Did you know that through Jesus, each one of us can have a personal and direct relationship with a caring and compassionate heavenly father.
In the ancient tradition of Israel, the Temple had at its heart a place called the Holy of Holies where God’s presence appeared. No one was allowed to go in there except the High Priest once a year on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.
He would go there to burn incense and sprinkle sacrificial animal blood to make amends for his own sins and those of the people of Israel.
Today, we can have a Personal Relationship with God
Through the ministry of Jesus, his birth, mission, and death, the Kingdom of God has come closer to us and we can now approach God directly and ask him to forgive us for our sins.
Because when Jesus died on the cross, the veil over the Holy of Holies in the temple was, literally, ripped in two – which meant an end to the distancing of God from the people.
The sacrifice Jesus made of himself on the cross allows us to now have a personal relationship with God, we can go to him directly now to ask for forgiveness any time we want to in prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer
In the Gospel of Matthew 6:9-13, we can learn how Jesus introduced the Lord’s Prayer to his disciples.
This is an invitation for us all to pray directly to God addressing him as Father, and forgive us for our wrongdoings. Something that prior to Jesus was unheard of.
Jesus had a great reverence for God his Father, he also had a direct and intimate relationship with him.
He demonstrated how we might develop similar intimacy with God the Father through the Lord’s prayer.
This is one of the most important prayers we can say, particularly if we want or need to pray and are stuck for words as it covers just about everything that needs to be said in any situation.
Through this prayer, Jesus invites us to draw ever closer to God and his Kingdom.
I invite you to learn the lines of this special prayer and recite it regularly, in good, bad, and neutral times.
Savour each word and remember Jesus offered it to us to help deepen our relationship with a kind and caring heavenly father.
The Lord’s Prayer
