Jack Hayford once wrote that the key to everything is giving and forgiving. I read that bold assertion when I was a very young minister and have often observed how true it is. I shared with our church that I will be preaching on giving and forgiving the next two Sunday mornings. I also told them that I would be teaching on The Lord’s Prayer during our Wednesday night gatherings. I’ve discovered a really wonderful correlation between the two themes.
Jesus’ teaching on prayer in Matthew 6:1-18 is interwoven with the call to give and forgive. The themes are overlaid and pressed like a piece of papyrus to form a single unit. Here’s is how it looks –
Giving (1-4)
Prayer (5-13)
Forgiving (14-15)
Fasting (16-18)
Jesus wants to openly bless the secret piety of his disciples. We need his blessing more than oxygen. We do well to linger over these verses. They just may hold the key to everything.
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