Dallas Willard walks through the Lord’s Prayer in a way that gets my mind to think more deeply about the prayer Jesus taught his disciples. He taught them to PRAY. I lack that passion at times in my own life.

Today’s message is from Matt. 11:25-30 where Jesus invites the followers to take his yoke and learn from him. I need to learn from him in prayer!

I downloaded the Common English Bible to my Nook to examine it along with my regular reading in the NIV. This prayer has a fresh look to it in the CEB.

“Our Father who is in heaven, uphold the holiness of your name.”

Hallowed. His name must be held in the highest regard. Until his name is esteemed in the highest possible regard, the human compass will always be pointing in the wrong direction.

Esteem his name. Hold HIM high.

“Bring in your kingdom so that your will is done on earth as it’s done in heaven.”

Willard says that “the kingdom of God is the range of his effective will: that is, it is the domain where what he prefers is actually what happens.”

This is not exactly what is happening on earth, is it?

But we aren’t praying for the Kingdom to come into existence. It already exists. We are asking for the kingdoms that are disrupting HIS Kingdom to be displaced. We are caught up in our human kingdoms and this part of the prayer is to ask that those kingdoms come under HIS jurisdiction, or be displaced altogether.

The activities of this world and our activities must come under his rule. We know our weaknesses and limitations. We are asking that God come in and assist us to flow into the action and domain of the Kingdom.

But we also pray against the dark kingdoms around us. There are opposing kingdoms. Sometimes it is willful. Sometimes people just don’t know the forces at work. Sometimes it is simply the power of the “culture.”

“Culture is seen in what people do unthinkingly, what is ‘natural’ to them and therefore requires no explanation or justification. Everyone has a culture — or, really, multidimensional cultures of various levels. These cultures structure their lives.”

We need to pray that the kingdoms of this world are broken where patterns of evil exist. We ask the Father to help us see the patterns WE are involved in as well. We come to a place where we don’t want to cooperate in those patterns any longer.

It is about HIS Kingdom, HIS power, HIS glory.