“Authentic prayer brings heavenly realities to bear on earthly situations.” For the next two chapters, Beltz is going to unpack that for us.

In chapter five, he explains that the Kingdom of God is best understood as God’s reign and rule. Although the fullness of that rule lies in the future, the first coming of Jesus prepared the way for God’s Kingdom to be experienced in the present. Prayer is asking God to intervene into our lives and into our situations now. We are not seeking to force our wills upon God, but rather to affirm God’s will and ask that it become a reality in our lives. The author suggests five key areas to be praying that God’s will be done. This week we will cover the first two.

The first area is our personal lives; we seek God’s blessing and favour by praying for it. The author shares a lengthy list of spiritual needs that he prays for regularly. That list includes:

• To submit to the will of God
• To receive empowerment from the Spirit
• To abide in Christ
• To develop character
• To be humble
• To be useful

The second area is our family; we seek God’s blessing and provision for our spouse and for our children.

Beltz underscores both the responsibility and privilege a father has to exercise spiritual authority by praying for his family.

This week’s assignment is to carry on implementing what we have already covered so far.

For me one of the battles is trying to figure out how to pray for my kids with them there. Their combined schedules seem to make chaos a routine.

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For many men, including Beltz, their relationship with their earthly father is far from perfect, yet it is the father-child relationship that Jesus envisions in the Lord’s Prayer. Entering into this mindset for prayer is a challenge, that is why the author suggests that first we acknowledge our inability to pray and ask that the Holy Spirit would empower us to pray and to keep from being distracted.

Addressing God as ‘father’ or with ‘Abba’ (which means daddy, see Ro 8:12-17) underscores the close relationship we have with God. By doing so we consciously enter into God’s presence as the ‘Daddy in heaven who is perfect, loving, interested, involve, gentle, present, available, concerned, kind, wise, caring and good [Beltz, 31]. This spiritual positioning sets us up for sensing God’s loving touch in our lives and gets us ready to focus on God’s agenda in prayer.

How do you presently relate to the Fatherhood of God?

This week’s prayer strategy deals with growing in entering the presence of God the Father. Click here to download the assignment.

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