Last week, we began our consideration of our relationship to our Heavenly Father as declared by Christ in Our Lord’s Prayer. In that light, we are to submit everything we are unto that which is pleasing to Him. Every thought, word, deed and motive needs to find its focus in the Glory of Our Heavenly Father. Christ is our example in this light, and He is the One by Whom it is possible in our lives. We, in our human endeavors, will never find the strength, the aptitude, the ability, nor the purpose to please God and to see His name glorified continually in our beings. Only Christ can do that. In His mercy, He has provided the Holy Spirit to direct and to guide and to bring to perfection in our lives, the fulfilled purpose of God. 
	The focus of our prayer life is to be that God be glorified in everything. This may differ, quite dramatically, from many of our concepts of the effective prayer life of a Christian. Many of us look at ourselves as the focal point. We see the Lord’s work in us for our sake, and focus our prayers on our part and on our concerns, thinking we are praying in line with God’s will. What we are missing, even though it involves the direct work of God in our lives, is the finality that everything done in us is for the glory of God to be seen through us. As we are told by the Apostle John in John 3:30, He must increase, but I must decrease. We need to be less and less the object of our prayer life, and more indwelled with a heart that desires only after our Heavenly Father and His Glory. His name is to be hallowed, set apart as holy in every aspect of our beings. He is our Heavenly Father, the essence of truth, holiness and love, and as such, He deserves every element of glory that creation has to offer.  
	Our Lord continues along this line in the truth that His will is not only deserving to be done, but will be fully accomplished. In fact, it is accomplished in the person of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Eph 1:17-23 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. Our prayers should be reflective of the fact that we recognize only one Lord and King. 
	He is the triumphant and victorious and glorified One. All of creation exists because He exists, and apart from Him there is nothing of value or purpose. His Kingdom is come because He is come. Eternity will be but the outpouring of the praise due unto Him in all His glory and grace. The creation has yet to see this, but we see it. We know it. We live it, because we live in Him. He is our life and He is the resplendent manifestation of our Heavenly Father. In Him alone are our lives filled with the desire and the capability of being completely to the Glory of God on this earth. This is no half way measure. This is the essence of our life. As we sojourn on this earth, we are but ambassadors of the heavenly kingdom. We are the representation of what it is to live in Christ Jesus. His Lordship radiates and manifests Himself on a daily basis. It is not a weekend kingdom. It is not a now and then authority, when we feel like submitting. It is our life. We have no other option because we have submitted ourselves freely to the One in Whom all authority and power has its being. 
	We are partakers of His life because He so loved us that He willingly submitted Himself to the plan and purpose that He ordained before the foundations of the earth were laid. That in Him, the Heavenly Father would be well-pleased and receive the manifold glory of all the ages. In that loving expression of His very nature, the Son pleased the Father, pleased Him to such excess that the Father incorporated even us with Christ together into His Beloved. That is the Kingdom of God, don’t you see? Being in Christ, being His body, being His church is being in His kingdom because we are the loving recipients of His Kingship in our lives.
	As the Son desired the will of the Father to be done, and submitted Himself to it, so do we. We can do no less than our King bids us do. As He lives out from our lives on this earth, our very essence is to be the will of God in action. Now, this in no-wise is to suggest that we become gods unto ourselves. Neither is it to suggest that we become little christs, as some religions seem to proport. What it means is that, in our submission to Christ, we leave our self-desires, and our self-wants, and our self-understanding behind at the cross, and look solely to that which pleases the Father on this earth. Wherever we are, with whomever we have dealings, we are set aside, and the glory of God is evidenced in the beauty of the Lordship of Christ. ...not my will, but thine be done... becomes the anthem of our prayer lives. We look past the situations that arouse our prayers to the outpouring of God’s plan and purpose in them. We see not the circumstances, but the Lordship of Christ in all His power and majesty. Catastrophes to our understandings become evidence of the power of the Triune Godhead in full operation as He proves Himself over and over again. Rather than concentrating on the personal pain and anguish, our eyes focus on the object of our desires, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and we acknowledge Him and Him alone in everything. He is the One in control. He is the One standing in triumphant victory. Nothing happens apart from His plan and His purpose in our lives. We freely admit that our current understanding is less than adequate for the present, but that we know, and we trust that He has everything well in hand. 
	Our so familiar Romans passage echoes and reechoes in our prayers Romans 8:28, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. We have faith in Him and in His lovingkindness to see us through every condition of seeming upheaval in order to be brought into conformity with that which is His desire in our beings. As such, we remove our focus from ourselves and place it firmly and resolutely in Him, Our Lord, Our King, Our Savior, and trust that He has all things well in hand. 
	This, then, brings us to another aspect of the Lord’s prayer which continues to serve the process outlined by Christ. He brings the spiritual reality of Our Heavenly Father into our lives in a very direct manner ...give us this day, our daily bread... This is a highly telling part of the activity of God before us. Please note that the Lord placed the emphasis on daily bread, the provisions needed to sustain life. Why this request upon God for our daily bread? There are several elements that immediately come to mind all interrelated in our current thread of discussion. 
	Primarily, the first is the spiritual sustenance that is required in the lives of those who are so committed to the Lord. I was dealing with a dear sister the other day. One of the things she mentioned was that she was not taking enough time to delve into the Word of God as she thought would increase her knowledge of the Lord Jesus. That is truly a case of the Holy Spirit at work to reveal what is needed in a life hid in Christ. She is undergoing tremendous trials and strains in her physical walk on this earth, with an immense expenditure of time required to do all that is needed in the day, yet her concern is that she needs to spend more time in the Word of God. 
	Please keep in mind that Christ is the Living Word. He makes Himself known as we spend the time with Him. Our days may be filled with obligations, yet He will reveal Himself, even in the midst of any fiery tribulation. Just ask Meschah, Shadrach and Abednego. 
	Christ is the Bread of Life. Our everything is centered in Him and He will sustain His own. His flock is fed with the finest of the wheat. He cares for each one so that they have no care after themselves. Think of the Lord’s insistence in comparing His own with the flowers of the field and the birds on the wing. God has everything well in place and we do not have to fret or worry. When we do, we are simply indicating that we have become the focal point of our prayer life and are not looking to Him and praying after His glory. We are starving ourselves, even while seated at His banqueting table.
	When Christ mentions daily bread, He is referring to the things that are a necessity. This world has so twisted people’s concept of needs and wants, that it has become very blurred and fuzzy in our minds, but never in the heart of God. What we need, God makes abundantly available to us in Christ! Why? Because He loves us to the nth degree in Christ. There is no want in Christ! There is no starvation in Christ! There is no hopelessness in Christ! Every need is abundantly met in Him! In that truth, our focus is centered on Him and Him alone. As He provides, and provides in abundance, so our hearts more and more draw close to His very heart. 
	Our Heavenly Father meets our every need in Christ. In His wonderful provision, our eyes are focused on our Provider. We are enamored with Him and fully living in utter reliance upon His daily and endless supply of Himself. We need Him, and He alone can satisfy that hunger and thirst for living water and bread. Our focal point centers once more upon Him and not ourselves. We live because He lives in us, and our every fiber counts on Him and looks to Him to make Himself evident in our being. 
	The difference in our need and our want is that a want places us at the center of attention. We want things because we feel we deserve them. We want God to act in certain ways because we think that we know better than God how to deal with situations. We want God to complete a task on our time frame because we are ruled by our impatience and lack of understanding as to all that God is accomplishing in our lives and in the lives of those around us. We want things to be different because we can not fully realize that completeness of what God’s intent in Christ wholly entails. Wants reflect us as the focal point of attention. Needs reflect God and His triumphant preparation of the fullness of Jesus Christ.
	That is the reason for our daily bread, Jesus Christ. He is the abundance of God, in the Kingdom of God. Let us consider only a few of the needs that keep our eyes glued to the Glory of God. We do so with the desire that, as we see each of these elements, our hearts will more and more be drawn to the One Who is the supply of all our needs.
 	Abundant Joy, as delineated in Ps.36:8, They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. There is complete satisfaction in Christ. This is a need that settles the craving after self. We have contentment in the life that is ours in Christ. This contentment is realized only in God. It is the antithesis of wants and earthly desires, because it knows that God has supplied everything in Himself, and done so in all abundance.
	Abundant Life, Jn.10:10, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Once again, our eyes are riveted to the very life that we have, because that life is only in our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone serves to make the Son live in us, and His Son will shine in our beings for all of eternity. The breath that we breathe, the water that we drink, the bread that we share, all is solely in Him. Apart from Him there is no life. That is a settled fact, a reality that pushes our focus more and more upon Christ as we meet the challenges that each day brings forth. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. This a paraphrase of His words, but they are the truth to us, in us, and through us unto this world. This is the evidenced Glory of God that our hearts are set upon.
	Abundant Grace is gloriously described in II Cor.9:8, And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. The amazing Grace of God, bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus Our Lord and Savior. Each day is filled with the outpouring of the grace of God to meet every situation. That is where God’s essence of Love is so evident. As the calamities crash down upon us, He is manifested in all Grace to bring forth Himself in radiant splendor. We cannot live one moment apart from His Grace in our beings. He alone is the all sufficient supply of all that is required for our sojourn on this earth. In that ambassadorial stance, we draw from Him constantly to make known to all creation the fact that Our Lord Reigns. Here we are, back at the Kingship and the Kingdom of God operating in our lives right now and for eternity.
	Abundant Power is described in Eph.3:20+21, Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. We have in God, the One Who can do all things. He is the Creator of all things. He meets every need with Himself in all His Omnipotence. That is why He is the One to Whom we lift our petitions and prayers. Nothing is impossible with Him. As He is glorified, so His Omnipotence is manifested in the miraculous Person of Jesus Christ. This is one of those secrets of knowing God in an abundant prayer life. You see, He is not concerned with the situation. Situations can be changed instantly as He chooses to do so. His heart is after the lives with whom His people come into contact. As He is expressed in their lives, so will the lives of others be drawn unto Him. It is not the situation that He changes, it is the hearts that seek Him that are eternally changed from death unto life, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
	Abundant Supplies Ph.4:19, But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. There is no end of the supply that God showers forth on those who call upon Him. He has no quotas, no set allotments that can be overdrawn. No, He supplies and He supplies and He supplies again and again and again. Every need is met in the person of Jesus Christ. He lavishes us in the beauty of Christ now and forever. 
	And that fully incorporates the last need that we will discuss in this context, Abundant Entrance. II Pet.1:11, For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In Christ, we have eternal access to the very heart of Our Heavenly Father... abundant access into the heavenly realm of Christ. That can never be taken away, nor limited by this world age. We just need to call upon Him, and we are standing in an audience with God, our lives being the Holy ground of His sanctuary. This is a tremendous truth of our need being fulfilled in Christ. I ponder on the countless times that I am in urgent need of His comforting ministry, and He is there every time, bringing me into His presence through the effective and wonderful ministry of His Holy Spirit. Yes, the need of constant access and entrance unto throne of Grace is fully met in Jesus Christ.
	We have not dealt completely with the full aspects of the Lord’s Prayer. We have merely touched, over the past couple of weeks, upon some of the elements that make it such a wonderful expression of the heart of God livingly in our lives. We need to seek after the Holy Spirit to continue His good work to the fullness of Jesus Christ. We need to have our complete understanding centered in Him and His all encompassing Grace and Glory. Our Lives need to manifest, daily, the Glory of God in the fact that we, the church of Christ, the living Body of Him that redeemed us unto Himself, and Who brings us constantly before Our Heavenly Father, are to be the ambassadors, through Jesus Christ, of the kingdom into which we are now partakers. As Christ is our King, our lives are to shew forth His Glorious victory now and forever, to satisfy the heart of the One Who so loved us that He sent His only begotten Son to bring us into a living relationship with Himself. 
	Matt 6:9-13 Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in 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, for ever. Amen.