Every time we pray ‘The Lord’s Prayer we surrender ourselves anew to the Lordship of Christ. When we pray the words ‘Thy will be done’ “we invite him to retune our lives, conforming us once again to his priorities and to the imitation of his character."

What does it mean to pray ‘Thy kingdom come’ ? This episode begins to explore this phrase of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray and helps answer this question.

The opening lines of the Lord’s prayer teach us a right balance when approaching God in prayer. To know God intimately as our Father is at the same time to know him as holy and worthy of all the worship our lives can bring. This is the tension of the person in true relationship with God.

This episode begins a series taking a fresh look at the prayer known as ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ that Jesus taught his disciples to pray. The prayer opens with the words, ‘Our Father’. Amazingly, Jesus teaches us to address God the Father in the very same way he does.

As well as being part of a diverse family being part of a Jesus-centred community also means being part of an inclusive family. Which means learning to do life with people very different from us.

Being part of a Jesus-centred family means being part of a diverse family. This is reflected and modelled in the 12 disciples Jesus chose to be his Apostles. Only Jesus could hold such a group together. It’s the same today, the church is meant to be a diverse family who learn to live and minister together in Jesus.

Over the next four episodes we’re going to be thinking about what it means to belong to a Jesus-centred family. This episode highlights how this may well mean letting go our ideal so we can enter fully into the actual Christian community he has placed us in.

Jesus offers us rest not by inviting us to do nothing, but by giving us a lighter and kinder burden. In this episode we finish looking a Jesus invitation in Matthew 11:28-30 which also happens to be the open place where he describes what his own heart is like.

In a world of endless expectations Jesus says, “Come to me… and I will give you rest…” In this episode we continue to explore Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28-30 and think about what it might mean for us today.

Over the next few episodes we’re going to explore Jesus’ invitation to the weary and burdened in Matthew 11:28-30. An invitation that reminds us that Jesus simplifies what the religious often complicate and lightens what religion often makes heavier.