Prayer Tip: Questions About Heaven
Daily Scripture
1 Timothy 2:3b-6a (NRSV) and; John 14:1-6 (CEB)
1 Timothy 2:3b-6a (NRSV) and
[God our savior] wants ALL people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. There is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, the human Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a payment to set ALL people free.
John 14:1-6 (CEB)
“Don’t be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. My Father’s house has room to spare. If that weren’t the case, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you? When I go to prepare a place for you, I will return and take you to be with me so that where I am you will be too. You know the way to the place I’m going.”
Thomas asked, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Prayer Tip
by Tino Herrera, Leawood Men’s Ministry Program Director
Very early on, the first followers of Jesus added these words to the end of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13: “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” Or as a good friend of mine would say, “God, you are large and in charge.”
The other day I picked up my daughter from school and began to ask her how her day was going. I had every intention to hear and know how the day treated her, but as she was telling me, my mind began to wander off with a list of things I needed to accomplish.
“Daddy? Daddy? Hello?” I steered my way back into our conversation, apologizing for getting distracted. I was reminded that, as important as it is for us to begin conversations, it’s just as important for us to see them through. And that’s true for our prayer life, as well. Just as it’s important to begin a prayer conversation by addressing God, it’s important to close it well, ending on a note of praise.
Maybe that’s what those first followers of Jesus thought when they added the final words to the Lord’s Prayer. The little word at the end of the prayer, “Amen,” is more than just a way of saying, “The end.” It is this ringing affirmation of the spirit. “Yes! So be it! “This is just the way we want it.”
“For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”
This was true for them then, and it is true for us now.
