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| The River Raisin, upstream from our home |
One of my personal favorite books on prayer is by theologian Stanley Grenz - Prayer: The Cry For the Kingdom. Grenz situates prayer in the environment of the core message of Jesus, which was: the good news of the kingdom of God. When this is understood everything about prayer and praying changes. This is a book that is so rich one must slow-cook in it. (Prayer is a crock pot, not a microwave.)
Grenz writes on the Kingdom Prayer of Jesus:
"More important than whether or not we actually repeat the words of the Lord's Prayer is the quest to be faithful to the teaching regarding the spirit and content of prayer found therein. By this model prayer, Jesus emphasizes the importance of having a proper attitude, motivation, and intent when coming to the Father. As his disciples are conscious of the communal nature of all petitioning, seek above all the hallowing of the Father's name, and cry for the in-breaking of the kingdom into the brokenness of the present, the prayer of Jesus truly becomes your own." (23)
It's not just words. Cry for the kingdom to come.
