent about all that which we need.  Roughly paraphrased, this request means: give us food consistently and often.  I don’t pray for basic needs much at all, much less consistently and often.  A quick example…

Health.  I can’t ever remember praying thanks for the breaths I take or the relative good health I’ve had all these years.  Few things are more consistent and often than breathing itself.  Maybe a beating heart too.  I just assume that I’ll breathe. Without giving it a second thought, I assume that my heart will keep beating.  And assumption misses the point entirely, because assuming these things just are translates into self-dependence and praylessness.  Exactly, what Jesus teaches us not to do.

There are so many more examples I could discuss, but the point has been made (to me).  The sum total of the content of my prayers tells me that I am not dependent upon Christ for “daily bread”.  You would think as a created being I would cling on to my Creator in dependence of all things, that I would, “give up my trust in creatures and to put trust in God alone.”  It should be a given, but it’s not.  Even more convicting is the converse.  You would think the Creator would not display a prayerful dependence, but Jesus does exactly that.

Paul Miller writes in A Praying Life that Jesus was the most dependent person ever to walk this earth.  Jesus depended upon His Father for everything.   John 5:19 says,

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

My Savior was completely dependent upon His Father for everything.  Likewise, Jesus is the one who teaches me to pray, “Give us today our daily bread.”  Necessity, dependence, and gratitude is what the Father desires of me in the fourth petition.  Why?  Because I need God for everything, every single second of my life, and that makes for a comprehensive petition.

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Lord’s Day 50

Q & A 125

Q. What does the fourth request mean?

A. “Give us today our daily bread” means,

Do take care of all our physical needs so that we come to know that you are the only source of everything good, and that neither our work and worry nor your gifts can do us any good without your blessing.  And so help us to give up our trust in creatures and to put trust in you alone.

LD 49: The Third Petition

The angels marvel at us, and I marvel at the angels.

Their intrigue resides in the extent to which God went to save a sinful people so that He could demonstrate, establish, and exact His covenantal faithfulness (by proclaiming that He would be their God and we would be His people).  This is guaranteed by the marvel-provoking work of Christ’s active and passive obedience–signed, sealed, and delivered by the Spirit.  Verse 12 of 1 Peter 1:10-12 highlights this:

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. (italics mine)

And yeah, I most definitely marvel at my salvation too.  And though not to the same extent, what I also marvel at is the concluding phrase of QA #124.  The writer says:

Help us one and all to carry out the work we are called to, as willingly and faithfully as the angels in heaven.

The angels in heaven faithfully obey the Father’s will.  Their relationship to God is not mediated by Christ like mine is to the Father.  Christ has purchased me for Himself by His blood so that I can die to sins and live unto righteousness.  But what do I do?  I constantly try to advance my own will with much of my life a repugnant gesture of “back talk” to God.  No wonder angels long to look into these things: why would God want to show His love to us by sending Christ to die for us sinners (Rom. 5:8)?  Simple answer: to demonstrate the overflowing goodness of His glory.  This is marvelous.  I marvel at my salvation, and I marvel at the angels’ perfect obedience to God’s will.

It’s also humbling.  Given all that God has done for me, I still have to plead for Him to change my will (unlike the angels who willingly and faithfully follow God’s will).  In this third request I beg God to give me grace to live a life of gratitude to Him for His saving work, so that I’ll willingly, faithfully, (and again… thankfully) follow His will.  God is good and so is His will; I’m a sinner and so my will is sinful.  Only Christ can bridge the chasm between these polar truths.  The request is a constant reminder of how much I need my Savior.  I need this prayer request more than I will ever fully understand.

Finally, it also encourages me, because this request hints of the eschatological glory I will experience in heaven (just as the angels now experience) of an eternal life of perfect consummation in accordance to God’s will.  That’s truly heavenly.  Until then, I can now get a taste of God’s will in my life as I grow in grace and as I grow in faith.  Not surprisingly then, this is also a petition to build my faith.

Thank you, Father, for this third petition.  Make it truer and truer in my life…

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Lord’s Day 49

Q & A 124

Q. What does the third request mean?
A. “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” means, Help us and all people to reject our own wills and to obey your will without any back talk.  Your will alone is good.  Help us one and all to carry out the work we are called to, as willingly and faithfully as the angels in heaven.


LD 48: The Second Petition

There’s so much in the second petition. Just awesome…

The clearest expression of the rule of the redemptive kingdom (as opposed to the common kingdom) comes through the work of the church. The redemptive kingdom was ushered in with the Covenant of Grace (Genesis 3:15; 15; 17) and the church is given the task to help bring Christ’s kingdom of redeemed people into His flock. How does our eternal King do this?

First and foremost, he is our King and we are to submit to Him in all things. All aspects of our lives must be under His rule. But here in the second petition, we ask our Father that He would rule us by His Word and Spirit. Living as a citizen of the Kingdom of God here in the already is all about submission to His Word. My prayer here is to simply ask God to help me obey Him in His Word. It seems like a simple request, but unfortunately my will continues to be just that… my will. It needs to be His will revealed in His Word. I’m asking His Spirit to so work through me that His will would be mine. I’m convinced that’s one of the main purposes of prayer: not to change God’s will (because He doesn’t change) but to change our wills to His. (more on the will with Lord’s Day 49)

We also petition to keep Christ’s church strong. Closely related to the Word and Spirit is the church. The growth of the redemptive kingdom continues most clearly through the work of the church and to the church has been entrusted the preaching of the gospel. I can’t help but think about this petition extending to our pastors and elders. They rule over worship, so they rule over the ministry of Word and Sacrament. Christ has entrusted them with the keys of the kingdom and we have to pray that Christ would rule over them in Word and Spirit so that they would be faithful undershepherds.

We also pray that Christ would add to his church. This might be the best part of this far-reaching request. Just as I have been called to a new and better citizenship by my King and Savior, I pray the same would be true for those who don’t know Him. God help me here to be Christ-like in loving the lost until His kingdom is so perfect that the not yet has finally been realized.

Finally, Matthew 16:18 promises, “…on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Yet the strength of the devil and all that opposes God’s kingdom should not be underestimated. Add to that that often times my will opposes His kingdom. How much more should I pray?

I hope that the next time I pray the Lord’s Prayer, it would come with the full zeal and belief that this vast petition calls for.

I’ll leave you with this. In an article by Godfrey called Kingdom and Kingdoms, Godfrey quotes Calvin concerning Question 123:

The Kingdom of God is that in which God alone rules and exercises dominion over all creatures; but especially does he govern and preserve the church. This kingdom is universal. The special kingdom of God – that which he exercises in his church consists in sending the Son from the Father, for the very beginning of the world, that he might institute and preserve the ministry of the church, and accomplish his purposes by it….From these things it is apparent that this [special] kingdom is not a worldly, but a spiritual kingdom. This is taught in many of the parables of our Lord, as well as in the declaration that he made to Pilate, saying, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ We are here taught and commanded to pray that this kingdom may come, increase and be defended.

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LORD’S DAY 48

Q. What is the second petition?

A. “Your kingdom come” means: Rule us by your Word and Spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to you. Keep your church strong, and add to it. Destroy the devil’s work; destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your Word. Do this until your kingdom is so complete and perfect that in it you are all in all.

LD 47: The First Petition

Had it not been for me working through the prayer section on the HC, I probably would’ve never noticed this gem toward the end of the catechism.

A deep, scriptural-based knowledge of God should always (hopefully) lead to a sober reflection of oneself, especially one’s misery.  The same is true with prayer: high praise of God (who He is and what He has done) should lead to confession of particular sins.  I’ll get into this more in the fifth petition.

Quick tangent: For now, two of the best things to prayer for are the two great wonders in the Christian life: #1 How great our sins are and #2 How great God’s mercy is because of the active and passive obedience of Christ.  In other words, it boils down to confession of particular sins (and we need God’s grace to better see the depth of our own sinfulness and guilt before God) in order to turn to Him in praise for who He is and His wonderful deeds.  But back to the post proper…

Although the point of hallowing of God is not necessarily to lead us to confession of sin, it certainly does help lead us to the first aspect of the Guilt-Grace-Gratitude triad.  So let’s get to the central point(s) of QA #122…

Fundamental to praying the way our Lord taught us to pray is to know the object of our prayer the way He has revealed Himself in His word.  Prayer has got to be rooted in Scripture.  The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer calls us to know who God is.  Notice though, that it is a request or a petition.  It’s a petition because we need help honoring His name.  It’ll never come natural to sinners to hallow a perfectly holy God.  For those in Christ, only by God’s grace can you honor God properly.  Think about that for a second, even with your Bible open, you still need God’s grace to understand Him.   This is why must be prayerfully mindful of bringing this petition before God.  Basically, this is a request for God’s grace to better see Him for who He truly is.  And who is he?

The HC says God is…

Almighty in power, wise, kind, just, merciful, and true.  This immediately reminds me of WSC #4, often noted as the best, succinct definition of who God is (as if the creature can even adequately define the Creator).  The question and answer go like this:

Q. 4. What is God?

A. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

All of these divine attributes add to the totality of God’s hallowed name.  The HC teaches us that the more you know who God is, the more you will worship, honor, and praise His name.  The desire to worship, honor, and praise is exactly the sincere, heartfelt attitude you want to bring to prayer.  Which leads to our response.

We respond…

In blessing, worshiping, and praising God for his works.  Not only does #122 teach us that the proper knowledge of God leads to heartfelt prayer.  A scriptural-based understanding of God leads to all-around right living.  It will guide every sector of our lives, all our thoughts, words, and deeds, into honor and praise of Him.

Seriously, what a gem!  Perfect for a Thanksgiving Sunday.

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LORD’S DAY 47

Q. What is the first petition?

A. “Hallowed be your name” means: Help us first of all really to know you, to bless, glorify, and praise you for all your works and for all that shines forth from them: your almighty power, wisdom, kindness, justice, mercy, and truth. And it means: Help us to direct all our living what we think, say, and do so that your name will never be blasphemed because of us but always honored and praised.

LD 46: My Father

There are few things stronger than the bond I have with my son. Actually a real part of me wants to say nothing is stronger than the love I have for my son, but that wouldn’t be entirely true. It boggles my mind that there could actually be a greater bond…

The union I have in Christ is eternally grounded in Jesus’ historical, meritorious, and perfect obedience to his heavenly Father. It’s a bond of love that is second to none and equal to the very bond that the Father has with his only begotten Son. My union in Christ is of Trinitarian proportions; what unites the Father and the Son is exactly what binds me to my Father in Christ.

You just can’t beat that. Body and soul, I am and will always be… His.

QA #120 says, “that God has become our Father through Christ.” Expressing God as Father at the outset of my prayer is no small thing. At the opening of my prayer, I come with all the redemptive historical work that Christ has accomplished and now applied to me in the Spirit. The totality of His work which I have embraced in faith by the gift of God’s saving grace enables me to call God my Father. To me, he is both God the Creator and God the Redeemer.

Thinking about LD 46 might make it a bit difficult to get very far in my next prayer. Often I begin with, “Dear Heavenly Father,” and perhaps next time I might just want to thank him for all the reasons I’m able to address him as my Father. Again, it’s all about gratitude at this point in the HC. Until I breathe my last breath, it will continue to be about thankfulness.

Knowing how much I love my son (how much I love him depending on me and needing me) is blown out of the water when compared to how much God the Father delights in me turning to Him. Hopefully, my son will soon find his ultimate delight in turning to his Heavenly Father rather than his earthly father.

I’ll leave you with Paul from Romans 8:12-17…

12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

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LORD’S DAY 46

Q. Why has Christ commanded us to address God: “Our Father”?
A. That at the very beginning of our prayer he may awaken in us the childlike reverence and trust toward God which should be basic to our prayer, which is that God has become our Father through Christ and will much less deny us what we ask in faith than our human fathers and mothers will refuse us earthly things.

Q. Why the words “in heaven”?
A. These words teach us not to think of God’s heavenly majesty as something earthly, and to expect everything for body and soul from God’s almighty power.