Pray in This Way (Part Three)

“In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.”
(Matthew 6:9–13)

So what does it mean for us to pray to our Father in heaven? For one thing it means we are by faith going to a place where we can really receive help. God has the advantage over us: our world cannot really solve our dilemmas—but Heaven can. C.S. Lewis described Christ the Heavenly Man as saving us, as we drown in the midst of the river, as a Man “with one foot on solid ground.” That foot is in heaven. When we try to save ourselves, we are just thrashing around in the swirling water when we ought to be down on our knees in prayer to heaven.

Another reason we need to direct our thoughts to heaven is because that is where we are headed. Heaven is our goal, and I do not simply mean it is our destination but that heavenly perfection is what we are shooting for here on earth (even if we don't actually attain it this side of heaven). When He was commanding us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us, Jesus ended up that thought with this: “Therefore be perfect, even as Your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Sound impossible? It is—without God. But with God all things are possible, and that is why we need to pray. We will never be like Christ the Heavenly Man if we don’t go to heaven for the help we need in the midst of our troubles, for forgiveness and deliverance from our sins, and for the grace to live by faith in all this vast world under heaven.

It is also vital we remember in our prayers that God sees all from His heavenly perspective. That is a great comfort to us when we are in trouble and we need a heavenly Comforter, a Helper, a Deliverer. It is equally important, however, to remember God sees all when we are in the midst of the sins that overtake us. Pray daily to a Father in heaven who sees all from heaven, and you will likely be far more inclined to seek to please the Father who sees you.

“Great God in heaven above, look down upon us in mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ, and in Christ’s name make us like Him. Grant to us heavenly help, dear God, and move us continually to call down heaven into our earthly cares—our troubles, our temptations, our families, our work, our hopes, our aspirations. You are a glorious God, O God, and all earth and heaven cannot contain You. Get for Yourself glory in us, sinful yet redeemed man, by transforming us from glory to glory, from mortality to immortality, from what we are to what we cannot imagine, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”