Stonnington Baptist Website 
 Recent Forum Posts 

View All Forums ...
 

 

The four big questions and the Lord's Prayer

Every world view and every person has working answers to the four big questions of life:
  1. What is the ultimate reality?
  2. What is the good life?
  3. Who is the good person?
  4. How can you be the good person?
For example:

Question Secular Materialist Christian
1. Reality? The Material world is all there is.  The spiritual is not real/not knowable A loving God, his Kingdom, and his activities in creation
2. Good Life? success, wealth, money health Living in an active relationship with God in His kingdom
3. Good Person? someone who doesn't harm others A life permeated by the agape love that wills and acts for the good of others
4. How? don't have to do anything special By apprenticeship to Jesus.

If you reflect on these questions, you may notice that they align with the way Jesus taught his disciples to pray in the Lord's prayer:

What is reality? Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name
What is the good life? Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, 
give us today our daily bread
Who is the good person? Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
How can we be that person? Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.


The profound depth of this simple prayer should encourage us to meditate on it regularly, use it as a framework for our prayers, and pray through it often.  You will be praying about the big and important questions of life. Early Christians often used this prayer three times a day.  How might you incorporate it into the rhythm of your daily life?

David Wanstall, 25/11/2008