As we come into 2025 with a goal of prioritizing prayer, perhaps it is a good time to revisit and think about how our Lord taught us to pray. The Lord’s Prayer is recorded in both Matt. 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4. Over the next few weeks, I want to look back at the Lord’s Prayer and see what we might glean from it in order to help shape our own prayer lives.
Martin Luther once said,
“Since our Lord is the author of this prayer, it is without a doubt the most sublime, the loftiest, and the most excellent. If he, the good and faithful Teacher, had known a better one, he would surely have taught us that too.”
I would like to encourage you to make time over the next few weeks to find a quiet place and spend some time with the Lord’s Prayer. Think about the words and pray them back to God. Focus on each word and each petition. Let them form a structure for your own prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer consists of three parts: a preface, six petitions, and a conclusion. This week we will think about the words of the preface: “Our Father in heaven.” There are two main ideas that this preface teaches us. First, it teaches us that God is the Father of his people. Second, it teaches us that God and his people are not equals. Let’s consider these one at a time.
“Our Father”
What should fill our hearts and minds when we think of God as our Father? First, it should remind us that God is our Father not by nature, but by the grace of adoption in Christ. We have been reconciled to God through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and adopted as His children. The infinite God, who created the heavens and the earth, has made us a part of His family. As children of this family, we are also granted all the rights and privileges of membership in that family. Now that we are in Christ, God is no longer a consuming fire toward us. Instead, he is a loving Father.
Only true Christians can pray this prayer. Jesus said, “no man comes unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Since God is our Father, that means that we can approach him with an attitude of confidence in his fatherly goodness. By the blood of Jesus, we can come into His throne room with boldness (Heb. 4:16). God is willing and ready to grant the best of his mercies to those who are His (Matt. 7:11). Through Christ, we have been made beneficiaries of God’s goodness. We can trust that God loves us and cares for us. We can also trust that it is not a vain or useless thing to approach God in prayer.
One thing that is often overlooked in the preface is that Jesus teaches us to pray by saying “our” Father. This is in the plural. He does not say to pray “my” Father. This teaches us that in our prayers, we are to pray both with others and for others. As Christians, we are all part of the body of Christ. God’s relationship to us as our Father is something that we also share with all other Christian people. It is a great privilege to think that the Lord has given us others to walk through this life with. It is also a great privilege for us to intercede for others as Christ does for us.
“In Heaven”
Since God is our Father, that does not mean that we are on a plane of equality. Christ immediately reminds us of whose throne room we are entering. In prayer, we come in to the throne room of the God in heaven. That means that we cannot approach God just as we please. We must always have this balanced perspective. Many prayers today lack the reverence that Christ teaches us in this prayer. The fact that God is in heaven should remind us of His sovereign power and dominion over all things. Calling God “our Father” should remind us of His nearness to us, whereas the fact that He is “in heaven” should remind us of his transcendence. The great distance between the creature and the Creator should move us to awe and reverence for His majesty.
Sometimes, our prayers are very “me” centered. When they are, we lose sight of the fact that God is “our” Father. Other times, we lack confidence in our prayers. When we do, we lose sight of the fact that God is our “Father.” Then there are times that we lack reverence in our prayers. When we do, we lose sight of the fact that God is “in heaven.” In the preface to the Lord’s prayer, Jesus teaches us the proper way to approach God and He teaches us of the proper heart attitude in prayer. I pray that this will assist you this week in your own prayers.
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