Heaven's Roadmap: The Lord's Prayer

We're exploring the Lord's Prayer as heaven's roadmap for accessing daily strength and understanding Jesus's master class on prayer for our lives.

• The Lord's Prayer touches every important aspect of being the hands and feet of Jesus
• "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name" acknowledges God as our sovereign, perfect father
• "Your kingdom come" focuses our attention on God's eternal kingdom rather than temporary earthly desires
• "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" is about surrender and alignment with God's perfect plan
• "Give us this day our daily bread" reminds us of God's faithful provision, similar to the manna in Exodus
• "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those" links receiving forgiveness with extending it to others
• "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil" acknowledges our need for divine protection

Join me as we dive into The Lord's Prayer. Send a message with your thoughts, share with friends, or visit https://buymeacoffee.com/lifeoutloud to become a supporter.

Remember friends, no matter the circumstances... there is always something to be grateful for!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Life Out Loud
• 1:40 Introduction to the Lord's Prayer
• 4:00 Your Kingdom Come
• 7:36 Daily Bread and God's Provision
• 9:56 Forgiveness and Setting Boundaries
• 12:03 Protection from Evil
• 14:15 Closing Prayer and Benediction

Transcript

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 0:06

Ciao and welcome to Life Out Loud. I am your host, Desiree Melfi Bozzo. We are going to use this space to share experiences and help you find lasting, unshakable, unwavering, unmessable. With joy and gratitude. We're going to be throwing around encouragement a little bit like confetti, and giving you support to live your very best life!

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 0:29

Ciao, friends, welcome to episode two of season four of the Life Out Loud podcast. I am the creator of this podcast and your host, Desiree desiree Melfi Bozzo. Wherever this finds you listening from, please put it in the comments and, while you're there, let me know what you think. I love hearing from my listeners and your thoughts and your opinions.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 0:56

This season, we are focusing on the prayers that have shaped the world. In this episode, we're going to talk about heaven's roadmap for prayer and accessing the strength we need on a daily basis. So I mean, let's face it right, life on this side of heaven can definitely attempt to break our souls some days. Right On those days when we're weary or exhausted, we need scripture and we need prayers that we can lean into. Otherwise, we end up leaning on our own understandings and well, let's be honest, that's nothing short of a disaster, even on our best days. In scripture, jesus gave us the Lord's prayer. He taught that to us and he gave it to the disciples to model their prayers from. If you aren't familiar with it, it goes like this Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, amen. A commentary on the Lord's Prayer that I read said Jesus was sharing a master class on prayer and the Christian life. I thought that was beautiful. The Lord's Prayer touches every important part of being the hands and feet of Jesus holding fast to God's will, forgiveness, avoiding sin and protection from evil, like that's literally all of the pieces that we need to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 2:47

I'm going to spend some time breaking down this prayer because I truly believe that as we do, it begins to hold more weight. Right, the more we understand it, the more it becomes relevant and it gets heavier in the best way possible. Right. When we deeply understand the meaning, it becomes less of this like memorized thing that we recite in church or with our children around the dinner table and it becomes more of a plea that we offer directly to heaven. And it's so relevant. So I'm gonna break down each part of this prayer in hopes that we walk away with a more profound understanding of it.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 3:30

So it starts off our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, right. That is basically acknowledging, like God is our sovereign Father in heaven, right, our one, true, perfect Father, who will never harm us. He will never forget about us, he will never disappear on us. He's an always there, unshakable, unwavering, unmessable with Father. That's who God is. And hallowed means holy and consecrated. It's saying holy is your name, god, and offering all of the praises and honor to the God of creation. Our Father in heaven, holy is your name. It's giving God reverence and honor in his place on the throne over our life.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 4:21

The next part of the prayer is your kingdom come. Friends, this is going to get heavy, but it's cool. We're here for heavy, right? There's going to be a day when every knee on earth is going to bow to Jesus and we will all acknowledge that he is Lord Instead of leaders vying for power and glory, instead of us on the throne of our life. His name, and his name alone is what's going to stand. It's going to happen one day, and this is the day that Jesus is telling us to pray for. It's praying for the advancement of the kingdom of God.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 5:03

As Christ's followers, we should be less focused on this world which I know is very hard and we should be less focused on the kingdoms that we build here in vain and more focused on God's kingdom that's going to come after this life and it's going to exist forever and ever. I'm not saying don't strive for success or desire nice things or any of that, because hey, I like nice things too, right. But what I am saying is keep it all in godly perspective and don't let the things of this world become the idols of this world. So after we pray about his kingdom come, the next thing we have to pray is your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So we get about 80 to 100 years at best. At very best, if we're lucky, on this earth we're going to spend forever and ever, to eternity, in heaven. That's a really long time.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 6:19

My question is isn't it more important to be who, what and where God needs us to be in this life, rather than who, what and where we need to be or we think we need to be. This part of the prayer is a little bit difficult, right? Because it's it's like surrender, right Full stop. This part of the prayer is about surrender, and our fleshly bodies don't necessarily always love that. This is saying that we know that God knows what's best and we surrender our will to his. It's saying help me live here on earth as I'm going to live in heaven, knowing that heaven is coming. This might seem really ominous to a world that doesn't know Jesus. I get that. I completely, 100% understand the words coming out of my mouth and what I'm saying and the implications. That is exactly why we are called to be his hands and feet, so we can take the hand of the person next to us and help walk them home, because, friends I know I've said it before at the end of the day, we are all just walking each other home.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 7:27

The next part of the Lord's Prayer give us this day our daily bread is asking God to continue to provide his daily provisions to us. Can I be honest in the safe space and say that when I think about this part of the prayer, my first thought is always yay carbs. I feel so validated and so seen. It's proof that God loves carbs. Of course I'm completely joking. Before you email me, that was a joke, but in all seriousness, 1 Corinthians 10.23 reminds us everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive. All things in moderation. I got it Super serious.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 8:12

Note this part of the prayer give us this day our daily bread reminds me of Exodus 16, my favorite book of the Bible, when the Israelites, god's beloved and chosen people, were lost in the wilderness. Despite their grumbling and complaining every morning, god gave them provision for the day. I encourage you to take a few minutes and read Exodus 16. It is a beautiful, stunning description of God's love for us, Sometimes in spite of ourselves. Let's be honest. God gave the Israelites, his chosen people, everything they needed to be sustained. Everything they needed to be sustained and, friends, he does for us too, in every situation, in every circumstance. He is our portion and he is enough.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 9:17

The next verse forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us is heavy. I can feel its weight as I say it. I think it's heavy because it's referring to our very humanity. Every single one of us sins and falls short of the glory of God and therefore is in desperate need of his forgiveness. 1 John 1, 9 says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 9:54

The first part of this is asking for that forgiveness. The next part is asking for that forgiveness. The next part, if I can be honest, convicts my heart a little. How about you? Because it's saying forgive me like I forgive others who hurt me. Can I be honest and say that as soon as I utter these words, I also throw up a little prayer to heaven that says God, maybe not entirely how I forgive others, because sometimes I really suck at forgiveness. Let's be honest. I mean, yes, of course I want to forgive fully and yes, I want to extend all the mercy and all the grace that I've been given by God. Right, but also sometimes I'm human and can I be honest? I just want to be right. Is it just me? Do you feel that way too? It's also why I desperately need Jesus, like I need air, right, I need him to forgive me of my wrongdoing and I also need him to help me forgive others of theirs, especially when it doesn't feel good to my flesh. I want to add something here. This is a really important piece, because forgiveness can feel sticky, okay.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 11:04

Just because we forgive does not mean that we are a doormat or or huge, or that people get a spot in our life. Forgiveness does not equal access. I'm going to say that again for the people in the back. Forgiveness does not equal access. You can forgive someone and not allow them access into your life and into your inner circle. You can forgive someone without ever having a conversation with them about it. Jesus walked away from people and situations, and we are allowed to as well. We can forgive people from afar, knowing our hearts are in right standing with God.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 11:53

Okay, moving on to the last part of the Lord's Prayer. Moving on to the last part of the Lord's Prayer lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. It is saying Lord, in this broken world, keep our eyes fixed on you. In a world that is enticing to every single one of our fleshly desires. Keep our eyes studied on you, lord, when we see things in this world that are tempting to our fleshly proclivities. Keep our paths straight and in lockstep with you, my loves. I'm going to dive into this later in the season.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 12:43

But we have an enemy in this world whose only purpose and desire is to destroy us. He's after our marriages, he's after our families, he's after our purpose. He uses everything in his power to get us to falter. Second Thessalonians 3.3 says but the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. We cannot walk without God in this world. We cannot walk through this life without being in lockstep with the Holy Spirit. Too much of life on this side of heaven depends on the protection of God in our life. Heaven depends on the protection of God in our life.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 13:36

My loves, I hope that taking the Lord's Prayer line by line has helped illuminate its meaning to you. I hope that some of what you learned here, all of what you learned here, has helped it become more personal for your life. I hope that it's given you some peace that we so desperately need. Before we close now with, hopefully, a better understanding, I invite you to pray with me. Our Father in heaven. Hallowowed be your name, your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into, but deliver us from evil Amen.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 14:39

I started the practice of ending some of my podcast episodes by praying numbers 6, 24 to 26 over my sweet listeners as I sign off. So may the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 15:07

Friends, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Send me a message. I love hearing your thoughts. You know that Come back next time. We're going to throw more encouragement and more scripture around like confetti, but be careful if you get too close, you're definitely going to get some on you. Remember, per usual, there is always something to be grateful for. Ciao.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 15:30

Thank thank you for joining me, Desiree desiree Melfi Bozzo, for this episode of Life Out Loud. I would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment, tell me what topics you want to talk about and how you take your coffee. If you enjoyed what you heard, text a friend the link, share it on social media or, if you're interested in becoming a supporter, beep up over to my webpage. If you're interested in becoming a supporter, bebop over to my webpage, lifeoutloudme, and sponsor a cup of coffee that keeps this podcast fueled. Until next time, sweet listeners.