In this manner, therefore, pray:  Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Matthew 6:9-10 NKJV

This is the Scripture that begins the model prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray. Our pastor broke this down into the acronym of ACTS which makes it easy to remember.

Many religions recite this prayer at each service. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that, but as we said yesterday be careful that it doesn’t become vain repetition. Or just something you use as filler when you talk to your Lord and Savior.

Today we will be addressing the first part of Jesus’s model prayer. First, He tells us to acknowledge God’s sovereignty. Our pastor refers to this as the A in the acronym which stands for adoration and praise. We should begin our prayers giving God honor, glory, and praise. We should acknowledge Him as the ruler in the heavens, on earth and in our hearts.

We should show our fear of Him. Let me stop and say here by fear, I don’t mean that we are terrified of Him. I am referring to a reverential awe. A respect fitting for our heavenly Father. People who don’t fear the Lord run the risk of being disrespectful or as I mentioned before treating Him more like a buddy or a pal.

While God loves us as His children if we have believed in Him and accepted Him, we must remember that He is also a stern disciplinarian. We must take Him seriously and we must trust in Him and obey Him.

When we pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We acknowledge that God’s will is what is best for us. We align our will with His will. We should always pray for God’s will to be done. We should trust that His ways are higher than our ways and He knows what is best for us in all circumstances.

This means we trust Him to do what is best even when it is not what we want. In John 16:23 Jesus said, “…Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give to you.” It’s easy to read this and think we can pray for whatever we want, like to be a millionaire, and God will grant our request. This is not what Jesus means. When we enter into that close, loving relationship with our Lord and Savior, we put our faith in Him. We trust that He knows what is best and will do what is best for us. We want His will to be our will. We want to align what we want with what He wants for us.

Prayer is when we talk to God. He responds to us through His Holy Word. This is why when we just pray but do not study our Bible. we are having a one-sided conversation with God which will never work.

Prayer is such an important part of our relationship and our communication with Him that we need to do it right. Pay careful attention to how Jesus taught us to pray. We will talk more about this tomorrow.

Have a great day!