My immediate family will be the first
to tell you, I am not a minister. There
are those who might disagree, but it seems counterproductive to debate the issue.
In any case, in recent months I find myself in circumstances conducive to frequent
and fervent conversations with the Lord. There are those who contend that the
Lord’s Prayer was intended only as a template from which to compose our own
spiritual conversations. While I wouldn’t disagree with that, it seems likely
to me that God would forgive our plagiarism, being heartened instead that we
have taken his words to heart. Based on that belief, I have taken two Biblical
Prayers and stitched them together with a favorite scrap of scripture; in order
to have something on hand that I can recite easily from memory on those occasions
when I find it comforting to do so. I share it here in the belief that it can’t
possibly do any harm.
“Our Father which art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive
our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for
thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.” Mathew 6:9-13 “Oh,
that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, and that thine hand
would be with me, and keep me from evil, that I might not cause pain.” First chronicles
4:10 Guide me, strengthen me, and use me in thy service lord, that I may, “do
justly, love mercy, and walk humbly” with you, through Christ. Amen SCad us not into temptation,