The 80/20 Rule (The Lord’s Prayer, Part 9)

Have you heard of the 80/20 rule? Where 20% of a group does 80% of the work? Today we learn how the 80/20 rule applies to the Lord's Prayer.

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Maybe you’ve heard of the 80/20 rule. 80/20 rule suggests that in any group of people, family, organization that 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the group.

Knowing that rule I suppose is for us to concern ourselves with maybe burnout that those who are bearing 80% of the weight might become exhausted or incapable of doing the work.

What if 100% of the work were on one person? Wouldn’t that cause us great concern? That’s exactly what is established for us in the prayer that we are given to pray to our Father. That 100% of the work of our preservation in this body and of our rescue from this body from sin and death that 100% of that work are being placed right at the foot of our Father in heaven.

That he is the one who will make his name Holy; that he is the one who will cause his kingdom to come and cause his will to be done; that he is the one who gives us daily bread; that he is the one who forgives us all of our sins and brings us to forgive those who sin against us. That that one person he is the one who spares us in all temptation, the one who will deliver us from all evil. And why is it then, why are we not overly concerned that it’s too much? Why are we so confident in placing 100% of the work on one person?

Because the kingdom belongs to him. All of it. The grace, the forgiveness, the mercy, the gift of his Son. All of that is in his purview and the power is all his. The one who created all things by his mere word is the one who has the power to preserve and protect to prosper all of this, but finally to deliver us from death and the devil.

And the glory. It’s all his too. The credentials say he is the right one to give all of the work to. Creation sings his praises. His Son did his bidding in full and the resurrection of his Son says that it has been done completely and in your behalf and in mine. The 100/1 rule. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Amen.

Kyle Madson
Kyle Madson

Pastor Kyle Madson currently serves at Norseland Lutheran Church, and Norwegian Grove Lutheran Church in rural St. Peter, Minnesota.

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