Accessing God's Presence

In last week's sermon, it was noted that one of the most important habits in the Christian life is prayer. Jesus Christ, who lives to make intercession for us, fueled His public ministry by His private prayer life. This had a powerful impact on those who followed Him - so much so, that His disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray. Jesus originally intended the prayer recorded in Matthew 6 not to be memorized, but to be used as a model for prayer. This prayer is not only instructive, but inspirational. As such, it ignites our prayer life. So, we should view the Lord's Prayer as an outline to shape our prayers and as an example to stir our prayers.This morning we continue our examination of The Lord's Prayer for the purpose of learning to talk to God like Jesus did. Pastor Ramey 'unpacks the opening line of the Lord's Prayer "Our Father who is in heaven", which explains both the means by which we are able to approach God in prayer and the mindset we should have when we approach God in prayer.When we begin prayer to our Father, our focus should be on God's attributes and actions. God's glory takes precedent over our needs. So, the starting point for prayer is acknowledgment of who God is, before we ever get to asking for our wants and needs. If we follow this general outline, it will keep us from rambling or asking for things that are outside of God's will. Just as Jesus submitted The Lord's Prayer as a corrective to the wrong kinds of prayers that had been practiced during His time on earth, it follows that He also intends that it serve as a directive to the way we pray today.The Lord's Prayer establishes the means to access God as one of His children through Jesus Christ and it establishes the mindset we should have when we approach God. Jesus was teaching us in such a way as to share in His son-ship to the Father. So, we should acknowledge God as our heavenly Father too!