One of the greatest displays of Christ’s kindness is that He not merely commanded us to pray, but taught us how to pray. If left to ourselves, our approach to prayer would be thoroughly self-centered, and governed more by our personal priorities than by the living God’s. Yet in knowing both our creaturely weakness and our need for practical wisdom, Jesus provided a perfect pattern to shape our communion with the Father. The One who purchased our access to the throne of grace has also graciously instructed us how we ought to approach that throne, for in the opening words of what is commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer,” we encounter a timeless framework to keep in mind as we draw near to the Most High. Question and Answer 106 of The Baptist Catechism offers clarifying commentary on the purpose for Christ’s model prayer, as recorded in Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4.[1]

 

            Question: What rule has God given for our direction in prayer?

 

Answer: The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer, but the special rule of      direction is that prayer which Christ taught His disciples, commonly called the Lord’s           Prayer.[2]

 

We’re going to examine that “special rule of direction” for prayer by looking to the middle of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount in the forthcoming weeks (Matt. 5–7), beginning with the statement recorded at the outset of Matthew 6:9. When surveying the opening remarks “our Father in Heaven,” we can conclude that Jesus wants us to maintain awareness to at least three foundational realities about the God to whom we pray.[3]

 

1.     When we pray, we are praying to the God who is our Father. 

 

The Fatherhood of God is a recurring emphasis throughout the Sermon on the Mount, and it serves as one of Christ’s great encouragements to pray. Later on in His discourse, Jesus will ground our confidence that God will give “good things to those who ask Him” in precisely this truth: if earthly fathers know how to give good gifts to their children, “how much more will your Father who is in Heaven” graciously answer His children who ask of Him (Matt. 7:11). 

 

A case could be made that this is the most wonderful reality that any person could ever know for themselves. Although every human being can be regarded as an image bearer of God (Gen. 1:26-28)—and will certainly be on the receiving end of many temporal blessings in this life (Matt. 5:45)—it’s only those who have come to saving faith in Jesus Christ who can rightly address God as “Father.” The Apostle John highlights the exclusivity of God’s Fatherhood in the opening chapter of his Gospel by writing in verses 12 and 13:

 

12 As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to       those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the     flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.[4]

 

Despite the greatness of our sin, it pleased Almighty God to send His Son into the world to accomplish our salvation in the fullness of time, to the end that we would come to know our holy Creator as Heavenly Father and enjoy communion with Him through prayer (Gal. 4:4-7). Whenever we find ourselves needing a boost to draw near to the Lord in prayer, surely it is enough to know that when we pray, we are praying to the God who is our Father.

 

2.     When we pray, we are praying to the God who has given us a family of faith. 

 

Christ’s intentional use of the first-person plural pronoun “our” is an indication that He wanted to emphasize the corporate reality that should undergird how we understand our relationship to God. In other words, when Jesus teaches us to pray “our Father,” He’s reminding us that our relationship to God cannot be exclusively seen as an isolated dynamic. Until the Last Day, disciples of Christ should not only be actively immersed into a community of faith, but they should likewise be regularly praying alongside those who can equally regard God as “Father.” As Philip Ryken persuasively argues in his article, Corporate Aspects of the Lord’s Prayer:

 

One of the things that makes the church a community is the fact that Believers pray          together. Since the Lord’s Prayer is a family prayer, we [should] pray with one another [and] we [should] also pray for one another. [As seen] in the last three petitions [of the Lord’s Prayer], we do not pray for ourselves primarily, but for [all of God’s people].[5]   

 

Aren’t you thankful we don’t only get to enjoy the privilege of saying that God is “my Father,” but that we can also joyfully proclaim with brothers and sisters in Christ that God is “our Father?” And isn’t it remarkable to behold that when the eternal Son of God teaches His disciples to pray “our Father,” He underscores the intimacy of relationship that has been established between God and believing sinners; His Father by nature is now our Father by grace, and through our union with Him by faith. Every time we gather for corporate prayer meetings—and every time that we privately join with a brother or sister to pray—we are vividly showcasing the depths of our familial bonds in Christ. We may experience our share of loneliness in a fallen world, but the introduction to the Lord’s Prayer testifies that we are never fully abandoned or totally alone. For when we pray, we are praying to the God who has graciously given us a family of faith. 

 

3.     When we pray, we are praying to the God who is in Heaven.

 

While we wholeheartedly affirm the doctrine of divine omnipresence, we also recognize that God’s manifest-presence is climactically revealed in a place that the Bible calls “Heaven.” We see these realities affirmed in a passage like 1 Kings 8:27-30, in which King Solomon offers his prayer of dedication for the newly constructed temple of God, declaring before the entire assembly of Israel:

 

27 Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain [You God]. How much less   this temple which I have built! 28 Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his            supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is    praying before You today: 29 that Your eyes may be open toward this temple night and   day, toward the place of which You said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that You may hear the   prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. 30 And may You hear the supplication            of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear in      heaven Your dwelling place; and when You hear, forgive (emphasis added). 

 

Jesus’ words in the Lord’s Prayer offer reassurance that Solomon’s prayer was not uttered in vain, as He repeatedly reminds us that our Father who is in Heaven “sees in secret” (Matt. 6:4, 6, 18). Any time we engage in private or public prayer, we can do so with full assurance that we have the undivided attention of the God enthroned in Heaven. It’s not only astounding to think that a God this glorious would concern Himself with sinners like us, but that He would even incline His ear toward us as we make haste to pray (Ps. 116:1-2). Though our sins be innumerable—and though our spirituality be drastically short of what it ought to be—the God who is being worshipped in Heaven by saints and seraphim alike continues to exercise a tender care for us (1 Pet. 5:7). For when we engage in prayer, we can be fully assured that we are praying to “our Father in Heaven.” 

 

What an extraordinary foundation laid for us by Christ as we anticipate reflecting on the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer in the next installment of this series, and what a great privilege we have to learn how to pattern our prayers after the One who “always lives to make intercessions for [us]” (Heb. 7:25). May such lofty considerations cause our prayers to feature an expanding adoration for our God, and an unwavering confidence that there are no limitations to how He can use our petitions to accomplish more than we could ever ask or think (Eph. 3:14-21).

 

 

[1] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture citations in this article—and series of articles—will be from the New King James Version. 

[2] The Baptist Catechism can be accessed on the following webpage: https://founders.org/library/the-baptist-catechism/. 

[3] The repeated references to “our,” “us,” and “we” assume a Christian reader, as the Lord’s Prayer was exclusively intended for believers (i.e., those who are disciples, or followers, of Jesus Christ). 

[4]  The reference to “Him” in verse 12 points the reader of John 1 back to the identity of the One who is the eternal Word of God and the true Light of the world in verses 1-5 and 9-11. As the Apostle John progressively develops his Gospel record, it becomes unmistakably clear that the eternal Word of God and the true Light of the world is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ (e.g., 1:14; 8:12). 

[5] Philip Ryken, “Corporate Aspects of the Lord’s Prayer,” 9Marks, February 25, 2010, https://www.9marks.org/article/corporate-aspects-lords-prayer/. The cited quote was lightly edited for readability.