Week 4
Day 23
Christ the Center
Read Luke 11:1-2 & Romans 8:14-17

Luke 11:1-2 

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed [totally set apart, special] be your name…’”

FATHER

This prayer Jesus taught His disciples must have echoed loudly in the souls of His disciples. The very thought that they, mere fishermen and tax collectors, could address the God of the universe as “FATHER”! WOW! But this fact becomes the VERY FOUNDATION of our relationship with God – a truly “legal” adoption into His family, with all the rights and benefits of sonship, including direct, constant and immediate access to God our Father. Consider “how” this relationship takes place and write down the benefits as you read Paul’s “take” on the “Fatherhood” of God to all believers.

Romans 8:14-17 “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”

[Abba: Jesus’ native language was Aramaic – Abba’s dynamic translation into English would best be the word “Da-Da,” that is, the first year cry of a toothless toddler for his/her Father].

Memory Verses

Primary Verse

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Deuteronomy 6:5
Secondary Verse

“Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

John 7:38-39a
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