DELIVER US, OH LORD

The Lord’s Prayer – How vast and deep a spring of pure water, to ponder the words given us by our Lord Jesus in the prayer He Himself taught us to pray!  Any one of its 7 petitions provide hours of reflection for discerning souls.  I once spent months pondering just the opening acclamation; “Our Father…Who ART!”.

The other day, I became involved in a dispute with a business manager.  It did not start out as a dispute at all, but as what I thought was going to be a simple request made face-to-face with the person.  A barrel filled with flammable oil had been placed beneath my apartment living room window that could easily have been placed under the Restaurant’s own rear window.  We share a courtyard and there was plenty of room. But 3 personal requests later, the barrel still had not been moved.

Being a person with disabilities and chronic illness, and very aware that, in most scenarios, I have very little power to actually enact much of anything in my life without help, I could feel the Temptation rising up within me to try somehow to take the matter, at least This One, into my Own hands and Force him to comply, calling upon various Health or Fire Prevention Agencies that could Summons him, etc.  How very small-minded it was of me.  But yet, I suppose it was God’s way of showing me that at some level, I was still resentful of my powerless-ness because of my chronic conditions, and had not fully accepted them or surrendered them all to Him. Full Surrender can take years, as chronic pain must travel through many layers of resistance before finding its place of rest in Christ.

“Lead Us Not Into Temptation” was the portion of the Lord’s Prayer that saved me from falling further down, as I was instantly made aware of the Temptation to use this situation for my Own satisfaction, rather than to resolve it in as peaceful a manner as possible, according to God’s Will and not my own.  And, that’s when I came to actually “realize” the High Wisdom revealed in the next portion of the Prayer.

“BUT Deliver Us From Evil”.  This was The Living Word; the Power of God which delivered Grace to my soul, thereby enabling a far more honest Surrender. I was not to act on my Temptation.  How could I, after that?!  But, I was rather to Trust that God would indeed bring about the resolution most in accord with His Will.  Whether the Evil was what had been hiding within my own heart without my having been aware of it, or what was in the manager’s heart, the Trust in God was the Key, regardless.                               I did nothing further.

Within a single 24 hour day, the barrel was moved.  The Main Office of my Apartment Building apparently had phoned the manager and told him to move the barrel to his own side.  He moved it instantly.

Whenever we Pray the Lord’s Prayer, may we all be mindful to take the time to Meditate deeply upon the very High Wisdom it contains.  And to thank God for the Revelation of His Son to us, through the power of His Spirit, which lives and reigns within us and all things…AMEN.