The Lord's Prayer: "Our Father Who Art in Heaven"

In and through the Lord's Prayer I am taught that I may and should speak to the Father directly.

• He wants to hear my voice and He wants to hear my praise and my concern.

How such an approach to God differs from that of Islam which tends to view God or Allah as very distant and isolated from the problems of man.

• If difficulties arise then the standard response is one of fatalism, "Allah has willed it."

This approach also differs from that of Roman Catholicism where believers are taught to approach God through Mary, or one of the saints.

• Direct access is often discouraged.

But while I am to pray to God as "Father", it is important that I also take note of that little pronoun that precedes His name.

• Christ taught me and all of His disciples to pray, "Our Father."
• In so doing He warns us against the sins of selfishness, self-centeredness, and individualism.
• This great Father whom I now have is not just "my Father", but He is the Father of all of His people.

The Lord's Prayer is not just a personal prayer, it is also a congregational one.

• It is a prayer which I am to utter with all God's people, as well their needs, their existence and their welfare in mind.
• This is no narrow-minded prayer; it is as wide and broad as God's universal church.

Does "Our Father" answer all of my prayers?  The question is often debated.

• God hears all prayer, but He does not always respond or answer in the same way.
• There are prayers He hears but which He answers with silence because of the attitude of the petitioner (Luke 18:14).
• There are prayers which He hears which He answers in the negative because His ways are higher than our ways (Luke 22:42; 2 Corinthians 12:9).
• There are prayers which He hears and answers in the positive (1 Samuel 1:27).

Adapted Excerpt From I Belong by J. Visscher