Pray the Messiah ’ s Sanctification Prayer Three Times Daily ( the “ Our Father ”)
After being inspired by His prayer life , the Jewish apostles ( talmidim ) asked Yeshua to teach them these spiritual disciplines near the time of 100 CE . Messianic Jewish believers thus documented the life of Discipleship in what became known as the Didache . The Didache served to prepare disciples among the nations for immersion . It is very explicit in its teaching that disciples were being taught to pray this prayer , three times daily ( continuing the pattern of prayer that was established in connection to the Temple-Service ). While the Messiah ’ s Prayer can rightly be seen and used as an outline for prayer . I think we need to be on guard against an unconscious or subtle influence of an anti-Judaic perspective in not wanting to see this as a liturgical prayer . Yeshua does express that when you pray , “ say ” in Luke 11:2 . Telling us to say this prayer sounds pretty liturgical to me . He also taught that whenever we stand praying ( in Jewish practice , it was already common to do this three times per day ),
we are forgiving those who have sinned against us , and receiving any forgiveness we need . ( Mk . 11:25 ) It is not a coincidence that this flow of forgiveness is built into Messiah ’ s liturgical prayer . ( Matt . 6:9-15 )
I would like to highlight only one benefit among the endless benefits of praying the Messiah ’ s prayer ; building the Spirit-led relational habit of daily receiving and giving forgiveness freely .
Imagine if as disciples and whole congregations we prayed , “ forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us ” three times daily . We would be releasing people from their sins against us about 90 times per month . Some of these sins may be known to us , but many are not known at all . A primary hindrance to intimacy and closeness with God would be removed daily . We would habitually live in the joy of being forgiven by God and the joy of forgiving others without resentment , grudges , bitterness , etc . In the cancel culture spirit of this age , the Jewish people and the Nations need to be people of forgiveness .
In the next article I will speak more about Messiah ' s prayer , but will focus more on the prayer book of Israel and the Church , the Psalms , as we continue our exploration of the Spiritual Discipline of Liturgical Prayer .
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