The Prayer Of All Prayers

 

 

God of power, God of mercy, this week we come to the end of the prayer our Savior taught His disciples.    His last words were, “For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.” With these words He was giving the disciples and us the reason why we are not praying in vain when we pray for our daily bread or asking for forgiveness or pleading for help in overcoming evil.  We might have thought it was because You are our “Father,” but rather, it was because all things are under Your power and authority.  It is because You are in charge of all things.  “The Lord God omnipotent reigns.”  The universe is Your kingdom! You are all powerful! All worship belongs to You!  Everything is under Your control.  No situation, no event, nothing is due to fate or circumstances. “For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.”  The prayer closes, not with a petition, but with a declaration.  A loud shout of victory.   A declaration of what we believe to be true. “For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.”   

 

But even as we proclaim this, we confess that the words sound strange to us.  What can they mean?   For some it sounds like pie in the sky, by and by.  For others it sounds like a way of numbing the pain and hurts, the sorrow and suffering of good men and women, when tragedy strikes.  Is it a pacifier which we turn to when times are tough?   Is it meant to euthanize us when we stand on the mound of the dung of life?

 

Father that cannot be!  That would be unconscionable and deceitful.  No, they are to remind us that in all the circumstances of life You are in control.  Ours is not, “For mine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever” but “thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.”  The words direct us to You.  You are our strength, You are our hope in the darkest hours.  There are times when our lives seem to be completely out of control, but that is only from our perspective.  Job, long ago, reminds us of this when sitting in a pile of ashes, covered with boils, grieving over the loss of his family and his farm,  declared, “I know that You can do all things; no plan of Yours can be thwarted.”   We can rest our head on our pillow and know peace in our hearts, because You are in control.  You are in control of the sun, moon and stars; of men and nations; of history, past, present and future.  We join the hymn writer who taught us to sing: “This is my Father’s world.   O let me ne’er forget that tho the wrong seems oft so strong God is the Ruler yet.”

 

Thank You heavenly Father that from our youth we were taught to pray, in the direst of circumstances: “For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.”   This is our peace on earth, not our pie in the sky by and by.  This is the hope that sustains us and not the dope the deadens us.  Christ invites us to declare: “For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.”  We would want it no other way.   Amen.