< Back

Read: Matthew 6:9
Listen: Matthew 6

This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, Matthew 6:9

A core truth echoed throughout the Bible is that God’s people have been adopted into God’s family. Because of Jesus and his work on the cross, God receives followers of Jesus into his family and adopts them as his own. Though all people are born sinners guilty of rebellion against God, God graciously rescues and redeems a people for himself through Jesus. As a result, followers of Jesus can come before God in prayer, praying, “Our Father.” Believers are to come before God not as guilty criminals come before a judge, but as cherished sons and daughters come before their gracious Father.

How we think about God will deeply affect how we pray. Do we see him as the loving Father that he is? God the Father revealed his heart for Jesus at Jesus’s baptism: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). This love and delight that the Father has for Jesus is the same love and delight that he has for us in Christ. If we are in Christ—that is, if we have accepted Christ and been adopted into God’s family—then God the Father looks upon us with the same affection he has for his own treasured Son, Jesus. Such thoughts should move us to pray to “Our Father.”

PRAYER DAY #2: God’s love for us is wider, higher, and deeper than we could ever fully fathom. Pray the Lord’s Prayer. As you pray “Our Father” ask God then to help you receive and live in light of his great love. And as you do, praise him for how he has made his love known through the person and work of Jesus.