When Jesus' disciples asked for direction in approaching Abba Father, He gave them what we now call "The Lord's Prayer". Anyone of us who has attended a church, been around a church a few times, or even watched a fair amount of TV has heard it recited verbatim at least once. I want to give you a deeper look at that prayer, what Jesus told us, and why.
Many well meaning Christians take the exact text and use it as a recitation. However, what Jesus said when He answered His disciples, "Pray, then, in this way" (Matthew 6:9 NASB), speaks to the posture of our hearts before God when we come to Him in prayer.
In other words, the condition of a renewed heart made perfect, (Hebrews 10:14), has by nature the following characteristics:
It calls God "Father" (Romans 8:15, (Galatians 4:6).
It knows He is in heaven and regards Him as Holy. (Isaiah 6:3)
It desires that His will be done on earth. (Hebrews 13:15)
It is continually being offered and receiving life and daily bread through Jesus (John 6:35).
It has been forgiven by the shed blood of Jesus and the confession of faith (1 John 1:7), (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)
It is continually helped in every temptation, and has been (by Jesus shed blood) delivered from the evil one, (1 Corinthians 10:14), (Hebrews 4:15), (Hebrews 2:14-18).
We come to Abba Father in prayer, each of us in our own way, according to the way He crafted our souls. We come to Him at different times, for different reasons and He always responds with open arms. His response to a heart that seeks is, "Here I am! I am so glad you've come, hop up here in my lap and let me hold onto you a while." So then, we approach our gracious, loving, truthful, faithful Heavenly Father with boldness. We know that He will always listen and never find fault with our hopes, our dreams, or our fears, because when we speak He is not concerned with our many words, but with the condition of our hearts.
"God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7 NASB)
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