More Questions by Susan L.

  It helps to let things simmer on the back burner for a while without consciously thinking about them. I woke this morning pondering the Lord's Prayer. As I mentioned yesterday, it is a prayer without the commanded "in Jesus' name". Which leaves me wondering about its purpose.
  We were given this prayer before Jesus was led to the cross. Was saying the Lord's prayer actually taking on the role of intercessor so that everything God knew was going to happen to His Son would come true? Which probably isn't right because God is Divine. Nothing stops His plans. But, then again, perhaps the prayer was said to help put things in place so Christ could do what He needed to do. Yes, He is divine but He was also very much a man. I think of His prayers in Gesthemene when He asked His Father to take the cup from His lips but then surrendered to God's will for His life.
  Could our collective "Your will be done" have helped Him save the world?
  Jesus and His followers were Jewish. The Lord's Prayer would have been a type of prayer they were comfortable with. Jesus withheld the bit about praying in His name until after He began to speak about His coming death, His resurrection and had tested the disciples' beliefs about who He truly is.
  Yes, I know that neither God nor Christ really need our prayers but there are a few times where Jesus calls us to help even when His divinity was more than sufficient. I know I've mentioned I previous posts about when Lazarus rose from the dead and Jesus asked the gathered people to remove his grave cloths. He also asked the disciples to pray when He was in Gesthemene wrestling with His choices.
  The idea of a parent baking cookies and getting their child to help popped up. They don't need help, but it's a way of building a relationship, fostering knowledge and validating the child.
  This is a lot to think about but it has left me wanting to know more.
  "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you." Jn 15:15-16