お祈り:Prayer Transcends Language

view of Nishinomiya from a mountaintop

天の父になる神様、

造り主です。救い主です。主を賛美します。主の御名を誉めます。神様、今日のこと、ありがとうございます。 昨日、新しい主にあって姉妹が洗礼され、救いに助かって下さってありがとうございます。主は永遠の恵みと許しを与え、感謝します。主の栄光を讃えます。やはり、この教会が御ことばを導に伝えられますように。また、私には、生徒に福音書のことを忠実に伝えるために、日本語がもっと上手になれるように。主を愛しています。イエス様の御名によってお祈りします。

アーメン。


God has truly blessed my time here in showing me His global church. As an exercise, I’ve made it a point to try and pray regularly in Japanese. This serves partially as language practice. But more importantly, it allows me to think about God and talk with Him the same way that Christians in Japan do. It’s been a true blessing to see God as my brothers and sisters do here in Japan, and to experience even part of the fullness of God’s kingdom through this simple exercise.

My Japanese may not be perfect, but I truly feel a different connection with God when I pray in Japanese. The focus is different. We praise God and express our gratitude more in Japanese, I think. I wish we had more of a gratitude-focused culture in English. I think we would approach God with more reverence and humility that way.

God is our Father—someone we can trust and rest in. Our relationship is intimate and without boundaries or walls. But God is also our King. Creator of all things. Judge. Ruler of the heavens and the earth and all things. God is someone that we should fear—someone we should show reverence, honor, humility, and submission to.

God our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is all of these things to us. We should remember our Lord in their fullness, not singling out any one role. God is all of these things. We belong to the Lord, so we come to the throne in reverence of God’s glory and power. But we are also children of God, so we can come boldly, unafraid to seek our Father’s face.

Praise God, for He is all things to us. God is our everything. Amen.


Translation of Prayer:

Heavenly Father,

You are the Creator. You are our Savior. I praise you, Lord. I praise Your holy name. God, thank you for today. Yesterday, a new sister in Christ was baptized. Thank you for saving her with Your salvation. I am grateful for Your never-ending grace and forgiveness. Glory be to You, Lord. As before, may this church be guided to share Your Word. Also, for me, may my Japanese improve so I can faithfully share the Gospel with my students. I love you, Lord. I pray this in Jesus’ name.

Amen.