Our Father in Heaven

Good morning, Watermark.

All right.

I love you guys.

Those are some of the university students.

All right.

Yeah, if you don't know me, my name is Alfie,

and I help out with the university ministry here at Watermark,

reaching out to HKU.

And today is actually quite an exciting Sunday for me,

because I think for the first time in four or five years,

my whole family is in a church service together.

And that's really exciting.

So, please come and say hi and make them feel awkward.

You know, if you've heard stories about my dad,

you can ask him if they really are true.

My dad, my mom, my sister, we all live here in Hong Kong.

But I don't see my parents that often.

Usually what happens is, after about the third week,

my dad will send me a text message and say,

you know, your mother misses you.

And so I know it's time to muster up the effort to get on the bus

and go out into the middle of nowhere to visit them.

But thankfully, you know, I get to communicate with my parents in other ways.

You know, just with my telephone, you know, I can send text messages.

I can call them.

I can, you know, WhatsApp them.

I can FaceTime them.

If I'm really fancy, I can, like, find a website and order some flowers and send it to them.

There are many ways in which I can communicate with them.

But not all of them are really quite, like, being there face-to-face

and seeing them and touching them.

You know, I really wish I could do that more often.

And I tell them, you know, if they ever move, you know, closer to the island,

then maybe I'll consider living with them.

That hasn't happened yet.

But I think many of us feel like that when it comes to relating with God.

Because we know he's there, but he seems a bit far off.

It's kind of hard to get to.

And we know we're supposed to pray, but we've been taught about prayer,

but our experience of it doesn't match up with what we've been taught,

what we want to expect.

You know, we feel like we're sending an email that never leaves the computer.

Or, you know, we're sending a text message,

and, you know, we're waiting for a ply that's going to come, you know,

floating in a bottle, and we have to be at the beach at the right time to find it.

And, you know, I think that even for people who have been Christians for a long time,

the idea of what prayer is is a bit of a mystery.

And we have lots of questions about prayer,

questions that we ask other people,

questions that we ask God about prayer.

You might ask God, are you there?

Do you hear me?

Am I good enough?

Have I done enough good things for you to answer my prayer?

Am I saying the right words?

Am I formal enough?

Am I kneeling the right way?

Do I keep my eyes closed or open?

You might ask,

God, I'm sorry that I keep falling asleep

when I'm trying to pray.

You might ask,

what's the formula?

What's the series of words that I need to say

to make sure

that God hears me?

Sometimes we're angry at God

and we don't want to pray.

Is it okay to pray to God when we're angry?

Can we express what's going on in our hearts to God?

Even if it means using a few, you know, naughty words?

How can we be expected to pray without ceasing?

Why do you tell us to do that?

I think there's so many questions about prayer

that I don't even know the answers to

that many people ask each other,

they ask of God about prayer.

What is prayer?

What does it mean?

How does it work?

How can we talk to this amazing, huge God?

You know, I think I could go on

asking different questions about prayer.

And, you know, a lot of them are usually along the theme of,

you know, what is prayer?

What am I doing while I'm praying?

How does it work?

And the second part is,

does God care?

Does God love us?

Today we're going to be starting a series

for the next couple of weeks on prayer.

Myself and a couple of other preachers,

we're going to be going through the Lord's Prayer

one bit at a time.

And we're going to try and talk

and unwrap this idea of prayer.

In fact, this is a focus that we'll be doing

across Watermark for the next couple of weeks.

You'll see that even the prayer that we do

before the service is a little bit different.

So I encourage you to come early,

come 1010, it starts at 1015,

and get involved with that.

Also, we're going through other stuff

in our community group.

So if you're not in a community group,

join a community group.

You're not going to want to miss

this journey that we're taking as a church

in unwrapping prayer.

Now, as we've been talking about

why we want to do this focus,

we've kind of come up with different goals

of what we hope to achieve

through this series in prayer.

There are three of them,

and the first is that,

it's right here,

that we want to teach an attitude of prayer,

not a form of prayer.

We don't want Watermark to end up

two months from now

with everyone praying the exact same way.

But we do want Watermark to be a church

where people are coming

with the right attitude before God,

before their Heavenly Father.

We want to, the second goal is

we really want to encourage you guys

to be praying out of a relationship

with a loving Heavenly Father

that is based in reality,

that we're not, you know,

praying into some, you know,

unknown spiritual air,

but that we have a relationship

with a real Heavenly Father.

Lastly, we want Watermark to be a church

that prays more expansively,

not just praying at mealtimes

and when we're in trouble,

but to pray often,

to pray all the time,

not just to pray about ourselves,

but about our community,

to pray about God's kingdom.

We want us to be a church

that's praying about

more than just asking,

but also in thanksgiving

and praise and a confession.

All right, we want Watermark,

we want to teach you guys

an attitude of prayer,

not a form.

We want to encourage you to pray

because of a relationship

with your Heavenly Father.

and we want you to pray more

and more expansively.

And so, even as you're

in community groups

and in this prayer time,

as you're thinking about prayers,

you're listening to these sermons,

look out for some of these things.

How is our relationship

with God coming out?

How are we encouraged

to pray more expansively?

Now, before we start,

really, we should have

a definition for prayer.

Now, as many people as you ask,

you'll have a definition

for prayer.

At a community group yesterday,

my community group

was talking about this,

and, you know,

everyone has a slightly

different idea of what prayer is.

And as many books as you read,

you'll also find

different definitions,

except for one book that I read

where he quoted another guy.

So, two books, same definition.

All right.

But, I'm glad I get to go first

because I get to pick

the definition of prayer,

and everyone else

has to follow that.

No, no, no, I'm joking.

Oh, really, we sat down as a team

and we talked and we prayed

and we discussed.

And we tried to figure out

a good definition

that would capture prayer.

All right.

Even after we settled on this,

there was still discussion about,

ooh, should we change it?

But we're going to go with this.

And we hope that,

at least for this time,

that this definition

will help us understand

and begin thinking

about what prayer is.

And so, we'll put it up here.

And it says that prayer is

a child calling out

to their loving,

heavenly father

in response to him

reaching down to them.

prayer is a child

calling out

to their loving,

heavenly father

in response

to them,

to him

reaching down to them.

Today, I'm going to be focusing

on our relationship

with God

as we look at the

first couple of lines

in the Lord's Prayer.

prayer.

In Matthew chapter 6,

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Jesus tells the people

to pray like him.

And Matthew chapter 6,

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

you'll find is

right in the middle

of the Sermon on the Mount.

In the Sermon on the Mount,

Jesus is here

and he's gathered

his disciples

and his followers

and he's telling them

about how to live their lives.

And he makes

some pretty big asks of them

and he tells them

that they need to

turn the other cheek,

they need to walk

the extra mile,

that they should

love their enemies.

He asks difficult

things of them

and at the end,

he gets to the gist of it

and he says that

all of our lives

we're living before God.

Everything that we do

is before God

and he wants us

to live our lives

in the presence of God.

And so when we come

to looking at the Lord's Prayer,

we're trying to figure out

how is it that

as God's people

in the presence of God

do we talk to him?

How do we call out

to our Heavenly Father

if our lives

are being lived

in his presence?

Now,

Jesus uses the idea

of Father.

God is our Heavenly Father

to describe

the way in which

we address God.

And, you know,

I think everyone

has a different idea

of what a father is

based on our experience

with our own earthly fathers

and those

begin to shape

the way that

we look at God.

Now,

some of us

have good experiences

and some of us

have bad experiences.

And even in the course

of our lives,

our relationships

with our fathers

change.

You know,

if you're younger,

then, you know,

your fathers are

paying the rent

and they're giving you

food and clothing

and they're paying

your school fees

even though you'd wish

they'd rather not.

all right?

And maybe if you're

a bit older,

your parents are

dependent on you

and you are caring

for them

and you're providing

and taking care

of them.

You know,

I think each of us

has such different

experiences.

I was talking

with my brother

the other day

about an experience

that I had had

with my dad

and he looked at me

with this blank expression

because even though

we lived in the same house,

he was completely oblivious

to my struggle

with my dad

at that point in time.

Even in the same household

and experiences

of fathers are different.

You know,

I think I had

a fairly good relationship

with my dad

growing up

except when I was 11,

13,

16,

and 20.

All right?

Everything else

was great.

Those were some

rough years.

But even as I talk

with different people

in this congregation,

I realize that

you guys have had

many different experiences.

many of you

have had difficult

experiences

with abusive fathers

or absent fathers,

fathers who didn't love you

or didn't know

how to love you.

You know,

I think,

as I look out here,

I know that,

you know,

some of you

don't love your fathers

and you find it hard

to think about

how do we love

our Heavenly Father?

How do we love

our God

when our earthly father

has disappointed us

and failed us

in so many ways?

You know,

my hope,

Watermark,

is that as we're looking

at these passages

that we will get to see

and we'll form

a different picture

of our father,

that we will see

our Heavenly Father

as good

and beautiful

and amazing

and loving

and perfect,

that even

my good relationship

with my father

doesn't compare

to the amazing

Heavenly Father

that we have

in God.

So,

how do we pray?

Right at the beginning,

Jesus says,

you'll find it

in verse 9,

he says,

pray then like this,

our Father

in heaven.

Now,

the Bible doesn't

give us the reaction

of his disciples,

but I think

that the disciples

would have been surprised,

would have been shocked

that Jesus was calling

God his Father.

And it's interesting

because so much

of Jewish life

and culture

was about God

being with them.

You know,

when they were wandering

in the wilderness,

the tabernacle,

the tent

where God rested

was right in the middle

of their camp.

God was close to them.

Even when their temple

is in the middle

of their city,

their entire lives

revolved around

being close.

But the Jewish people

were hooked

on this idea

of a transcendent God,

a holy God,

a God that is big

and marvelous

and untouchable.

Not that God

isn't those things,

but God is also

a God who is close.

A God who is near.

And I think for us,

even that is a big shift.

Trying to think about

God who is

holy

and amazing.

A God who is our savior.

A God who is the creator.

But he is also

our Father.

Father.

You know,

I think the Bible

tells us about

the kind of father

that God is.

In Ephesians 3,

it says that God

is able to do

far more

than we ever imagined.

In Romans 8,

it tells us that

he adopts us

as his children.

And he gives us

a spirit to remind us

of that.

In Matthew chapter 7,

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

we have this interesting,

it's right after

the Lord's Prayer,

he says that,

you know,

which of you,

as a father,

as an earthly father,

gives your child a stone

when he asks for bread

or a snake

when he asks for fish?

He says,

if it's earthly fathers,

you know what is a good gift

and what is a bad gift.

How much more

does our heavenly father know

what is a good gift

to give us?

If you look through the Bible,

this is a story

of God's amazing love.

In its pages,

you'll see the love

of a father

for his children.

You'll see how God

loves Joseph

in his prison cell

and uses him

not only to save Egypt,

but to save his family.

We see how God,

as a father,

loves his firstborn son,

Israel,

and calls him out of Egypt

and out of slavery.

The relationship

of God

to his children

is one

that is surrounded

by this amazing,

holy love.

But us,

we have this

poor,

broken image

of what a father

is like.

we have this

incomplete picture

of what a father

ought to be.

And even if we try

to imagine

what our perfect father

would be like,

it wouldn't come close

to what God,

our father,

is really like.

Imagine you're a villager.

You're living

in this island

and there is

no one else.

There's no other island

within a thousand miles.

And one day,

as you're looking

up at the sky,

you see the moon.

Yeah,

there we go.

You see the moon

and you think,

man,

the moon is amazing

because it's this

little plate.

It's this plate

of ice cream

in the sky.

You know,

how big is that?

You know,

maybe two feet wide

and it's attached

to this curtain

that moves across

the sky

day and night.

And sometimes

we see the moon,

sometimes we see the sun,

but on this curtain

is attached

this plate of ice cream.

But these strange people

come and they have

these little,

you know,

devices with glass

and metal

and they're playing

with them all the time

and they come

and they tell you,

oh no,

that's not ice cream

up there.

But it's actually

this huge rock.

It's this huge rock

in the sky.

The moon isn't

what you thought it was.

It is something

completely different.

It's not a two feet

wide plate of ice cream.

It is a giant

million mile wide

rock.

I don't know

if it's a million miles wide.

But it's a huge rock.

That's the way

that I think

we,

our view of our fathers

and our view

of our godly father

is different like that.

It's like comparing

a plate of ice cream

to the moon.

They're not the same

in any kind of way.

The moon

of the big rock

is actually

far more exciting

than a plate

of ice cream

which is gone

in a couple of minutes.

And that's what it's like.

We have this flawed picture

of God,

of our father.

You know,

we have this father

who is good,

who is perfect,

who is loving,

who knows

his children,

who gives good gifts

to his children.

We have this father

that throughout

the history of the Bible

is calling

and bringing his people

towards him

and inviting him

into this relationship

of love.

And I think

the love of a father

is something

very special,

very unique.

I'm not a father,

but I have some friends

who are.

And I was talking

to some of them

this week.

And one of them

was telling me

that he started

to love his child

the moment he found

out his wife

was pregnant.

The moment he found

out his wife

was pregnant,

he loved his child.

They didn't have a name.

They didn't know

its gender yet.

They didn't know

what it would look like.

But he loved

his child.

Right?

And as his child

grew and became cute,

you know,

he loved his child.

He loved his child's poop.

Right?

But the child

grew older

and became whiny

and moany

and, you know,

complaining.

And he still loves

his child

even though

he was frustrated.

And, you know,

God loves us

in that same way.

Except, you know,

God loves us

from before

eternity began.

The Bible says that

he knew us.

He knew his children

from before creation.

And before creation,

he loved his children

who are yet to be.

And I think a lot of us,

we spent so much time

and effort

trying to please

our Heavenly Father.

You know,

we relate to him

like we do

our earthly fathers.

We try to do good things

so that we'll be

rewarded for it.

We try to avoid

bad things

so we don't get in trouble.

You know,

we're always worried

about whether

our Father

really loves us.

Imagine the love

of our Heavenly Father

not just while you're alive,

but in all

of eternity.

we look at the story

of the prodigal son

where we see

this picture

of God's love

for his children

where

this son

insults his father,

wishes him dead,

and says,

give me my inheritance.

And after squandering it back,

he comes

and he wants to earn

his father's love.

And he says,

let me work as a slave,

as a servant.

I don't deserve

to be your son.

But the father says,

no.

He says,

you're my son.

I love you.

Come.

We're going to kill

the fattened calf.

We're going to have a feast.

Here's a ring.

Here's a cloak.

Here are sandals

for your feet.

I love you.

And the watermark,

our Heavenly Father

loves us.

And it doesn't matter

where you've been,

what you've done,

how far you've wandered,

how deep you find yourself

in sin.

Our Heavenly Father

loves us.

He wants to be

close to us.

So when we come

and we see these words,

our Father,

I think we need to learn

how to put aside

our pictures

of our broken,

fallen,

earthly fathers

and look

to this amazing

Heavenly Father

who loves

and is calling

and bringing us

and inviting us

into a relationship

with Him.

inviting us

to call Him Father.

You know,

our childness,

our sonship,

our daughtership

isn't something

that we can break

by sin

or insult.

It's not something

that death

can even hurt.

our relationship

with our Father

ought to be one

where we know

we can rely

on Him

and trust Him.

that we can call

on Him

because He is a Father

who through Scripture

and through our lives

is calling to us,

is reaching out to us

and asking us

to call Him

our Father.

Father.

Now,

I guess the next question

is how do we know

that He is our Father?

And Jesus says

our Father in Heaven

but Jesus is Jesus.

How can we

know that God

is our Father?

In Romans,

in Romans chapter 8,

Romans 8 · chapter mention

we learn about

the spirit of adoption

which God gives out.

The Bible says that

when we trust in Jesus

to repair our relationship

with God,

when we trust in Jesus

as the sacrifice

for our sins,

that we receive

the Holy Spirit.

In Romans 8,

He calls it

the spirit of adoption

that witnesses

to our hearts

that we are children of God.

If you have faith

in Jesus,

you are a child

of God.

And sometimes

people say that

everything and everybody

is a child of God

but a tree is not

a child of God.

It is created by God

but it's not His child.

If you,

if you're not

a Christian believer

then

God

isn't your Father.

But what the Bible says

is that

to become

God's child

is to

accept

Christ

and His sacrifice

for us.

And you know,

that's what Franklin

was talking about

in communion.

His body,

His blood

that repairs

our broken relationship

with our Heavenly Father

and makes us

His children.

It says that

the Spirit of God

witnesses in our spirit

and calls out

Abba, Father.

Abba, Father.

that's our Father.

Now,

even

our prayers

however,

as we

relate to our Heavenly Father,

as we come to Him

and we

have this picture

of Him

as our perfect

Heavenly Father

who is

far away

in His heavenly throne

but is also

close

and here

with us.

You know,

sometimes

these prayers

get tangled up

in sin

when we don't

approach

our Father

the right way.

And we see that

in verses 5-9

where God,

Jesus,

gives two examples

of how not to pray.

He talks about

Pharisees

who are so excited

about their

supreme holiness

that they can't wait

to get to the synagogue,

that they stop

in the street corners

to pray

where everyone

can see them.

And Jesus says

don't pray like that

because

they're not praying

for God,

they're praying

for themselves.

They're praying

for their approval

from other people.

And He talks

about the pagans

who will repeat

the same phrase

and mantra

over and over

and over and over

again in hopes

that God

would hear them.

He says

don't pray like that

because

God is your Father.

He knows you.

He loves you.

Even before you ask

what you need,

He knows it.

You know,

I read these sometimes

and I think,

well,

this doesn't really

apply to me

because I'm not

really a hypocrite.

I'm not really

a Pharisee.

And then I stop

and I think

and I realize,

oops,

I am.

Because I know

that, you know,

I think growing up

in church,

you get to hear

some amazing prayers.

There's some people

who pray

and it's almost

like poetry.

There's one old man

that I really love

and to this day

he prays in the

King James Version

and it's fantastic.

But, you know,

I like,

every now and then

I'll hear this phrase

or this ending

to a prayer

and I think,

ooh,

that sounds really nice.

I'm going to start

praying that

and when people

hear me praying

they're going to say,

oh, Alfie,

thank you so much

for praying.

I was so blessed by it.

And here I am thinking,

yes,

I am a good prayer.

But no,

I'm not.

I'm a terrible prayer

because those prayers

aren't for God.

They're for me.

They're for the approval

that I want

from other people.

And then when I go,

when I'm alone

in my room,

my prayers then turn

into the prayers

of a pagan

because there's no one

there to listen to me.

There's no one there

who's going to watch me.

And so now all my insecurities

I don't have to hide.

And you know what?

When I'm alone,

I'm afraid

because I don't trust

that God really loves me.

I don't trust

that God

wants to provide for me.

I don't trust

that God cares for me.

And so I'll pray

and I'll start,

you know,

and I'll spend

about 10 minutes

telling God

how amazing He is

and how beautiful He is.

And then when it comes

to asking about

what is on my heart,

you know,

I only ask about 30%

because I think

if I ask too much,

then God just won't

give me anything.

All right?

But I think that's

praying like a pagan

because I'm not seeing

God as my Father.

I'm seeing God

as this miserly old gentleman

who I'm trying to convince

that I deserve

something from Him.

The Bible says,

no,

the Bible says

that He is our Father,

that He loves us,

that He has great gifts for us,

and that when we pray,

we don't have to repeat

babbling phrases,

that we can come to God

and simply open our hearts

and say,

Father,

I need help.

Father,

I need you.

I think that one of the most

difficult things,

and I spent a week praying

that I would kind of

get this tension right,

is that while God

is our Heavenly Father,

this Creator,

this Rule of the Earth,

He's also close

like a Father.

You know,

as humans,

we're very good

at extremes,

and I think we can think

of God as our

earthly Father

who is close by,

and we can come to Him

at any time,

and it's like,

hey,

what's up?

I need this,

thanks,

and get on with our life.

Or,

we see God

as this faraway,

holy God

who we can't reach

and who we are afraid

to come before.

The Bible says

that God

is both of these things.

That's why

when you're seeing

the first two lines

in the Lord's Prayer,

it's our Father

in Heaven,

our Father

who is close

and loving.

Hallowed

be your name.

Let your name

be made holy.

Let me honor

your name

because you are

a great

and amazing God.

How is it

that we keep

this tension?

This Father

that loves us

and calls us

His children

is the same Father

that tore down

the walls of Jericho.

The Father

that tells us

to call Him

Child,

to call Him

Abba.

is the same

Father

that flooded

the earth

when Noah

built the ark.

I think that

one of the most

difficult things

and something

that I'm trying

to learn

is

how do I pray

keeping

both of God's

characteristics

in mind?

This

holy,

amazing,

huge God

and this

close

Father.

how do we

hallow God's

name?

How do we

make God's

name holy?

How do we

honor God's

name?

And I think

when Jesus

teaches His

disciples to

pray,

that He

teaches them

to honor God's

name in the

way that they

pray

and in the

way that

reflects in our

lives lived

out.

God's

God's

name

when we're

concerned about

His kingdom.

When we say

Your kingdom

come,

we're not just

saying it,

that our lives

reflect that in

the things that

we do.

That when we

pray,

we honor God's

name when we

confess our

sins by

striving to

live holy,

righteous lives.

We honor

our Father

when we pray

that we

forgive the

debts of

others when

we go out

and we do

forgive and

love the

people around

us.

You know,

I grew up

with an

African father

and I think

that taught me

something a

little bit about

reverence because

as a child,

when we were

playing, if my

dad called for

us, we

turned up

immediately.

None of this

like, oh, I'll

be there in a

minute.

You know, if

dad called, you

were there.

It doesn't

matter what

level in the

video game you

were, it

doesn't matter if

you were texting

your girlfriend,

whatever.

You were there.

And I think, you

know, even today

that still happens.

Dad called, yes,

I'm there.

But that's the

way we show

reverence to our

Father, that we

do the things that

he tells us, that

we are loving to

people as he

asks us to be.

That we honor

him when we

follow through on

the prayers that

we're praying.

Irreverence is

not to do

that.

It's to come to

God and expect

him to give us

things left, right,

and center while

we spend the rest

of our lives

ignoring his

commands.

You know,

irreverence is

throwing his name

and reputation

in the mud.

Irreverence is

treating God like

a genie who is

there at our

beck and call to

give us the things

that we need.

Irreverence is

having our holy

time with God

and living the rest

of our lives in an

unholy manner.

prayer.

The Sermon on the

Mount, the Lord's

Prayer, is not

just about the

holy moments in

our lives.

We don't just come

to God as our

Father in community

group and at

church.

But we come to

him in all of our

life, in our work,

in our relationships,

in our relaxation,

with our money,

in our faith,

with our forgiveness.

all of these

things.

These are things

that we honor

our God with.

We show our

Heavenly Father

that he is holy

when we honor him

in all of our

lives.

When we say,

hallowed be your

name,

does that show up

in our lives?

When we say,

our Father in

Heaven,

is that reflected

in our prayers?

You know,

this Lord's Prayer

is more than just

a script,

something to say

that will let us

know this is the

way to pray.

Pray it and

everything is great.

But it's a call

for us to live

lives, to pray

prayers that are

different because

of our relationship

with God.

You know,

for some of us

today,

we don't like to

come before God.

We don't like to

call him Father

because of the

hurt we've

experienced from

our own fathers.

Look to God.

See the kind

of Father that

he is.

See the perfect,

loving Father.

that he is.

The great

Father who

brings his

children close

and says,

you're my child.

It doesn't matter

how you are.

I love you.

I think for some

of us today,

we're not sure

that God is

our Father.

And let me

invite you to

come and step

into this journey

and this family

and this relationship

with your

Heavenly Father.

To call on

him as a

child.

To trust in

Jesus and

become his

heir, the

heir to his

kingdom with

Jesus.

others of

us, I

think we

know we're

God's child

and we

don't have

that relational

struggle.

But when we

live our lives,

we don't honor

the God we

claim to be

praying to

when we pray

our Father in

heaven.

Amen.

I want you

guys, I

want all of

us, it

doesn't matter

where you

are, to

come and

marvel at

this.

That the

God that

created the

heavens and

the earth,

the God

that sent

his own

son to

die for

us, would

call us

his child

and call

us to

call him

Father.

God

I've

gone on

for a

while and

I think I

could go

for much

longer.

But there

is so much

in prayer.

There's so

much in the

Lord's prayer

for us to

learn.

And we're

not all going

to do it

today, but

really let me

encourage you

one more time

to join a

community group

this week and

join the study

in prayer.

Come to

Watermark for

the next couple

of weeks and

hear how prayer

changes our

lives.

What does it

mean for

Christ's kingdom

to come?

What does it

mean for us

to have our

daily bread?

What does it

mean for God

to lead us

out of

temptation?

Watermark,

when we see

our Father

as heavenly

and holy

and also

close

and loving,

when we pray

in wanting

his kingdom

because it's

his glory

in our

inheritance,

when we

pray trusting

him because

he is our

Father,

when we

pray trusting

his forgiveness,

when we

pray relying

on his

protection from

evil,

when we pray

to our

Father we

can rest

and be

secure

because nothing

can separate

us from

his love.

Nothing on

earth and in

heaven can

separate us

from the love

of our

Father

who is in

heaven.

Let's pray

together.

Dearest

heavenly

Father,

you are

amazing.

You are

amazing and

great and

holy and

I'm amazed

that you

invite us

to call you

Father,

to be a

part of

this close

relationship

with you

and I

confess that

I don't

always come

with this

attitude of

awe and

reverence and

love and

security.

I confess

that I

project broken

images of

my Father

onto you.

I confess

that I

ignore you

as my

perfect

heavenly

Father.

God, I

thank you

that you

are loving

and forgiving

and I

thank you

for the

comfort of

knowing that

you hear

us,

that you

love us,

that you

see us,

that you

give us

good and

perfect

gifts.

Help us

Father to

pray to

you,

to pray to

you often,

to pray to

you earnestly.

to pray

plainly and

simply because

you are our

Father in

heaven,

to pray in

reverence and

in confidence

because your

name is

holy.

In Jesus'

name,

amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.