Father and Lord

Wednesday 1/6/2016 6:29 AM

As I ran this morning I thought about how I enjoy thinking about God as my Father, someone who provides for my needs and shows me love, but I do not like to think of him as my Lord, someone who has authority and the right to rule over my life. My prayers reflect that kind of thinking. They are mostly giving thanks for the things he provides and requesting things that make my life easier like good health, loving relationships, and other similar self-serving things. I seldom pray for God to challenge me with a difficult situation that will advance his kingdom in which I need to trust him for direction and strength to get through it.

Today I mistakenly read the wrong week’s reading in my devotional material. Part of my reading included Psalm 114:1-2, “When Israel came out of Egypt, Jacob from a people of foreign tongue, Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel his dominion.” The word dominion reminded me of the word domain, a mathematical term describing the numbers over which a function has dominion, or rule. After their deliverance from bondage the people of God were where God lived and had his rule. After my deliverance from the bondage of sin I should also be a person with whom God lives and has his rule. I think my prayers need to change.

Father, thanks for your provision in my life. Thank you for your love and grace that permeates every aspect of my daily life. Thank you for the sense of your presence with me throughout the day, for the sense of belonging to something larger than myself. Have mercy on me when I doubt your love because of adverse circumstances or outcomes that contradict my preconceived notions of how things should be. Give me the grace to trust you to do what is best for your kingdom, not necessarily what is best just for me.

Lord, thanks for your rule and direction in my life. Thank you that I am not walking through this world on my own, making my own decisions, but that I can look to you. Have mercy on me when I fail to follow where you lead because of the fear of the unknown or because of my unwillingness to change my way of living. Bring circumstances into my life that force me to look beyond myself, to consider the bigger picture that you have in mind. Give me the grace to live in obedience to you so that your domain and reign can be extended. In the name of Jesus and through the power of the Spirit, I pray. Amen.