Over the past weeks, we have been spending time with our young people in terms of prayer, and specifically the Lord’s Prayer as given in Matthew 6, verses 9-13. We will not take the time to read it through this evening, as I would guess that most, if not all of us, are even now reciting it in our minds and in our hearts. 
	I will proceed with several disclaimers at this point. In nowise am I trying to instruct anyone in terms of how to pray. That is a function of the Holy Spirit in His active working in each of our hearts before Him. I know that I am being dealt with in this regard on a daily basis, and would never assume an authority over anyone else in this regard. God is fully faithful and just in His lovingkindness to open the hearts and the minds of those who are after Him in all truth.
	The second aspect that I feel must be spoken at the forefront is that it is with great respect to each of you that I am before you this evening. As a fellowship, we are in the midst of the mighty prayer warriors of God, willing to lay before God everything in terms of what prayer involves. Some of this we will see. Some of this will never be evident until the day of our Lord when those faithful servants will be seen in the capacity of their battle-scared victory in Christ. As such, much of what I will be relaying may not be new, or profound. Rather, as with my students and with fellow teachers, I desire to bring to the forefront of our hearts some of the truths of prayer that may well assist to jog the knowledge and the realization of what an awesome God we serve. I don’t know about you, but it sure seems to me that I forget more than I ever knew, and I appreciate it when the Holy Spirit lovingly and gently brings back into focus the reality of Who Christ is in our lives, and the Father, to Whom we have complete, and unrestricted access through Jesus Christ.
	With that said, let us now look somewhat closely into a few of the principles of Our Lord’s Prayer. James 5, the end of verse 16 through verse 18 is a nice springboard from which to begin our consideration. ...The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. There is much exposition on this passage, as there is on the Lord’s prayer, and we are not going to discuss the history and the incremental aspects of Elijah and Christ. Rather, the point of this verse in our consideration is that God hears the prayers of those who are after Him with their whole essence. As Elijah prayed, that prayer was effective, not because Elijah got what Elijah wanted, but because Elijah had a sense of what would bring about that which would turn the hearts of the people toward God. He was not possessed with that which would make Elijah stand out, but rather with that which would create a desire in the hearts of those who could see the mighty Hand of God at work. He prayed in line with the will of God, and God honored that prayer because it was with a heart seeking after the Glory of God being evidenced throughout the land.
	This is what we have at the heart of the Lord’s prayer, as we call it. We see a pattern that is made truth in the reality of Christ’s heart after the Glory of God being accomplished on this earth. Matt. 26:39 gives further evidence of this And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. Christ’s whole essence was that of what would please the Father. In everything He did, said, taught and was, the Father’s Glory was at the foremost. He lived to be service unto God the Father. 
	We are brought immediately into this truth by the opening of His prayer, Our Father, Who art in heaven... There is no doubt to Whom we are to present our prayer. We are not faced with a nameless deity who is lost in the recesses of human imaginings. No, we are brought immediately into the very presence of God. And that presence is through the Son, through Christ. We have continual access to the very throne of heaven in Christ Jesus. That should cause us to stop and wonder before we recite our ritualistic words of prayer. Christ addressed this in verses 7+8 of our text But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. We are not to memorize this prayer, or any prayer and think that we are safe if we just repeat the words over and over again. The words mean nothing to God, just as they mean nothing to us when they are rote memorization uttered to soothe some theological element of our being. Rather, we are to come to God in the Word, in Christ Jesus. We are to address the Father in the person of Jesus Christ, the Word Who was, and is and always will be. In that abundant power of Life, we are brought into the place where our whole live is laid bare before the throne of grace. The motives, the thoughts, the attitudes, the entire aspect of who we are in Christ Jesus, is welcomed into the presence of the Father, and He delights in that presence. 	Please note that I did not speak in the terms of who we are in our self life, for that life has no place in the presence of God. No, it is who we are in Christ that brings us boldly into the presence of God. Heb. 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. That boldness is not in terms of being there to demand something unto ourselves, but rather the boldness that comes from the fact that we are in Christ, and in Christ, we are free to be in the presence of our Heavenly Father. It is nothing that we have done to earn or merit this favorable position. There is no place for our self-interests and desires as some teach. Our boldness is in the fact that we will be accepted in His presence, basking in the delight of His heart because we are there in Christ Jesus. 
	Have we taken the time to dwell on the fact that He delights in our prayers before Him because we are there in Christ Jesus. Yes, He knows what we need before we ask, but He loves to give His expressed approval on our heart’s desire in Christ, to meet our needs in His endless bounty of Grace.	This is the case because He is Our Heavenly Father. Notice that Christ did not bring us to the throne of God, the Creator, God the Judge of all men, God, the Essence and Being of Holiness. Yes, God is all that and far greater than the sum of all. But that is not to Whom we are brought in Christ. He brings us to the Father, our Heavenly Father. That beautiful picture of the Nature of God toward us in Christ is tremendous. 
	The heathen have their gods. They fear and they sacrifice because they tremble at the thought of the punishment and live in the terror of what could happen to them if they offend their self-imaged gods. Theirs is a relational situation of appeasing the gross imagination that extends from their beings. In that effort, they prostitute themselves in vicious efforts to make a semblance of appeasement in their thoughts and deeds and words. This includes the sacrifices of animals, children, and themselves on the altars of despair and hopelessness. 
	That is an eternity away from the One to Whom we are brought in Christ. We have a relationship in the One, True, Living God that is set in the Holy Spirit in Righteousness, Peace and Joy. Our position is not based on vain repetitions of words, and the blooded sacrifices of our imagination. No, we are brought to the Father by the One, True Sacrifice, Who has satisfied the heart of God once and for always. We are accepted in the Beloved and partakers of the wealth of the heart of the Father, in Christ Jesus.
	Our Father, Who art in Heaven...we say this in our beings with the joy that is evidenced in the complete knowledge that God loves us. He so loves us, that He made a way, the only way to enter into His very heart, in Christ Jesus. He loves us, and He loves us, and He loves us again and again. We can never know the depth of the Love of God in Christ because it cannot be measured, except in the fact that He is Our Heavenly Father. Call upon Him, seek Him out. Yearn to know Him and He will respond in Christ Jesus to draw us unto Himself. He desires to make Himself known, and He does make Himself known when we take the time to allow Him that opportunity in our prayer lives. Our Father, Who art in Heaven... Do we know Him in that relationship? Christ does. He gives evidence to that fact as He can only do that which pleases the Father. Do we acknowledge that same truth in our beings? Is He so much our life, that we know when He guides and when He is pleased in our walk on this earth? Or, are we so busy doing this and that for the Lord, that we forget Who He is? 
	 Do we recognize Him as our Father, or is He simply a God to be appeased whenever we have a guilty conscience? There is a tremendous difference in those two points of view, and they are fully evidenced in our prayer lives. The latter point of view has us as its focus. It is concerned with how we are affected by things. It places us in the center of the universe with eternal weight put upon how we are going to survive and be seen in all of Creation. We see our wants and our needs in terms of what is the best course of action to take. The emphasis of our life is based on what is good and appropriate for us through our vantage point. When we feel that we have erred, we are concerned that we might be receiving punishment of some sort and are sorrowful and worried that the whole earth is going to come crashing down upon our heads. We pray, oh yes we pray, but our focal point is upon what God can do for us, with us, or unto us. We don’t pray to our Heavenly Father, we pray to a just and Holy God of punishment and retribution and beg for forgiveness so as not to suffer the consequences of our actions.
	Is this too harsh? Unfortunately it is too real and too commonplace in the lives of Christians, present company included. Yes, we pray to God, but not to our Heavenly Father. 
	This is what we are being taught by the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. His view point is the one that recognizes the truth of The Father in everything. It delights in doing the will of the Father in order to bring praise and glory to His name. ...Hallowed be thy name... The focus of Christ is on the Father and His name. The Father is to be hallowed. What does that mean? That in everything, that in every way, in every thought, in every action, in every deed, in every interaction, in every aspect of life, Our Heavenly Father’s Glory is the focal point of our being. I feel that this needs to be repeated, especially in my heart. In everything, in every way, in every thought, in every action, in every deed, in every interaction, in every aspect of life, Our Heavenly Father’s Glory is the focal point of our being. No matter what we are going through, He is our concern, and the glory due His Name is our only interest. 
	Oh, we have much to learn in this regard. In my life, I think of family and my actions and reactions in family interactions and how they are far from this truth in many respects, yet that is what Christ is teaching us. Learn to see the Father! Learn to live unto Him! Make your lives a living sacrifice to the Glory of the Father! Not my will but thine be done! Prayer that is focused on the Glory of God is effective prayer. It must be because it is the heart that expresses complete satisfaction with what the Father has done in Christ. That is what pleases the Father, and that alone is the heart’s desire of the Son. That is who we are now in Christ, the Beloved of God, fully incorporated into Jesus Christ and the joy of God in Christ Jesus. Let that be our prayer, and our lives will evidence the reality of the Glory of Our Heavenly Father in effectual grace!
	Do we live in a manner that expresses the hallowedness of the name of our Heavenly Father? Or, are we so much more desirous after the elevation of our name on this earth? That is the issue, don’t you see? We either live our lives fully unto our glory or unto His Glory. There is no compromise with the Glory of the Father. This world has so tried to muddle things with its insistence on the idea that there is no black and white when it comes to decisions and compromises, no right and wrong. It has elevated sin to the idea of being a mere interpretational status. It is only sin if one feels it is sin. Otherwise, it is acceptable to stray from the guidelines of archaic rules and standards of living for the sake of being non-judgmental of others. A grayed area is so often put forth as an acceptable alternative to foster discussion and acceptance of alternative points of view. But, Christ was very clear in His prayer that the Father’s name is to be hallowed, set apart as holy and unblemished. There is no gray area acceptable in the light of His name. He is to be honored and reverenced in the fact that He is all Holiness. By virtue of the fact of our being in Jesus Christ, we are now indwelled by that same Holiness of God. We are made holy in Christ and to be seeking after the name of our Father to be evidenced in hallowed honor in our lives.
	In that same reality, we are being brought into conformity with the set apartness of our Heavenly Father. We will be presented to all of Creation as holy and blameless, without spot or blemish by virtue of Christ. This is being done today, and this is the outpouring of our heart’s desire in prayer before God. He is being made known throughout creation in the people who are drawn unto His heart in Christ Jesus.
	There is much that could still be discussed in this opening phraseology of our Lord Jesus Christ, but it behooves us to spend time with the little that we have before us to this point. Our Father, Which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thine name... This alone requires a complete reversal of many of our concepts of what it means to pray. The focal point seems to be obvious, but the full impact of how we perceive our Heavenly Father is laid before us in the Person of Jesus Christ. 
	Elijah saw the Glory of God and prayed in a manner which effectively brought the people into direct contact with the choice of God. Jesus has done the same with us in Himself. We are brought face-to-face with the issue of the course of our lives as Christians. Where is the true focus of our prayer? There is no compromise with the Glory of the Father. He will not share the Glory that He has fully vested in Christ. He will have no part of anything that would diminish nor tarnish that effective work of Christ on the cross, now glorified at His own right hand. Let us seek after the Holy Spirit to make known the fact that we are in Him, in the Beloved and fully seeking after all that will reveal that wonderful truth to all creation. Let our prayers reflect what is now true of us, and evidence the effective work that will show forth the hallowedness of His Glorious name!
	Lord willing, next time, we will consider more of what the Lord instilled in this wonderful pattern of prayer.