How to Use the Lord's Prayer

So, Jesus taught us to pray, but what does that mean for how we actually pray?

As we wrap up our series on the pray Jesus taught us (commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer), let consider two simple ways to incorporate this prayer into our daily lives.

First, we can pray it verbatim.

If you learned this prayer as a child, you may cringe against this suggestion. It may feel mechanic or forced. But I would encourage you to review where we’ve been and pray through it again. This time, do it slowly. Pause at each line. Meditate on what it means – what your asking and what your committing.

Think through each category.

Consider what it means to come to God as your Father. Pray about areas of your life where you’re not keeping His name holy – where you’re not upholding His reputation. Talk to Him about what it looks like for His kingdom to come in your life and confess where you’ve lived more as a citizen of this world than as a subject to the King. Ask Him to reveal His will to you – through His Word and through His Spirit.

Pray for your daily needs. Recognize that even if you are confident that your next meal has already been provided, it’s God’s provision that has sustained you. Bring Him your mental and emotional and spiritual needs. Confess your sins to Him and ask Him for forgiveness. Take stock of those who you need to forgive and ask Him for the strength to give it. Reflect upon the areas you know you’re prone to temptation and ask Him to give you what you need to resist it. Consider the areas you think you are strong and ask Him to show you where you’ve let your guard down.

Then, recommit to Him. Tell Him that you are totally dependent upon Him and you long to be totally committed to Him.

Pray “Amen” with the authority it deserves.

Second, we can pray it in conjunction with our study of God’s Word.  

Choose a passage and ask the following questions.

1.     What does this teach me about upholding God’s name and reputation?

2.     What does this teach me about living in God’s kingdom?

3.     What does this teach me about following God’s will?

4.     What does this teach me about my dependence upon God?

5.     What does this teach me about my sin and need for forgiveness? What does this teach me about my need to forgive others?

6.     What does this teach me about my tendency towards temptation? What does this teach me about my need for rescue from the evil inside and outside of me?

Journal your notes and then use them to personalize the prayer Jesus taught us. Not ever passage you read in the Bible will cover every category. But use it as a guide. Learn to pray through the Bible the way Jesus taught us to pray.

So, one last time, let’s read that pray together.

Our Father in heaven,
   may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
   as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
   as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
   but rescue us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:9-13, NLT)

And let me include our doxology, one last time.

For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
   forever. Amen.

Prayer and Mission

Have you ever noticed how the prayer Jesus taught us really encapsulates His entire mission?

Think about it.

He came as the perfect Son of the Father.

He kept holy the name of God by upholding His reputation.

He ushered in the kingdom of God.

He obeyed to the will of God – even to the point of death.

He provided for both the physical and spiritual needs of those who followed Him.

He offered forgiveness through His death on the cross and the means by which we could forgive others.

He resisted every temptation He encountered and so rescued us from the grip of sin.

If you want to understand what Jesus came to do, look to the prayer He gave us.

His entire mission is contained in this prayer.

So is the mission He gave us.

Amen

I’ve always finished every prayer with “Amen.”

It’s just what I learned to say. It didn’t mean anything to me. It was just a way of letting God know that I was signing off.

I started digging into it, though.

Why do we always end our prayers with this odd word?

A cursory study reveals that it simply means, “let it be.”

But if you dive deeper, it means so much more.

“Amen” is more than a statement of hope.

It is a declaration of commitment.

Every line of the prayer Jesus taught us is both a petition to God and a declaration of our allegiance to Him.

Rather than go back through the whole prayer, I want to challenge you.

Go back through it yourself.

Pay close attention to each line.

Consider what you’re asking God and consider what you’re promising God.

As historian and theologian Justo Gonzalez put it, “As we close our prayer saying ‘amen,’ we are expressing an unshakable hope based on our knowledge that this Father to whom we address our prayers is the same to whom forever belongs the kingdom, the power, and the glory. And we are also saying that we are so certain that it is so that we are committing ourselves to it.” (Teach Us to Pray)

So often we think of prayer as a list of petitions. But Jesus’ prayer pushes us to think of prayer also as a commitment.

So, let’s pray it together again.

Our Father in heaven,
   may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
   as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
   as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
   but rescue us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:9-13, NLT)

And let me include our doxology.

For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
   forever. Amen.

Doxology

The prayer Jesus taught us was the first Bible passage I ever memorized.

Maybe it was for you, too.

The last line I learned, interestingly, is not included in every ancient manuscript.

For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.

We do have evidence, though, that as early as the late first century Christians had added this doxology to the Jesus’ prayer.

A doxology is simply an ascription of praise to God.

Whether Jesus actually included it in His prayer or not, I think it is a proper ending.

It reminds us that everything we have prayed is prayed on this foundation.

God, Your kingdom is bursting forth.

God, Your power is indescribable.

God, Your glory is unimaginable.

God, because of who You are, we want to honor Your name.

God, because of who You are, we want to live as citizens of Your kingdom.

God, because of who You are, we want Your will to be done in our lives.

God, because of who You are, we trust You to provide for our daily needs.

God, because of who You are, we trust You to forgive our sins and to empower us to forgive others.

God, because of who You are, we trust You to provide a way out of temptation and to rescue us from the evil inside of us and outside of us.

God, You are a good and great God. We can only come to You because You have graciously invited us to participate in Your kingdom, to experience Your power, and to share in Your glory.

God, we come to You humbled by this prayer Your Son gave us.

We are can’t live any of this out. We need You.

God, we come to You challenged by this prayer Your Son gave us.

You have challenged us to come to You as a loving Father. To uphold Your reputation. To participate in Your kingdom. To do Your will. To rely on You for everything. To trust You for forgiveness. To extend Your forgiveness to others. To give us the strength to follow You.

God, Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Evil and the Evil One

Jesus knew that, like every other human in history, we would struggle with temptation. That’s why He taught us to pray, “Let us not yield to temptation.”

But we are not done. We need more than to simply “not yield.” We need rescue.

And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

Other translations render this last line simply “deliver us from evil.”

The language actually allows for either translation. I think Jesus did that on purpose.

See, throughout the Bible, evil is an internal and external reality. It resides inside of us as sin. It resides outside of us in our Enemy.

We need deliverance from both.

We cannot battle the evil inside of us.

Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Likewise, we cannot combat the sin in our lives with the same sinful hearts that ushered it in.

We are not greater than our sin. But God is. We need His rescue.

We also cannot wrestle down the evil outside of us.

As James Emery White once wrote, “At this point it is customary to declare… that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Yes, but he that is in the world is greater than you. That is why Jesus instructed us to pray not, you will notice, for dominance… but for deliverance” (The Prayer God Longs For).

We are not greater than our Enemy. But our God is. We need His rescue.

This is a humble prayer.

It eradicates any notion of self-righteousness. It forces us to confront out own weakness. It challenges the popular conception that we are “basically good.”

We are not good. But our God is.

We are not great. But our God is.

That is why we pray, “Rescue us, God, from the evil inside of us and outside of us.”

Let Us Not Yield

Temptation hounds us at every turn. Every day we are bombarded with opportunities to turn our backs on God and to deviate from His will for our lives.

It’s no wonder Jesus instructed us to pray that God would not let us yield to temptation.

Remember, God does not tempt us. He tests us, but He does not tempt us.

This prayer confesses our desire to walk in God’s way – to uphold His name, to advance His kingdom, to carry out His will.

But there is an obstacle to walking in God’s way.

That obstacle is, of course, temptation.

Do you remember Frogger – the vintage arcade game?

It’s really an obstacle game. In order to get the frog safely from one side to the other, you have to navigate countless pitfalls.

They’re obstacles, but they are not insurmountable obstacles. There is a way through.

So it is in our lives. There are obstacles, but they are no insurmountable. God has provided a way through.

Paul, one of the New Testament writers, was quite clear on this.

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. (1 Corinthians 10:13, NLT)

When we succumb to sin, we can never claim, “The devil made me do it.” We certainly cannot claim, “God didn’t keep me from sin.”

We are responsible for our choices.

God always provides a way out. He always gives us everything we need to resist.

Our prayer is not that we would never face temptation. As a pastor of mine once said, “If you’re not facing temptation, that should concern you. It means you’re making no difference whatsoever for the Kingdom of God and the Enemy isn’t worried about you.”

Our prayer is that God will keep His promise.

Our prayer is that God will never allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear.

Our prayer is that He will show us the way out and give us the strength we need to take the way out.

Temptation and Testing

Oscar Wilde famously quipped, “I can resist everything except temptation.”

It’s the cringe kind of funny, isn’t it? We laugh uncomfortably because it hits so close to home. Temptation is hard to resist.

It’s no wonder Jesus included it in the prayer He taught us.

“Lead us not into temptation.”

The Greek word translated as “temptation” is peirasmos. It can mean “temptation.” But it can also mean “test.”

So, before we can really dive into what we’re praying here, we need to understand the difference between being tempted and being tested.

The difference lies in the motivation – the intent.

Temptation comes from the Enemy. He wants us to fail.

Testing comes from God. He wants us to succeed.

The Bible affirms the existence of an Enemy – one who stands in total opposition to God and to the people of God. He is a created being that rebelled against God. He is, indeed, powerful, but he is still a creature under the rulership of the Creator. He can do nothing that God does not allow. And what God allows, He allows for our good and for His glory.

When God allows the Enemy to tempt us, He does so in order to test us.

The Enemy wants us to rebel against our God.

Our God wants us to prove faithful to Him.

We’ll talk more about what, exactly, Jesus is calling us to pray next week.

But, for now, let’s reconsider how we think about temptation.

Every temptation is a test. Every test is an opportunity for God to reveal and form our character.

Breaking Down Barriers

Forgiveness is hard.

It’s even harder when the person who wronged us doesn’t own up to the wrong.

I’ve been there. I get it.

What does forgiveness look like then?

Lewis Smedes, in his excellent book The Art of Forgiving, writes, “When a person close to us wrongs us, he throws up two obstacles between us. One of the obstacles is our sense of having been violated, which produces our anger, our hostility, our resentment. This is the obstacle that our forgiving removes. But only the person who wronged us can remove the other obstacle. And he can remove it only by repentance and, if need be, restitution.”

You can’t control the second obstacle.

You can only control the first.

You can only deal with your anger, hostility, and resentment.

And you can deal with it by taking on a posture of forgiveness.

We’ve been talking about forgiving others. But the reality is forgiveness can only be given when it is accepted.

Think about it.

God offers forgiveness to everyone. But not everyone receives forgiveness. Only those who accept it receive it.

So it is with us.

We are called to offer forgiveness. But we can’t give it to anyone until it is received through repentance.

Now, that doesn’t let us off the hook.

Offering forgiveness looks just like giving it.

It means refusing to harbor bitterness and resentment.

It means giving up your right to get even.

It means holding your tongue when you’re tempted to gossip or lash out.

It means desiring the best for your offender.

It means praying for the one who hurt you.

That’s what it looks like to offer forgiveness.

Whether or not the person who has wronged us ever repents, that is what we’re called to do.

It’s hard.

But so was the cross.

And the cross is not only our model of forgiveness.

It is our source of forgiveness.

We love because God first loved us. We forgive because God first forgave us.

He broke down His barrier. It is our responsibility to break down ours.

The Cost of Forgiveness

Jesus assumed that if we asked God for forgiveness we were, in turn, offering that forgiveness to others.

If we are to forgive others, we have to understand what forgiveness isn’t.

Forgiveness isn’t condoning the wrong done.

Forgiveness isn’t pretending it never happened.

Forgiveness isn’t necessarily reconciliation (we’ll talk about that next week).

Forgiveness, properly understood, isn’t unjust.

See, when another person sins against us, they incur a debt. They owe us.

Now, when we withhold forgiveness, we are putting the burden of repayment upon them.

That seems right and fair, doesn’t it?

Here’s the problem.

When we sin against the eternal God, we incur an eternal debt – a debt we could never repay in a thousand lifetimes.

So, there are two options.

We can pay the debt ourselves by spending eternity separated from Him.

Or, we can take God up on His offer to pay the debt Himself.

God never condones our sin or pretends it never happened. He pays it in full. He absorbs it on our behalf.

That is what He asks of us. He calls us to forgive others – to absorb the debt they owe us.

Forgiveness always comes at a cost.

It’s not unjust.

It’s sacrificial.

Jesus sacrificed His life to pay our debt. We owe Him our very lives – our very eternities.

Can we really do any less than all that He’s asked?

Assuming Forgiveness

God’s forgiveness is a gift of grace.

It is not deserved, and it cannot be earned.

We know that and we love that. We are grateful for it. We rejoice in it. We sing songs about it.

But when it comes to forgiving others?

Well, that’s another story.

“They don’t deserve to be forgiven.”

“They are going to have to earn it.”

What happened to grace?

We are so quick to receive it and so reluctant to give it.

Jesus, though, assumes that if we have been forgiven then we will forgive others.

Listen to how He taught us to pray.

Forgive us our sins,
    as we have forgiven those who sin against us. (Matthew 6:12, NLT)

Jesus assumes that if we are asking God to forgive us, then we have forgiven others.

Jesus assumes that, surely, we are not asking God to give us something that we are refusing to give to others.

We’re going to camp out on this concept of forgiving others for a while.

But let’s not move on too quickly.

We have to wrap our minds and our hearts around this.

An unforgiving Christian is a contradiction in terms.

Forgiven people forgive people.

Grace and Gratitude

There was once a debate among scholars at Oxford. What is it, they wondered, that makes Christianity different than every other faith system in the world?

After they had been going back and forth for hours, C.S. Lewis wandered into the lecture hall and asked what they were discussing.

They told him. “Oh, that’s simple,” Lewis said. “It’s grace.”

Grace is what makes Christianity utterly unique.

In the prayer Jesus taught us, He included a prayer for forgiveness. He called us to seek it from God and extend it to others.

We’ll get to the latter, but we need to spend a little more time on the former.

The forgiveness of God is nothing less than a gift of grace.

It is totally undeserved. We cannot erase or undo that which requires forgiveness. We cannot do or say anything to earn forgiveness.

It is a gift of grace and can only be received by humble faith.

That messes with us, though. It grinds against our feeling of independence. It challenges our American dream, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps sensibilities.

We want to contribute. We want to feel as though we are worthy of such extravagant grace.

Last week was “birthday week” in the Jordan family. The three boys – my father and both brothers – have birthdays within six days of each other.

Imagine the three men I love most in the world came to me and said, “We searched Amazon and figured out how much you spent on us. We want to pay you back. Here’s a check for what you paid. Oh, and we included a bonus for the card you included telling us how much you loved and appreciated us.”

I would be heartbroken – and so would you. Gifts are freely given. We don’t expect – or even want – the people we love to reimburse us for the gifts we give. That negates the whole point of a gift.

We do that with God. We want to earn what He has freely given. We want to prove our worthiness. But we can’t pay God back. And it breaks His heart when we try to.

Now, don’t get me wrong. God does call us to obedience. But our obedience is a response of gratitude to His grace. It’s not a payment on a loan. It’s not a way of retroactively earning His grace.

As you go about your days, pay attention to why you do what you do. Think about why you spend time with God, why you give, why you serve.

Do you do what you out of gratitude or out of guilt?

It matters.

Forgiveness – and the grace that drives it – is a gift and there is only one appropriate response to a gift.

Gratitude.

Forgive Us

Forgiveness was central to Jesus’ mission and message.

It comes as no surprise, then, that He included forgiveness in the prayer He taught us.

We begin by seeking and receiving forgiveness and then, in turn, extend forgiveness to others.

The order matters.

We can’t give what we don’t have.

We’ll talk about extending forgiveness later, but we must start with receiving forgiveness.

Theologians speak of two types of forgiveness.

Positional forgiveness is the forgiveness we receive when we trust in the death of Jesus to cover our sin. In other words, our sin no longer keeps us in a position of separation from God.

Our status before God has changed from enemy to child, from hopeless to assured, from condemned to forgiven.

If you’ve never experienced positional forgiveness before God, that is where you start. We can’t move onto the second type of forgiveness until we’ve settled this one.

Relational forgiveness is the forgiveness God extends in the context of your relationship with Him.

The Bible tells us that when we received positional forgiveness, we were adopted as children of God. We can call Him Father.

I have often failed my earthly father. I have often hurt him with my words and with my actions. I have often had to seek his forgiveness.

Despite those failures, I never stopped being his child. My position before him hadn’t changed.

The forgiveness I seek, then, is relational forgiveness. I don’t seek forgiveness because I’m no longer his child. I seek forgiveness because I am his child. I don’t want there to be any barriers to the closeness of our relationship.

It’s the same with God.

If you’re a Christian, God calls you to seek His forgiveness – not because your position before Him has changed. You seek forgiveness not because you are no longer His child, but because you are His child. He doesn’t want there to be any barriers to the closeness of your relationship.

If you’ve never received God’s positional forgiveness, what is holding you back? Don’t wait. Don’t put it off. He is there, holding it out, extending the offer. Take it.

If you’re already a Christian, are you in the habit of confessing your sin to God and seeking His forgiveness? Are there any barriers getting in the way of the closeness of your relationship? Don’t let there be.

Wherever you are, there is good news. God is ready and willing to forgive all those who come to Him.

First Things First

The prayer that Jesus taught His disciples drips with depth and meaning. Every line offers a glimpse into who God is, how He has ordered His world, and how He wants us to relate to Him.

We’ve already looked at the first half of the prayer.

We come to Him as our Father in Heaven.

We pray that we would do honor His name and reputation.

We ask that His kingdom would come in our lives as we live as His citizens and that His will would be done as we trust and obey our King.

The prayer now shifts focus.

We move onto our daily bread. We ask forgiveness for our sins and seek God’s help in forgiving those that have sinned against us. We pray that He would not lead us into temptation and protect us from the Enemy.

We’ll look at each of these lines in turn in the coming weeks.

But let’s not pass too quickly over the shift. The order matters. Jesus prioritizes prayer.

James Emery White observed, “First it ascends to the heights of heaven, and then it returns to the plains of earth. It directs us vertically, then horizontally; First we focus on God, then on us; there is attention to the One prayed to and then to the one who is praying.” (The Prayer God Longs For, 59)

So often, I begin with myself.

I come to God with a long list of needs and, often, wants. I skip over the first half and jump straight to the second. It’s not that I even invert the order. I simply omit an entire portion.

Maybe you do, too.

Before we move on to the second half, perhaps we should take time to put first things first. Perhaps we should pay attention to how Jesus prioritized His prayer.

God’s name.

God’s kingdom.

God’s will.

There will be opportunity ahead to return to the plains of earth.

Let’s ascend to the heights of heaven for now. Let’s linger there. Let’s allow God’s perspective to invade our prayers. Let’s allow His name, His kingdom, and His will to consume our prayers.

Only when we have attended to the first things can we attend to the second things.

May Your Will Be Done

Jesus had a lot to say about the kingdom of God.

He even included it in the prayer He taught His disciples.

“May Your kingdom come.”

Christians have often understood this as a prayer for Jesus to come and restore His good creation.

Yet, Jesus’ original audience would have heard it differently. It was – and is – a prayer that the kingdom of God would become a reality in our lives. That we would submit to God as the rightful King.

The second half of the phrase gives even more context.

“May Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

What comes to your mind when you think about the will of God?

You probably think of big decisions like what job to take, who to marry, or where to live.

In other words, you probably think of the specific will God has for your individual life.

Now, don’t get me wrong. God does care about those decisions and He is willing and able to lead and guide you through them.

But, in the Bible, the vast majority of God’s revealed will is universal – not individual.

God calls every one of His people to “[think] of others as better than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3). To “forgive others” (Col. 3:13). To “serve one another in love” (Gal. 5:13). To “keep on praying” (Rom. 12:12). To “[give] cheerfully” (2 Cor. 9:7). To be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry” (Jam. 1:19).

The list goes on and on.

God has told us His will for our lives.

His will is for us to live obediently before Him – as loyal subjects of His kingdom.

We are, after all, “citizens of heaven” (Phil. 3:20).

Does God care about the job you take, who you marry, and where you live?

Yes, of course He does.

Is it possible you could honor God in more than one job? Is it possible there is more than one person God would be delighted to see you marry? Is it possible that you could serve God in any number of places?

Of course.

Remember, God is a good Father. He isn’t trying to trick or confuse you. He hasn’t left you in the dark to stumble around. He has given you everything you need to know about His will for your life.

If you have been persistently praying over a decision and He doesn’t seem to be giving you a clear answer, let me offer a bit of advice.

First, find out what God has already said in the Bible. God will never contradict His Word.

I spoke with a woman who justified an affair she was having with a married man by saying, “I prayed about it and God just gave me a peace about it.”

No, He didn’t. God is clear in His Word that adultery is a grievous offense and He will never give you a peace about that which He has declared sin.

So, find out what God has already said about the decision before you make it.

Second, if the decision does not conflict with God’s revealed will in the Bible – if it affords you an opportunity to love and serve Him and, in turn, love and serve others – then make a decision.

If you have earnestly prayed for God to lead and guide you and you have searched out what He has already said and still make the wrong decision, God is more than capable of redirecting you.

But don’t be paralyzed. Do something to the glory of God and for the good of others.

May Your Kingdom Come Soon

“Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe.”

That is how just about every Jewish prayer begins.

I love the awe and reverence of that address.

Jesus taught us to come to God as our Father in heaven. He retained the awe and reverence but added to it the intimacy and affection of a loving father and a beloved child.

Yet, this Father of ours is the King.

Jesus calls us to pray that His kingdom would come soon.

I never understood that. If God is, in fact, the King of the universe, then isn’t His kingdom already here?

Yes and no.

In legal parlance, God is King de jure. De jure means “by law.”

That is, He is legally King. He has legal claim over everything that He created – including you and me. His creation is rightfully His. He is, in that sense, the King of the universe.

The prayer Jesus calls us to is that God would reign as King de facto. De facto means “in practice.”

That is, we would submit to Him as King. We would live out His will in practice.

When we pray that God’s kingdom would come soon, we are not asking that God would be King. He already is. We are not even asking that He would come as King. He already will.

We are praying that we would obey Him as King.

That His kingdom would be de facto in our lives.

That He would reign over our lives – not just in theory or even just in theology, but in how we live out every moment.

In our thoughts and our attitudes.

In our speech and in our conduct.

In our decisions.

In how we spend our money.

In how we spend our time.

In how we handle our relationships.

In how we give and serve.

In how we work and how we rest.

In every single aspect of every single moment.

God is your King de jure – by law.

Is He your King de facto – in practice?

May Your kingdom come soon, may it extend to every corner of my life, God.

May Your Name Be Kept Holy

We take our names seriously.

It annoys us when people mispronounce our name and infuriates us when people slander our name.

That’s because our name is not merely an abstract part of who we are. It is bound up in our identity. It has to do with our reputation.

It is the same with God.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He called them to address God as “Our Father in Heaven.” Then He focused on the name of God.

May Your name be kept holy.

That might sound strange. After all, God is holy and, therefore, so is His name. Why would Jesus call us to pray that it would be kept holy?

I am a Jordan. I bear the Jordan family name. Wherever I go, whatever I do, I carry that name with me.

Now, I can honor the Jordan name, or I can defame the Jordan name. I have done far more of the latter than I’d like to admit. I want everything I do to honor the mother and father who gave me my name.

When you and I entered into a relationship with God, we were adopted into His family. We are His children. We bear the family name.

When Jesus teaches us to pray, “May Your name be kept holy,” He is not imploring God to keep His own name holy. He is imploring God to mold us into the kind of people – the kind of children – who make His name holy. Who honor His name.

The prayer is, “God, may I honor your name in my thoughts and attitudes, words and deeds. May I honor Your reputation in way I live every single moment of my life.”

I need this prayer. As with my earthly parents, I defame the name of my Father in heaven far more often than I’d like to admit. I need to own up to my sin, ask His forgiveness, and depend upon His strength to live up to the name He has given me.

How about you? Do you honor the name that you carry in every thought, every attitude, every word, and every deed?

Own up where you don’t. Ask His forgiveness for where you failed. Depend upon Him to lead you and guide you and strengthen you as you serve as His representative – as you bear His name – to the world.

In Heaven

In every synagogue there is a sign above the Aron Ha-Kodesh – the place where the Torah, the very words of God, are kept.

“Know before whom you stand.”

It is a reminder that when you come to the Bible, you come before the God of the universe.

It is the same with prayer.

When we come to God, we come to our Father.

Yet, He is our Father in Heaven.

Now, that might conjure up notions of a God who is far off, but that would be entirely missing what Jesus is getting at in His prayer.

On the contrary, God is nearer than your next breath.

But He is not our cosmic buddy. We are not His equals.

Our Father is the God of the universe.

Knowing before whom we stand means coming to God humbly. It means acknowledging that He is God and we are not. It means recognizing that He is infinitely more powerful than we could ever imagine.

That knowledge should drive us also come to Him hopefully.

We do not come to an apathetic or impotent God. We come to a God both willing and able to act on our behalf.

That is why we hope.

The writer of Hebrews says, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1, NIV).

Biblical hope is more than wishful thinking. It is confidence in who God is and what He has done and what He will do. Our hope is firmly rooted in faith in our Father. Our hope is in the One who is able and willing to answer.

Jesus, in calling us to come to our Father, calls us to pray reverent and relational prayers.

Jesus, in calling us to come to our Father in Heaven, calls us to pray humble and hopeful prayers.

Come to God this way.

Know before whom you stand.

Our Father

Yesterday, I talked to my parents, brother, best friend, and neighbor (who I just met).

I noticed something.

I talked to each one differently. I didn’t change who I was. It was me in every conversation. I just spoke to them according to the relationship that I have with them.

We talk to God the same way.

According to the relationship we have with Him.

Jesus tells us what that relationship should be in the opening line of the prayer He taught us.

Our Father.

If you have trusted Jesus with your eternity, you have been adopted. Adopted by God – the Father – into the family of God.

That means we come to Him, in prayer, as our Father.

I don’t know what your earthly father was like. I don’t know if the concept of God as a Father trips you up because of hurt and anger and disappointment you carry from the man that was supposed to provide for and protect you – and your heart.

I do know that God is everything a father is intended to be. He is just crazy about you. He loves you with an unfailing and unconditional love. He is giddy over time spent listening to His children.

And that is how He invites us to come to Him. As a good Father.

So, what does that mean for prayer?

First, it means that we come respectfully.

As our Father, He has authority over us. He deserves our reverence. Our honor. Our respect.

We come to Him in a spirit of humility – not of entitlement. Our Father is, after all, the God of the universe.

Yet, as a Father, God desires that we would draw close. That we would talk to Him like a child to a loving father.

I saw this modeled by a college student at a retreat I spoke at a couple years ago. She prayed one of the best prayers I’ve ever heard. It wasn’t what she said. It was how she said it.

“Hey God, it’s me, Claire. I’ve got something I want to talk to you about. See, there’s this problem that me and a lot of my friends are facing, and we just really need your help with it.”

It was beautiful. It was reverent and respectful, but she spoke to God like she knew Him. Like she knew He loved her and was delighted to listen.

Because she did.

There were no feigned formalities. She didn’t break into King James English. She didn’t dress up her prayer with fancy words or theological jargon. She was just herself.

This is exactly what it means to come to our Father in prayer.

Yes, we come respectfully. But we also come relationally.

We come as we are to the God who knows us as we are.

The next time you talk to God, talk to Him as you would a good Father.

Linger on that word and let it lead and guide your prayer.

Your Father is waiting with open arms. Climb into His lap and pour your heart out. He is listening with rapt attention to every single word you say.

Teach Us to Pray

Prayer is simple. It’s just talking to God.

Yet, for many of us, prayer is hard.

It’s hard to focus our hearts and minds. It’s hard to find the words to express ourselves to God. It’s hard to discipline ourselves to spend time with Him.

But prayer is foundational to a vibrant relationship with God. The Bible has a lot to say about it. Jesus has a lot to say about it.

In fact, Jesus’ disciples – his closest followers – once came to Him and asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.” He taught them what, for many of us, are the familiar words of the Lord’s Prayer.

You may have learned this prayer as a child. I did, too.

Over the next several weeks, we’re going to look at each line of this prayer and reflect on how Jesus’ original listeners would have heard and understood this prayer.

For now, though, let’s hear it again – in a translation different than the one you might have learned.

Read slowly. Listen carefully. Reflect on it – just for a moment – and consider how Jesus taught us to pray.

Our Father in heaven,
   may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
   as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
   as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
   but rescue us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:9-13, NLT)