Praying and the Kingdom

We are taught, if we listen well, how to pray by our Lord. This instruction, found in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7) as well as Luke 11, provides a template for faithful prayers, given in a memorable, if general, fashion. We do well to memorize this prayer, but we must realize that it was always meant to guide our own personal, heartfelt desires and needs. We can see something of how this was meant to work this morning as we turn to 2 Thessalonians 3. Here, Paul follows the Lord’s prayer well, whether intentionally or not, and helps us to see how to contextualize this model prayer for our own situation.