February 1, 2022
Jesus’ famous teaching on prayer to His disciples is commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer. He taught His disciples, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”1 Matthew has a fuller version of the prayer, but even with Luke’s abbreviation, we can learn five principles to create the right atmosphere for our praying to be effective and fruitful.
First, prayer is meant to be in the context of relationship. The first word Jesus says is “Father.” Though we are God’s children, Jesus means “Father” here in the sense that He is our creator and originator. When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, God becomes our Father, and we are brought into that intimacy with Him whereby we can speak, talk, listen, and trust Him.
Secondly, when Jesus says “hallowed be Your name,” it expresses reverence towards God because He is sovereign. There are many in our day and age who are casual with God, but Jesus taught His disciples that when we pray, we are to pray with reverence.
Thirdly, when we say, “Your kingdom come,” we are implying in that phrase, “If Your kingdom is going to come, my kingdom has to go. If Your kingship is going to be expressed in my life, I have got to get off the throne.” We pray with that sense of responsibility, where we seek after His kingdom, for His will and purposes to be accomplished.
Fourthly, we are invited to make our requests to our Father. We can ask for physical needs: “Give us this day our daily bread”; spiritual needs: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”; and moral needs: “Lead us not into temptation.” … We come to God acknowledging our need for His cleansing. Our repentance is expressed in two ways: the confession of our sin to Him and our willingness to forgive those who sin against us.
If we are going to enjoy intimacy with God, we are going to have to converse with God through prayer grounded in relationship, reverence, responsibility, repentance, and requests. What a privilege that we can come to God in this way!—Brett McBride
“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”2
When Jesus called His disciples to Him and gave them their first public teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, He gave them to understand that prayer was a vital part of the new kingdom that He had come to set up, and that we must have a solitary place where we can be alone with God, some fixed spot where we can meet Him daily. There He promises to meet us.
This secret place alone with God is called the “inner chamber.” It can be anywhere, but it must be a quiet time alone with God. God is in the place of prayer and it is filled with His love! His love awaits you, no matter how weak and sinful you’ve been.
This is the Father’s invitation to you, telling you that He is waiting for you in the secret place of prayer. He waits for you, He pities and loves you! It’s not what you bring to Him, but what He waits to give you, as your Father, that counts. Remind yourself: “It’s my Father—the infinite and everlasting God—that invites me to meet Him in prayer.”
To shut the door and pray to Him in secret, how marvelous! Jesus taught His disciples that this is where the Father would be found, that He waited for them there. It is there that we are able to find God’s pattern for our day or for our life. You receive that guidance in the secret place of prayer where His Spirit empowers you.
God gave His Son to die in our stead for our sin, but not only for that, but to give us victory over sin. God said, “It’s not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.”3 Of course you can’t stand alone against the temptation to sin; there has never been anyone who could.
The help you need is found in prayer and fellowship with God in the secret chamber of prayer. It was never in God’s plan that you should do otherwise than look to Him for strength, look to Him for His leading, for Him to pilot you and help you. That is why the secret place of prayer is so important: Because there you get equipped and put on the armor of God to stand in the battle.4
Put on the gospel armor and God’s Word says that He, the King of Glory who reigns eternally, will empower you by His own power. Why go through life ill-equipped when God offers in love just what you need?—Virginia Brandt Berg
Abba is always followed by the word Father in Scripture, and the phrase is found in three passages. In Mark 14:36, Jesus addresses His Father as “Abba, Father” in His prayer in Gethsemane. In Romans 8:15, “Abba, Father” is mentioned in relation to the Spirit’s work of adoption that makes us God’s children and heirs with Christ. In Galatians 4:6, again in the context of adoption, the Spirit in our hearts cries out, “Abba, Father.” Together, the terms Abba and Father doubly emphasize the fatherhood of God. In two different languages, we are assured of God’s care for His children. …
[T]he right to be a child of God and call Him “Abba Father” is something that only born-again Christians have.5 When we are born again,6 we are adopted into the family of God, redeemed from the curse of sin, and made heirs of God.7 Part of that new relationship is that God now deals with us differently, as family.
It is life-changing to understand what it means to be able to call the one true God our “Father” and what it means to be joint-heirs with Christ. Because of our relationship with our Abba, Father, He no longer deals with us as enemies; instead, we can approach Him with “boldness”8 and in “full assurance of faith.”9 The Holy Spirit “testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.”10
Becoming a child of God is the highest and most humbling of honors. Because of it we have a new relationship with God and a new standing before Him. Instead of running from God and trying to hide our sin like Adam and Eve did, we run to Him, calling, “Abba, Father!” and finding forgiveness in Christ. Being an adopted child of God is the source of our hope, the security of our future, and the motivation to “live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”11 Being children of the King of kings and Lord of lords calls us to a higher standard, a different way of life, and, in the future, “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”12
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He began with the words Our Father. There is much truth in those two words alone. The holy and righteous God, who created and sustains all things, who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present, not only allows us but encourages us to call Him “Father.” What a privilege is ours. What amazing grace that God would love us so, that Jesus would sacrifice Himself for us, and that the Holy Spirit would indwell us and prompt our intimate cry of “Abba, Father!”—From GotQuestions.org13
Published on Anchor February 2022. Read by Jerry Paladino.
Music by John Listen.
1 Luke 11:2–4 NIV.
2 Matthew 6:6.
3 Zechariah 4:6.
4 Ephesians 6:10–17.
5 John 1:12–13.
6 John 3:1–8.
7 Romans 8:17; Galatians 4:7.
8 Hebrews 10:19.
9 Hebrews 10:22.
10 Romans 8:16–17.
11 Ephesians 4:1.
12 1 Peter 1:4.
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