Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore

Matthew 6:9

“So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. ‘Pray, then, in this way: Our Father who is in heaven.”

This is the Lord’s Prayer, and it is given to the people of God so that all our praying is to be governed by it. While many people daily do something and call it “prayer,” with a very wrong idea of what prayer is, we have the great privilege of learning not only how to pray but also what to pray from the Lord Himself. This is very important, as the majority of praying does not have its basis in the Bible, in terms of its content, order, or climate. Our prayers are to be governed and disciplined not by the whims of our minds or our heart’s feelings, but by this specific pattern.

1 John 5:14

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”

Have you ever asked yourself if your prayers are according to God’s will? Most of the time, we just hit or miss. God says, “If you ask according to My will, I will answer.” So what is His will? Is it just blabbering whatever I feel? No, this prayer very clearly shows us what God’s will is in everything. How blessed that God’s Son Himself tells us what to pray so we can get answers to every prayer.

Imagine a king who loves his people and wants to do all good for them. His kingdom is arranged so that his subjects will receive blessings only when they ask the king properly. The king so longs to give blessings that he himself creates a list of requests and gives it to them, saying, “You may ask for any of these, and I will gladly give them.” What a king! He desires to bless his people so much that he gives them a list of what to ask for, and when the subjects ask, they can do so confidently, knowing that the king will give it, because he himself gave them the list. That is what Jesus Christ is doing. If you want to know what the Father longs to give, here are the things. Take note, and pray for these, and He will bless you with them.

Some people, thinking this is so important, just memorize this prayer and keep repeating it. It is fine to recite it, just as it is fine to read any part of the Bible. But some say that is the only prayer you should always pray from memory. That is wrong; it is not meant to be a prayer that is simply recited. I will give you several reasons.

First, this prayer is recorded twice in Scripture, once in Matthew 6 and once in Luke 11, and it differs in both places. It is substantially the same, but the words are different. If the Lord was giving us a prayer to be memorized and recited, He would not have given us different words the two times He gave it, right? For example, in one, He says, “forgive us our debts,” and in the other, He says, “forgive us our trespasses.” In other words, if it was a rote, routine prayer to be recited, at least He would have given it the same way.

Secondly, in Luke 11, the disciples said, “Teach us to pray.” They did not say, “Teach us a prayer.” It’s one thing to have a prayer book and open it to read a prayer. It is something else to know how to pray. The Lord was not giving them a prayer; He was teaching them to pray. By the way, wouldn’t it seem a little silly if verse 7 says, “And when you pray, use not vain repetition as the pagans,” and then immediately follows it by giving us a prayer we are supposed to repeat? That would be totally ridiculous. It is vain repetition He is trying to avoid.

Furthermore, let me say this: there is no occasion in the entire New Testament—Gospels, Acts, or Epistles—where this prayer is ever repeated by anybody. It is not a prayer to be made into a ritual. Our Lord was not teaching us to mouth these very words. We are to pray according to the particular pattern. We find other prayers of our Lord. He prayed all night, but did He say the Lord’s Prayer 1,000 times? No. The apostles prayed, and their prayers do not fit into the same words, but they fit the pattern. Take Ephesians 1 or 3, and none of those prayers are verbatim. But any prayer you take from God’s people, in the New or Old Testament, will fit into this. Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done” in Gethsemane, which aligns with “Thy will be done.” Paul prays that Christians be filled with all the fullness of God, and he prays that the kingdom of God may come in greater measure in the hearts of men. Take any prayer; it will fit into this.

This is a model for every prayer you ever pray, no matter what you are praying about. It is a skeleton on which you are to put meat and skin. It is an outline with headings. For example, I have headings and an outline for a sermon. Now, that is not a sermon; that is just some notes. If I came in here and just read you the notes, we would be done in ten minutes, and you would not know much. That is not the point. It is a skeleton. I have to put flesh and skin on it. I have to make it live. What Jesus is giving us here is a prayer outline; that is all. These are the basic elements of prayer. You have to develop this into a meaningful expression in every different situation.

“Father, who are in heaven, today you have given me a new day. I have so many things to do. May Your name be hallowed in all I do. May Your kingdom come, reign in every part of my life, and give me the opportunity to do something to bring Your reign into the hearts of men. May I share the gospel with someone. May Your will be done in my work, studying, words, thoughts, and actions. Help me to hallow Your name, bring Your kingdom, and do Your will by giving me my daily bread, my health, and meeting my physical needs. Forgive my sins and do not let sin overcome me today.” It is so comprehensive and covers everything, and it only takes one minute. If you will memorize this prayer, get it in your head, and just work your way through its outline, no matter what you are praying about, you will have the confidence that you are praying the way Jesus taught you to pray. It is a tremendous prayer with so many facets.

And, beloved, this prayer covers everything. It is staggering. It has so many facets, just like looking at a multi-sided diamond. Let us quickly turn the diamond and see the different facets. It defines the spirit in which we are to pray. What should our attitude be as we pray?

• First of all, it says, “our.” Not “me, me.” That’s an unselfish spirit.
• Then it says, “Father.” That’s a family spirit.
• Then it says, “hallowed be thy name.” A reverent spirit.
• “Thy kingdom come.” A loyal spirit.
• “Thy will be done.” A submissive spirit.
• “Give us our daily bread.” A dependent spirit.
• “Forgive us our trespasses.” A penitent spirit.
• “Lead us not into temptation.” A humble and alert spirit.
• “Thine is the kingdom.” A confident spirit.
• “And the power.” A triumphant spirit.
• “And the glory.” An exultant and joyful spirit.

This prayer could be divided simply into three elements and then three more elements. The first three deal with God, and the second three with man. The first three are for God’s glory: “hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” The second three are for man’s needs: “give us our daily bread, forgive us our debts, and lead us not into temptation.”

Another way to look at it is that the first three show the purpose of prayer. What is the purpose? First, to hallow the name of God. Second, to bring in His kingdom. Third, to do His will. That is the purpose of prayer. “O God, I am coming to You in order that Your name might be hallowed, in order that Your kingdom might come, in order that Your will might be done.” And what is the means by which His name is hallowed, His kingdom is lifted up, and His will is done? First, by giving us our daily bread—that is provision. Second, by pardoning our sins—that is pardon. Third, by leading us not into temptation—that is protection. As God provides, pardons, and protects, He is consequently exalted in His glory, in His kingdom, and in His will.

Another way to look at it. First of all, God is a Father (“Our Father, hallowed be thy name”). Then He is a King (“Thy kingdom come”). Then He is a Master (“thy will be done”). As a Father (verse 11), He gives us our daily bread. He is the source. As a King, He forgives our debts and pardons us. As a Master, He leads us not into temptation.

The elements, the wonders, and the beauties of this particular model of prayer are almost infinite. Only the mind of God could have conceived such far-reaching, incredible thoughts to be compressed into this little tiny section of Scripture. No man could ever have done it.

Look just at the last three elements: the bread (provision), the forgiveness (pardon), and the leading not into temptation (protection). You will find the three time dimensions of life. “Our daily bread” is the present. “Our debts” are sins from the past. “And lead us not” is the future. This little prayer encompasses the past, the present, and the future provision and sustenance of God. “Bread” is physical. “Forgiveness” is mental; it relieves the anguish of guilt. “Leading not into temptation” is spiritual; that is the maintenance of spiritual life. Whether you are talking about the past, present, or future; whether you are talking about physical, mental, or spiritual matters, it is all here.

By the way, all of the petitions in this verse are in the imperative mode in the Greek, which means there is a tremendous intensity to them. There is a fantastic brevity in every phrase, but it is an intense thing: “thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” There is no yawning, but a deep yearning, which is a sign of a child of God. There are no qualifying elements. Everything in this prayer, beloved, seeks to glorify God, seeks to lift up His name, and seeks to exalt His holiness.

And I would just tell you right now that is the purpose of all prayer. If you think prayer is for your needs, you have missed the point. That is why we get so messed up. We are praying for ourselves. We do not take into account the whole community of faith, and we do not take into account the whole will of God in the parameters of His own kingdom. Samuel Zwemer writes about this prayer and this word, “Every possible desire of the praying heart is contained in this. It contains a whole world of physical and spiritual requirements. It combines in simple language every divine promise, every human sorrow and want, and every Christian longing for the good of others.” Every aspect of prayer is included therein: adoration in its opening clause, thanksgiving at the close, and a confession of sin is implied. Its petitions are seven in number, showing the completeness of the outline furnished here. It is virtually an epitome of the Psalms and a most excellent summary of all prayers.

Do you know prayer is meant to glorify God? The prayer focuses on God. Listen. In John 14:13, Jesus said, “Ask anything in my name and I will do it in order that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” The reason you pray and the reason God answers is to put Himself on display, to put His glory on display. That is it. When you pray for someone who is not saved and they come to Jesus Christ, it is not for your sake that it happened. It is to show you the power of God’s salvation. When you have a physical need and you pray, and God provides for that need, it is not so you can have what you want; it is so that you will know that God meets needs.

His glory is the issue. And that is the affirmation of the disciples’ prayer. That is the way we want to look at it. It begins with, “Our Father who art in heaven,” adoring God. It ends with, “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever,” adoring God again. In the middle, everything in it is about God.

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Prayer’s Beginning

Verse 9. Prayer begins with, “Our Father who is in heaven.” There is so much in that one phrase. That is the invocation of prayer. The starting point. There are three points of view in which the invocation of the Lord’s Prayer may be considered: our Fatherhood, our Brotherhood, and Heavenhood. There is so much in it.

1. Fatherhood: We have already seen the beautiful truth of the Fatherhood of God. Now let’s consider it in the context of Jesus’s day. “Father” did not mean anything special. Although it had some meaning in the Old Testament, in His time, it had lost its true significance. For the Pharisees and scribes, to think of God as a Father was a very empty thought. That is why there was so much hypocrisy. The term meant no more than a lord, a god, a ruler, or a king. There were so many wrong ideas about God, so much confusion and unclearness. People thought of Him as a distant and unconcerned deity whom we had to impress. It is natural for sinful hearts to regularly have wrong and hateful ideas about God. Jesus comes and clears all the fog and says, “God is your Father, a Father who knows everything about you.” I was feeling very guilty, had very low energy, could not read or concentrate, was very tired, and did not have the strength to pray. I was always sleeping. The Father knows. The term in Greek is pater. Jesus spoke Aramaic. Abba was the endearing term used by a little child for its father. The first thing a child ever learned to say was abba and ima. It means “daddy.”

Jesus uses it in a new fashion. Jesus injects into it something rich, something special, something intimate. It was His greatest revelation. Jesus made that intimacy possible. When Jesus prayed, He always used the word “Father”; He used the word “Father” over 70 times. He only ever prayed one prayer and did not use the word “Father.” Do you know what prayer that was? “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” To make us sinners God’s children, it was only in bearing our sin on the cross that He was separated from the Father, and only then did He not say, “Father.”

He teaches us how to approach God. When we talk to the Father, we are not talking about some deity who is totally unconcerned. We are talking about someone who is lovingly beneficent, personally involved, and absolutely intimate. There are so many blessings in Fatherhood.

We have seen that Father is one who begets us and is in a family relationship. A father is not like an uncle, a cousin, a friend, or a neighbor; a father is in a filial, intimate relationship. I think this settles the matter of loneliness. If God is a Father, then that’s something lonely people need to know about, right? The heart knows loneliness. The heart knows bitterness, the loss of self-worth, and self-despair. We all suffer from self-pity. We desperately need respect. Where are we going to get that? Is there anybody who knows us for what we are and loves us for that? Is there anybody who can lift us up and give us value? Is there anybody who can make us feel like we have a friend? God can. He is our Father. He said, “Lo, I am with you always. I’m a friend that sticks closer than a brother.” The fatherhood of God settles the matter of loneliness.

This also settles the matter of provision and protection. A father knows and takes care of you. He will protect you. It settles the matter of wisdom. A father knows what is best for me. A father is forgiving, tender-hearted, merciful, and gracious to his children. Psalm 103 says, “As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear him.” He is like a merciful father. He is like a condescending, gracious, gentle, and kind father—so thoughtful, so gracious. The fatherhood of God also provides guidance. A father guides his children, does he not? He leads them, shows them the direction to go, and gives them wisdom and instruction.

Our Approach to God: By directing us to address the great God as “Our Father who is in heaven,” we are assured of His love and power. This precious title is designed to raise our affections, excite a reverential fear, and confirm our confidence in the efficacy of prayer. We are invited to draw near to a Divine person, one who has our best interests at heart. To effectively approach God in prayer, when you pray, stop and think: “Who is this God I am praying to? What is my relationship with Him?” “Father, how?” In eternity, He adopted me as His son through His Son’s great work and the work of the Holy Spirit. He brought me into this family and adopted me. I am a sharer of His life, a partaker of His companionship. I am under the canopy of His provision, protection, and discipline, and all the things His fatherly heart would be and give. He is a Father who is full of tender pity. Lord Jesus wants us to stop and remember our relationship with God. He is a Father of infinite compassion. He is very loving, but He will also discipline me for my own good.

2. Brotherhood: “Our Father” not only teaches us about Fatherhood but also the brotherhood aspect of our prayers. Why did He not say “my Father”? As this prayer brings us to the right place before God, it also brings us to the right place before other men and brothers. As a result of sin, man was not only separated from God but also became very selfish and separated from other people. His world is all about him. Sin made us selfish and filled us with hate for our fellow men. This is the source of the hatred everywhere, which is why our hearts do not have good thoughts about others. The strife of parties, the jealousies, brother against brother, church against church, and man against man have made this once beautiful world a very cursed, hateful place. All this springs from one cause: man became the enemy of God, and so he became the foe of his own race.

Our selfishness is not seen in what we speak or do, but primarily in our prayers. How much do we pray for others? We have developed a self-centeredness in prayer, even in the church today, that is unbiblical. We are preoccupied with ourselves. James says our prayers aren’t heard because they are too selfish, only thinking of our own needs. There’s no idea of community. We have isolated ourselves. We don’t communicate. We don’t bear each other’s burdens. We don’t share the way we should. Consequently, our prayers run down a very narrow track.

The Jewish people had a strong idea of community. It wasn’t just about me, but about my people. They believed that prayer was to be unselfish, that it was about the community. They believed that only when their people were blessed, could they themselves be blessed. Only when their church was blessed, could they be blessed. Their prayers encompassed the whole. They were not isolated to the individual. For example, the rabbis had a very interesting prayer: “Hear not, O Lord, the prayer of the traveler.”

Now that’s interesting. What is the one thing you pray for when you go on vacation? Good weather, right? “Lord, I’m going, so don’t let it rain or snow. Just give us good weather. I’m on a journey.” In those days, they went on foot, and the traveler would pray for good weather, accommodating skies, and an easy journey. The rabbi said, “Lord, don’t hear that prayer,” because that’s one guy on one trip. He may be praying for a fair day, and everyone else in that part of the world knows their crops need rain. “Lord, don’t do something for one person that messes up what needs to be done for the majority.”

Now that’s a great perspective on prayer because most of us come to the Lord with a whole lot of personal pronouns: I, I, I, me, me, me, my, my, my. We pray these isolated prayers: “Lord, do this for me. Lord, I have to have this. Lord, my needs are such. Lord, I’m having this problem.” And we don’t know what it is to encompass the whole. Our prayers become aligned with God’s will when we pray in that spirit, not with “me, me, me.” We don’t always have that perspective of “God, bless the church, even if I have to lose.”

When we say “Our,” we need to realize our brotherhood. We need to learn to pray as they prayed, in an unselfish manner. We need to do what is best for the whole. And I’ll tell you, folks, that’s why you find no singular personal pronouns in this prayer in Matthew 6. It always says, “Our Father, our daily bread, our debts, our debtors.” Why? Because true prayer encompasses the community of faith. It never isolates one individual to have their needs met, no matter how it affects everyone else. Prayer was to be unselfish.

“Our Father.” This teaches us to recognize the Christian brotherhood, to pray for the whole family and not for ourselves only. We must express our love for our brethren by praying for them. We are to be as much concerned about their needs as we are about our own. This is the test. If I love my God who begot me, I must, by necessity, love all others who are begotten by God. If my affection for God is truly filial, my affection for the children of God will be truly brotherly. My return to God as my Father is the impulse and measure of my return to man as my brother. If one says, “I love God and hate my brother,” he is a liar.

He could not separate the Fatherhood from the Brotherhood. The existence of one relationship necessarily involved the existence of the other. If I am a child of God, I am a brother to all God’s children. In returning to God as my Heavenly Father, I do not turn my back upon my spiritual kin. In this light, prayer is never exclusive and selfish. When I pray, “Our Father,” and when I enter into my closet, it is my privilege and duty to bear before my Father not only my personal needs, sins, and sorrows, but also those of the holy brotherhood.

We will take part in communion. Jesus Christ’s great concern during his last hours was the unity of his church. As the hour of his mysterious sufferings darkened, this truth became more distinct and prominent in his discourse. Foreseeing the divisions, differences, and alienation that would spring up in his church after his ascension to glory—defacing its beauty and impairing its strength—he stood beneath the shadow of his cross, prostrated himself at the feet of his Father, and binding the whole brotherhood to his heart, he prayed, “That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in me, and I in You, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that You have sent me.”

God equally loved each of us and chose us because of his unconditional choice. There is no special love for any; we are all equally and infinitely loved as a family. Before his death, Jesus Christ, so concerned, added a “new commandment,” as it were, to the decalogue: “That you love one another, even as I have loved you.” Love would conceal infirmities; love would seal the law of kindness upon the lips; love would rebuke slander, and suppress every thought, feeling, and word that would dishonor the Father’s child or wound the Savior by insulting one for whom he died.

Remembering that he loves all the children of his family alike, with what holy guardedness should we respect the feelings, shield the reputation, and promote the happiness of all the sons and daughters of God! How can I look coldly upon someone whom God loves eternally? How dare I find fault and judge one whom Christ accepts? Where is the evidence of my own sonship if I do not unite in heart and voice with my brother in saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven?” And while I breathe the filial words, feel a brother’s love glowing in my heart?

What a family-uniting truth this is—”Our Father.” The reason there is less love and unity is because we don’t pray much for others. Prayer is the great cement of the saints below. There is not an engagement so uniting, so healing, so hallowing as prayer. In this holy atmosphere, nothing can live but the pure, the holy, and the loving. Divisions, bitterness, and hate vanish; wounds are healed; and the saints, clustering together around the feet of the one God and Father of all, realize their spiritual unity, exhibit their indivisible oneness, and present a spectacle of holy love such as earth, with all its boasted alliances, never saw, and such as heaven, from amid its perfect harmony, looks down to see.

Surely this divine, sanctifying, cementing truth, attended with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, must promote more visible union and love among the saints of the most high God. Every time we call him “Our Father,” we should remember our brothers. We must meditate closely in our hearts, realize fully our personal adoption, love our brothers, and remember their burdens. If our love for the Father is genuine, our love for the offspring of that Father will be true. Love for one will be the measure and evidence of our love for the other.

But behold the true, universal, catholic spirit that the Lord’s Prayer breathes—”Our Father.” Whoever truly has that spirit and breathes that prayer from their heart is bound, as with the solemnity of an oath, to “love the brotherhood.” For, brethren, to kneel before the throne and say, “Our Father,” and then go forth with angry feelings and hate to “bite and devour one another,” is a spectacle that might bedew an angel’s eye with tears, as it in reality clothes a demon’s tongue with exultation. Yes, beloved, God is “our Father.” He enshrines us all in one parental heart, accepts us all in his beloved Son, seals us all with one Spirit of adoption—he cares for us all, provides for us all, protects us all, and sympathizes with us all alike. And who are you, and who am I, that we should denounce and despise one of those whom God our Father claims as his child?

How pointed and holy are the divine precepts concerning the duty of one saint to another! The Gospels and Epistles are filled with this. “Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaks evil of his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law.” James 4:11. “Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing; but contrariwise blessing.” 1 Peter 3:9. “Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us.” “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice; and be kind one to another, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:31, 5:2. “Let brotherly love continue.”

I have already considered the first two aspects of the Lord’s Prayer: the paternal and the brotherly. It remains for us to consider the third one: the celestial. “Our Father, which art in heaven.” Here, we are reminded of God’s greatness, of his infinite elevation above us. If the words “Our Father” inspire confidence and love, “which art in heaven” should fill us with humility and awe. It is true that God is everywhere, but he is present in heaven in a special sense. It is there that he has “prepared his throne”: not only his throne of government, by which his kingdom rules over all, but also his throne of grace, to which we must by faith draw near. We are to view him as God in heaven, in contrast with the false gods that dwell in temples made by hands.

He is full of compassion, a loving Father, but he is still God. He is in heaven. It reminds us that the God we approach is Holy. Isaiah 57:15. Do you believe you come to a holy God? He is in heaven; he is holy. He dwells in unapproachable light. Hebrews 12 says, “our God is a consuming fire.” There, the archangels in all their glory, flaming angels, cover their faces and feet and cry, “Holy, holy, holy.” They never sinned, yet in the presence of this holy God, they cover themselves and cry, “HHH.” Men who saw him died.

Consider what an august privilege it is that when eternally living and holy angels are present and archangels throng around, where cherubim and seraphim encircle the throne of God with their blaze, a sinful mortal, who lives today and dies tomorrow, may approach with unrestrained confidence, calling him “Father” and conversing with heaven’s dreadful sovereign. What honor was ever conferred like that?

How inestimable is the privilege of entering the throne room of God, surrounded by the hosts of his heavenly angels, when I go and call him “Father.” He, in his simplicity and with rapt attention, turns to me, one who is devoted to us. No angel can call him “Father.” If prayer were nothing more than that, it would be sufficient to draw us to it without ceasing. But prayer is more than that. Prayer is more than just the privilege of communing with God. Prayer is the opportunity for God to display his glory. Prayer gives God a vehicle by which he can demonstrate who he is. An old saint put it something like this, and I think it’s beautifully said: “True prayer brings the mind to the immediate contemplation of God’s character and holds it there until the believer’s soul is properly impressed.”

He is our Father, but he is in heaven. He is holy. He is sitting in heaven. He is omnipresent. He fills heaven and earth. He is omnipotent and sovereign. Psalm 115:3. Oh, what should we do when men are doing so many things and churches are so poor? What do I do? He is a sovereign God. When you come to such a God, come with a broken spirit. Allow this truth to penetrate. “Oh, he is my father, but he is in heaven.” Remembering that he is in heaven is a cure for carelessness.

“Our Father” means that God is going to hear because he cares. “Our Father who art in heaven” means that when he cares, he can meet the need because he has unlimited, eternal resources. God is a loving Father; that’s where the prayer begins. And, beloved, all prayer begins with that—that God really cares. When you go to pray, you start by recognizing that God truly cares. God as a Father in heaven settles the matter of resources because it says, “Our Father who art—” where? “—in heaven.” Listen. When you go to your father for resources, you don’t say, “Oh, Lord, I know there’s not much to draw from in the world.” Listen, he’s not drawing from the world. He’s drawing from heaven. I believe that this adds a dimension that just carries us out of our trouble. “Our Father who art in heaven”—he has all of the supernatural domain at his disposal. All that heaven is, all that it means in Ephesians to be “blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing,” is available in him. He is a loving Father who has all the resources of heaven.

You want satisfaction? God has it at his disposal. You want fairness? God has it in the heavenly realms. Peace, fellowship, knowledge, victory, boldness—it’s all there. I pray to a Father who has absolutely eternal resources. Oh, what a great thought.

This view of the celestial spirit of the Lord’s Prayer is suggestive of many practical lessons. We are instructed in the first place to look up in prayer. The proper attitude of the mind in approaching God is a heaven-bent attitude. The whole soul should be in the ascent. When we draw near to our heavenly Father, we must remember that he is in heaven. Earth with its cares and ties, its sins and sorrows, must be left below. For the time being, we professedly have exchanged, in our mental and spiritual flight, the terrestrial for the celestial—the communion of the saints who are on earth for the higher communion of our Father who is in heaven. How consonant with this is the experience of the psalmist! “My voice shall you hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto you, and will look up.”

Alas! how little there is in our experience of this looking up to God in trial, in trouble, in sin. We look down; we look to the right and to the left, and there is none to help, none to deliver, and we despond and despair. It is just because our eyes are earthward and not heavenward, man-ward and not God-ward. What a tendency, also, there is to look within ourselves, and not from ourselves, through Jesus, up to our Father who is in heaven! We look at the darkness, at the vileness, at the barrenness, at the deadness of our hearts—absorbed in the profound contemplation of our own poverty, vileness, and unworthiness—rather than up to the loving, gracious, forgiving, paternal heart of God.

But our whole Christian course must be a looking up. The more we look to God and the less to our own selves and to man, the holier and the happier we will be. Jesus Christ always lifted his eyes and looked up. The memorable intercessory prayer of our Great High Priest when on earth is thus introduced: “And Jesus lifted up his eyes unto heaven, and said, ‘Father.'” Such, also, has been the attitude of the Lord’s people in all ages. “My eyes,” says David, “are ever toward the Lord.” Thus, also, prayed Jehoshaphat, “O our God, will you not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that comes against us; neither know we what to do—but our eyes are upon you.” Then again, the psalmist, Psalm 123:1: “Unto You lift I up mine eyes, O You that dwell in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look into the hand of their masters, and as the eye of a maiden into the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us.”

Look up, then, tried believer! Look up, then, tempted saint! Look up, then, suffering child! Your help comes from above, with divine strength that will sustain, grace that will sanctify, and love that will soothe. Oh, look up! Look up to Jesus, your Elder Brother, now appearing in the presence of God for you.

Another lesson we are taught by the celestial spirit of the Lord’s Prayer is to seek heavenly blessings. Our Father is in heaven. Nothing but heavenly blessings should satisfy our desires. Earth’s choicest things are poor; its sweetest, unsatisfying; its loveliest, fading; its fondest, passing away. If born again, God has given you a spiritual nature which will be content only with spiritual things. The nourishment that sustains the divine nature must be divine; the good that satisfies the heavenly nature must be heavenly. Our Father is in heaven, where our heart’s treasure is, and from heaven our dearest blessings flow. “If you then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God.” Oh, let us be earnest for heavenly blessings! We deeply need them! The needs of the soul are infinitely greater and more important than those of the body.

Great is our need of heavenly blessings. We need more love for God, more conformity to Christ, more of the anointing of the Spirit, a fuller assurance of our conversion, and a higher enjoyment of a present salvation, peace, joy, and fruit. We need more personal, heart-religion; more spiritual life; a walking in closer fellowship with the unseen and the eternal; and a more filial and confidential converse with God. Since, then, our Father is in heaven, prepared to send down from above every good and perfect gift; and since Christ, our Elder Brother, is at his right hand, prepared to endorse every petition and to urge every request, let us look up through the blood of Christ and implore God for that grace, and strength, and help, which will promote our heavenliness and fit us all the more perfectly for heaven itself.

Let us have a great esteem for the Lord’s Prayer; let it be the model and pattern of all our prayers. There is a double benefit that comes from framing our petitions suitably to this prayer. First, it prevents error in prayer. It is not easy to go wrong when we have our pattern before us. Second, mercies requested are obtained, for the apostle assures us that God will hear us when we pray “according to his will.” 1 John 5:14. And surely we pray according to his will when we pray according to the pattern he has set us.

What, my reader, is the real state of your soul? What is your hope for the future? Which is the destiny that awaits you—heaven or hell? In one or the other, you must spend your eternity. Nothing will be admitted into heaven but what is heavenly, holy, and pure. None enter its holy gate but those who have washed in the Lamb’s blood and are robed in the vestment of his righteousness. None enter there but those who love God, have a union with Christ, and are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Oh, decide the question now! Heaven and hell begin on earth. So real is their commencement, so unmistakable their evidence, every individual may arrive at a moral certainty as to which of the two he is speeding his way.

Think of the joys of heaven and the sorrows of hell! Think of the eternal glory and the endless woe! Will you be happy with Christ and the saints forever, or forever the companion and associate of demons and the damned? Throw down the weapons of your enmity against God, repent and believe in Jesus, and henceforth you will become a child of the heavenly parent. Your conversation will be in heaven, shedding around you the reflected purity and luster of that world of holiness and glory in which the Father dwells, and into which, before long, will be gathered and assembled, in domesticated union and eternal fellowship, the one family of God.

Children of the kingdom! Repose, amid the weariness of your pilgrimage, upon the slopes of glory! Soon heaven will be reached—soon its golden spires, and cloudless dome, and towering turrets will burst upon your view—soon the portal will appear, and the pearl gate will open on its golden hinges to admit you to an innumerable company of angels, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator, and to God the Judge of all. Your path through death’s lonely valley will be all light, shining with increasing brightness unto the perfect day. It was a strangely beautiful remark of a child, when asked how his little sister, who had lately died, went up to heaven, replied, “She put her foot upon the sun, and went up.” Thus will ascend to glory every child of the light. Perhaps the spirit, in its celestial flight, will make the sun in the natural skies a stepping-stone from which it will spring into higher regions of glory. But, beyond all doubt, it will stand upon and be clothed with the divine “Sun of Righteousness,” and borne upon his wings, radiant with his luster, it will float away into the world of light and song, of bliss and immortality—and so shall it be forever with the Lord!

“What is a scene of glory?