Our Father | Prayer Outline By Jesus
In the first two parts we learned what prayer is not supposed to be and now we’re going to look at the outline Jesus gives us for effective prayer. So what is it we can do that is effective ? Jesus begins by saying:
Our father in heaven hallowed be thy name
We need to lift our prayer to the father in heaven. We’re later told by Jesus that we are to bring prayer to the father in his name, see JOHN 16: 23-2. So we are to offer prayer to God the father in the name of Jesus because everything flows from the father.
- Jesus prayed to God the father
- He has taught us that we could be on intimate terms with God
- So much so that he said God is our “daddy”
God is our loving and caring father
Now that very phrase often helps me get started in prayer because it shifts my attention from myself to the heavenly father. I now have a wonderful relationship with God because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. I put my trust in him and his death and resurrection – that makes God my father, and it is a wonderful thing to know that I have this relationship.
Now, I know some people when they hear the term father that they don’t have a good memory of their earthly fathers. I happened to have had very wonderfull earthly father, but regardless of whatever someone’s experience was with their earthly father, you can be assured that our heavenly father truly loves us. Loves us so much that he sent Jesus Christ to die for All of our sins so we woould not perish but have eternal life is our father.
We’re part of a great family and we’re part of the gathered group the very word church means gathered ones. So we start off a reminding ourselves that we’re talking to our loving heavenly father who wants to hear from us who knows our needs, and He wants us to first understand that he will meet them.
Hallowed Be Thy Name
In the past few years of my life as I go to pray that phrase really helps me get my mind off my worries and temporal anxieties. It reminds me of the great holiness of wonder and majesty of God as He has revealed Himself.
- He is unlike anything here in our world
- He is not like our petty selfish celebrities or national or international leaders.
- He is the key to all things that are wonderful and glorious
- He is not corrupt
- He’s above all this and in all of his triune glory and
- He dwells in unimaginable light and splendor and purity
ALL of that is given to us in Jesus Christ
In short we start by sanctifying His name. His name is holy so that in this sorded awful world with so many terrible things happening by the billions it is refreshing to know that God is hallowed and holy and perfect and that the heavenly reality is someday going to be our living destiny. So, just as prayer should be addressed to God our father which shows our relationship, now we remind ourselves of his Holiness.
We’re to lift our minds and hearts, need and concerns into the heavenly realm and to look at things from that perspective not just the situation we are in down here.
It starts off the conversation with love and praise.
The first part of the outline tells us to start the conversation thanking the Father for our relationship with Him and to spend some moments praising His glory. We are talking with He who is in charge of it all. And He wants to hear from us! And that’s just the beginning – join us for part 4 of our bible study on the Lords prayer at hungryfortheword.com
