Our Father In Heaven

Our Father In Heaven

Your father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored. May your kingdom come soon. May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven. –Matthew 6:8-10

Jesus said that your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him. In one breath, Jesus, our brother, tells us that the Father already knows what we need, and then he tells us to pray and shows us how to pray. So praying to our heavenly Father must be about more than asking God to meet our needs. Because if he already knows what we need, why ask? Surely he does not want us to go through the motions if prayer is not meaningful.

Notice that when Jesus is modeling for us how to pray, asking God for what we want is not at the top of the list! Praying according to Jesus’ model begins with the recognition of our family relationship to God. By calling him Father, we recall that we are his children, with all of the benefits and responsibilities that come with being in his family. Then Jesus continues with three affirmations that emphasize the desire for God’s agenda to be our agenda. What is important to him should be important to us—more important than getting what we want. And God’s agenda is that every creature and all of creation celebrate and honor who he is and what he has done. Jesus wants us to anticipate and welcome God’s Kingdom on the earth. He wants us to long for a day and a world in which God is praised and obeyed, a world where God reigns.

If God’s will were to be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven, how would it be done, and who would do it? Psalm 103:21 says that armies of angels serve him and do his will. In heaven, the angels joyfully and quickly obey. If we pray as Jesus taught us, we are offering ourselves as obedient servants in a Kingdom where the will of God is done with great joy and without hesitation, just as it is in heaven.

Why pray? Because placing yourself in God’s family and under his authority, welcoming his work and his way, and giving yourself to serve him completely—these are not just meaningless phrases or preambles to our list of requests. When we pray in the way Jesus prescribes, they are at the top of our list! Getting God’s priorities into proper perspective changes our own.

My Father, may my life bring honor to your name. May your Kingdom come even as I submit to your authority today. I want to obey quickly and joyfully.

DIGGING DEEPER