Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

[Jesus said]: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
The Lord’s Prayer has its feet firmly planted on the ground! It talks about our everyday life, and here it faces up to the horrible but undeniable fact that sin forms a big part of our lives. But here’s the good news: through our faith in Jesus, sin is no longer an overwhelming problem. Before
we met Jesus, sin defeated us, but now, through His death on the cross, we can be completely forgiven.
God’s forgiveness is a wonderful gift but, if we are willing to receive it, it places a huge responsibility on us. We have to share it. This is the tough bit. When we are deliberately wronged, everything in us cries out for justice, if not retribution. We want the perpetrator to be punished. But
the Lord’s Prayer reminds us that just as we received forgiveness as a free and totally undeserved gift, we now need to pass it on to others. CS Lewis wisely commented:
“Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.”
Forgiving others rarely involves words. Forgiveness is something which happens in our hearts and expresses itself in our attitudes and actions. When someone has wronged us, our forgiveness will be shown in the kind and thoughtful way we respond to them when we next meet. Our loving words will show that we have truly forgiven them and moved on. There’s nothing easy about forgiveness, but it’s the way of liberation. It’s the way to find life in all its fulness.
Question What has been your own experience of forgiving others?
Prayer Lord God, give me strength to pass on Your gift of forgiveness. Amen

[Jesus said]: “Give us today our
daily bread.”
Have you ever wondered why we ask God for food on a daily basis? Why not ask Him to supply us for a week or even a month?
It’s a perfectly sensible question, and the answer is that God wants a relationship with us. He wants us to live in continual partnership with Him. Every day we need to turn to Him to obtain the nourishment that we need. This applies in both a physical and a spiritual sense. Just as we need to eat each day, so too we need to ensure that we are receiving spiritual nourishment.
However excellent last Sunday’s church service was or however blessed we were by yesterday’s time of prayer, we need to open ourselves to God’s Spirit today.
I am struck by the fact that everything in this prayer is plural. The prayer begins with the words “Our Father in heaven”, and here we don’t pray for my but our daily bread.
The moment we start praying, we identify the fact that we are part of a worldwide family. When we think about getting fed, it isn’t just about my empty stomach or my spiritual needs but about the feeding that we all need. If you are feeling thoroughly well fed in body, mind and spirit, that’s excellent – but it isn’t enough. We pray that that same blessing will extend to everyone everywhere. What we are learning is that the Lord’s Prayer is incredibly radical. We are praying that God will fundamentally change our world.
Question In what way do you need to be fed today?
Prayer Lord God, thank You that Your understanding of me is so complete that You know exactly how I need to be nourished today. Amen

[Jesus said]: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is
in heaven.”
The kingdom of heaven comes about when we obey God’s will. So when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are saying that we have signed up to working for this amazing kingdom and we want to bring it about here and now. We want the kingdom to be established in our family, our community, our workplace and our church.
Some years ago, I was sent a wonderful press cutting. It was the report of the stone-laying of a church in Plymouth in 1905. It was a wet day, but even so, the event went ahead and the mayor of the city kindly attended. He was clearly a Christian, and declared that the more widely the good news of Jesus Christ was proclaimed, the less work there would be for the police and magistrates – and the less claim would be made on the poor relief of the town. Speaking generally, he said:
“the proclamation of the Good News made municipal work more easy and the rates more light”. I love that! He was saying that the church’s business was to introduce the kingdom of heaven – and that would have
an impact on the whole community. With less crime, council tax would come down!
Too often churches turn in on themselves and forget that God’s desire is that we should work for the coming of His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Question In what way are you working to bring the kingdom of heaven here on earth?
Prayer Lord God, thank You that You have invited us to work with You to bring
Your kingdom to our world today. Amen

[Jesus said]: “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.’”
The Lord’s Prayer is all about relationship. It begins by looking to God, because everything in this prayer flows out of our intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father. As an Aramaic speaker, the word that would have been in Jesus’ mind was ‘Abba’. He would have used this word to
address His earthly father, Joseph, and it literally means ‘daddy’. It is a warm and intimate word, and Jesus is clearly wanting His followers to enjoy that kind of closeness to God.
As we pray to our heavenly Daddy we are fully aware that He has a unique status. He is holy and set apart from anything that is imperfect. So we begin the prayer by affirming that He is to be totally respected,
or “hallowed”. We aren’t only recognising the importance of respecting God’s name but also honouring Him for all that He is and all that He has done. As we pray “our Father”, we are also affirming that we have
brothers and sisters and that we are part of a community of people which wants to live for God. Christian faith can never be a solitary, private affair, and this wonderful prayer reminds us that we are part of an amazing worldwide family.
The Lord’s Prayer should never be said unthinkingly or quickly. It is the prayer for those who are fully committed to putting their heavenly Father first in their lives.
Question How would you describe your personal relationship with God?
Prayer Loving heavenly Father, we thank You that You have invited us, through Your Son Jesus, into such an intimate relationship with You and one another.
Amen

[Jesus said]: “When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
Prayer is often described as being like talking to a friend. There is much that is right about that description apart from the fact that God is totally unlike any friend that you or I have ever had. For a start, He knows everything. One of the key features of a conversation with our friends is that, wonderful as they might be, they don’t know everything. In a conversation we spend plenty of time sharing information with them. So the big question is this: if God knows everything, what is the point
of praying? The answer is a wonderful one.
Relieved of the necessity of informing God, prayer is all about relationship. As we pray, we affirm the fact that we are His children
and that we are totally dependent on Him.
That’s why it is so important to spend time alone with God – time to be completely honest and time to listen. The joy of our relationship with God is that we can be completely sure He knows our situation more intimately than we know it ourselves. So we don’t need to ‘babble
on’ for ages as some religions taught. The moment we come into God’s presence,
we can be sure we are enveloped by His love and totally understood. Isn’t that wonderful?
Question In what ways are your quiet times with God important to you?
Prayer Lord God, thank You that You know everything about me and yet still love me and want to fill me with Your life.
Amen