Living the good life

“He had a good life,” someone may say of the recently deceased friend or relative. However, the more pressing question is: “Did he live a good life?” But then what is a ‘good’ life?

One of the ‘hard’ sayings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount was: “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Some Christian teachers, seeing insurmountable difficulties in this saying, have tried to explain it in terms of translation: there may be shades of meaning in the word rendered ‘perfect’. But I ask you, can you imagine Jesus saying he wanted his followers to aim at second best? How could he, speaking in God’s name, sanction anything less than his own perfect character? If he did, it would be a moral lapse on his part.

What a relief therefore, that this perfect God who accepts nothing less than perfection, has provided us less-than-perfect men and women (known in the Bible as ‘sinners’) with a solution. He has offered us his forgiveness; he will be merciful to us; though such grace only comes our way when we embrace the Easter message. Jesus’ death on the cross sees an exchange taking place. Our imperfections are like debits going into our ‘God account’ and Jesus takes these on to his own account. Then he transfers to us his own credits of perfection.

For those of us who find it in our hearts to accept that this is the way of things and who desire to receive that forgiveness, an amazing thing happens. No longer are we content to say “Well no-one’s perfect are they?”. Instead, we want to be what Jesus wants us to be – perfect. That’s a goal that cannot be faulted. The fact that perfection will not come in this earthly life is irrelevant and certainly doesn’t need to dampen motivation.

An early follower of Jesus named Paul, moved by Christ’s love for him said: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me…. Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on…”

Don’t accept second best. Why not let Jesus Christ take a hold of you and then aim at perfection?

Praying for real

Unless I’m very much mistaken, I believe that nearly every person reading this article will have prayed at one time or another. If it is not something you do regularly then perhaps it is when, for whatever reason, you need something that you know is outside of your power to obtain. Maybe it isn’t your own personal need but a concern you have for someone else’s need, or at times of international crisis.

Jesus tells us a lot about praying. He encourages us to pray with faith in the goodness of God; to pray for our needs (which is not necessarily the same as our wants); to be persistent and not give up; to pray in accordance with God’s will as best we understand it. We are told not to be misled into thinking that we will receive if we are half-hearted or, what the Bible calls double-minded; we mustn’t imagine that using many words or flowery language in our prayers will somehow impress God. It is at this point we should check ourselves when praying set prayers lest they be empty ritual.

Perhaps you’d like to start the habit of praying but don’t know where to begin. Why not, in the privacy of your own heart, try paraphrasing what is commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer. By paraphrasing I mean using your own words in order to be real. Something like this might be a guide:

Our Heavenly Father I want to honour your name.

May your royal rule be established and Your will be done in my life here on earth, as it is in heaven.

Please meet my needs this day, both small and great,

Forgiving my wrong thoughts, words and actions, while helping me to forgive others their shortfalls.

Lead me into the way of right living and deliver me from that which is rooted in evil.

I’ll gladly give the glory to You.

Please let it be so. Amen

Ritualistic prayer or realistic prayer?

I’m going to make an assumption here and it is that a good majority of people reading this column will be able to recite the Lord’s Prayer. In its original context Jesus taught it to his close followers, more specifically, his disciples. Since then, however, a large number of people will have learnt the prayer from childhood and are capable of reciting it at baptisms, weddings, funerals, remembrance services and on other visits to church.

In their Jewish culture, the 12 disciples of Jesus would have been totally familiar with the practice of prayer and yet surprisingly having heard Jesus pray, they asked, ‘Lord teach us to pray’.

It seems that they knew a lot about ritualistic praying but not about realistic praying. Jesus’ response was, ‘When you pray, say "Our Father..." and he taught them what we call the Lord’s Prayer. Ironically, that very prayer has become, for many people, a ritualistic prayer in itself!

I believe that Jesus was giving us a form of prayer to help us pray in a meaningful way, but not the precise words themselves. If you find yourself saying the Lord's Prayer in automatic mode, why not, in the privacy of your own heart, try paraphrasing it for yourself and being real before God. One of my paraphrases would be something like this:

Our Heavenly Father we honour your name.

May your royal rule be established and Your will be done in our lives here on earth, as it is in heaven.

Meet our needs this day, both small and great,

Forgiving us our wrong thoughts, words and actions, while helping us to forgive others their shortfalls.

Lead us into the way of right living and deliver us from that which is rooted in evil.

We gladly give the glory to You.

Let it be so. Amen