Heart to Heart: Meeting With God in the Lord's Prayer
A Devotional Work by Rachel Starr Thomson
Read Chapter Excerpts from Heart to Heart:
Our Father | Father In Heaven | Hallowed Be Thy Name | Thy Kingdom Come | Thy Will Be Done | Give Us This Day | As We Forgive, Forgive Us | Deliver Us From Evil | Thine Is
The Lord's Prayer is repeated every day by millions of people around the world, yet it is far more than rote or ritual. It is not a magic formula whereby we can manipulate God or better ourselves. Rather, it is the prayer of a Son who knew His Father well, and desired that we should also know Him.
"How many times have you prayed 'The Lord's Prayer' without giving it much thought? Sadly, I know I've been guilty of sometimes just repeating the well-known words in church along with everyone else. After reading through Heart to Heart: Meeting with God in the Lord's Prayer , I will never again view this simple but powerful prayer in the same light."
- Crystal Paine, of BiblicalWomanhood.com
Jesus' disciples once came to Him and asked how they should pray. He answered with the simple words most of us know: "Our Father, which art in heaven." Several years ago, I began to pray the Lord's Prayer every day. As I did, I sought to know better the Father to whom I prayed. The riches of the prayer overwhelmed me. Heart to Heart is my attempt to put those riches into words.
"This book is not merely a job well done, though it is that, it is truly a significant contribution to the devotional literature on the Lord's Prayer. I thought it was one of the best things on the Lord's Prayer I have read--not a study or an exposition, but a true devotional experience based on Jesus' prayer."
- Michael Phillips, bestselling author of "God: A Good Father," The Stonewycke Legacy, and The Journals of Corrie Belle Hollister.
Each chapter of Heart to Heart examines another facet of who God is and how we relate to Him. Beginning with "Our Father," it unlocks the wonderful relationship God has called us into, as the terrible Old Testament "God of the Name" became our Abba, Father. "Father in Heaven" looks at our longing for a home and permanence: "Home is where my Father is; home is Heaven! Everything around us is temporary. Every day I live as a Christian is a day that takes me nearer the home for which I long. It is a day closer to perfect love, to the permanence that comes from living in the light of the Beginning and the End. Everything I have ever longed for is there, in Heaven."
"Thy Will Be Done" celebrates the way that God is actively making us in the image of His Son. "Give Us This Day" likens our need for Jesus to a baby's need for its mother's milk, and demonstrates the wonderful patience and tenderness with which God deals with us. "Deliver Us" is a striking prose-poem, a weeping over sin and celebration of the freedom won through Christ's crucifixion. Finally, "Thine Is" revels in the glory of God and His worthiness to be worshiped.
"Phrase by phrase, sometimes word by word, the author moves through the Lord's Prayer, meditating on the meanings, the significance, the relationship between God and believer in Christ as revealed in this short but powerful prayer. The book begins in the Garden of Eden, touches on the lives of familiar figures in the Bible, and calls us to make an honest evaluation of our own lives and walk with God. This is a book I'll return to, the next time life gets over-busy and my prayers seem dry and profitless. Heart to Heart is a drink of cool, refreshing water in a parched and thirsty land."
- Jean Hall, Eclectic Homeschool Online (www.eho.org)
Heart to Heart: Meeting With God in the Lord's Prayer was written as an act of worship, and I pray it will move you to the same--to gratitude, to trust, to the celebration of childhood and embrace of the Father.
In His love,
Rachel
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