As a child in Catholic school, I memorized the Our Father. Every day we recited the Our Father for our teachers, just as we would say The Pledge of Allegiance. But the words held no value to me. It was something I memorized, just like my phone number or address.
The Our Father means so much more. According to Matthew 6 Jesus is teaching God’s people how to Pray. Matthew 6:9 says, “This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
When we pray, we acknowledge God is Holy. There is none like Him! We ask that His Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. We thank Him for our daily provisions and to forgive our sins and of those who have sinned against us. We ask for protection against sin.
We again acknowledge His greatness again. This reminds me a lot of the sandwich effect. You start with good, serve up not so much in the middle, and end with good.
A lesson I learned in school came straight from Jesus Himself!
Jesus laid out the path for us to go directly to Our Father in prayer. As we pray, let it not be a ritual, let it be relational. Our Father hears us. Jeremiah 29:12 says, “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you”.
Our Father wants to hear from you. Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Our Father wants to share with you.
Go to Him in prayer and He will reveal things to you. Just as you want to hear from a loved one by phone, text, or email. God wants to hear from you!