Our Father

1. Read Matthew 6:9-13. How can the three movements of the Lord's prayer (upward, inward, and outward) serve as a guide for our own prayers?
2. In your own prayer life, which of these movements do you tend to focus on most, and which one could use more attention?
3. How can understanding our identity as children of God impact our approach to prayer?What does it mean to you that God is our good Father?
4. What does it mean that God's name be hallowed?
5. How do you relinquish control and consent to God's work on a daily basis?
6. What does it mean to cultivate a praying imagination and how can this deepen your prayer life? What is one scripture passage you can meditate on this week to help develop your praying imagination?

Prayer + Practice:

Click the link below and join us for 21 days of prayer and fasting starting today. Use the prayer prompts to explore the themes of the Lord's Prayer in the Psalms. Sign up to receive our prayer journal to pray over the needs of the church. And start praying through the Lord's Prayer as we seek God's face together.

21 Days of Prayer

All right. Isn't that great? Oh, good morning. Well, hey, we are starting a series on prayer today. And I am very excited.

Been waiting for this for a long time. We've been preparing for this for a few months. And, you know, we as a staff, just really feel like God is calling us deeper into a life of prayer right now, individually and together as a church. And, you know, it's. It's overwhelming because there is not a single thing that I could say over the next three weeks that would drive you into a deeper prayer life, apart from the Holy Spirit calling you into that place.

So that's what we have been praying for. We have been praying for prayer. We've been praying for you. We've been praying for just the direction God is taking us right now. And so we're really expectant of what he's going to do.

Because even though prayer is simple in some sense, it can also be very confusing at times, very frustrating at times. When I was in high school, I took a summer job with this guy mowing lawns. And I show up. I had just started driving. I was supposed to be working alongside this guy.

And I show up and he gives me the keys to this big truck with this long flatbed trailer. All the mowing equipment in the back. Gives me a big fold out map and says, have fun. I was 16 at the time. Just started driving.

I was from Denton, trying to navigate the jungle of 820, trying to figure out. I was totally unfamiliar with the area. Going down the highway in a big truck, big trailer, this map spread out across, you know, trying to drive at the same time, trying to figure out what exit to take sometimes. Well, now, I should say I never. I never was in the right lane.

There was not one time that I was in the right lane and picked the right one. But this map, it had every blade of grass in DFW. I just needed to know what lane to be in to take the next exit. Sometimes prayer feels that way. We have this big map of scripture that we're going to spend our lives exploring with God.

But I just need to know what lane to be in, really. It got even more embarrassing because I actually. I was hungry one day and I started to drive through the taco Bueno drive thru with this big trailer. You know, it was very windy. Of course, I end up getting stuck in the drive thru.

And then they have to stop everything and bring everybody back, everybody out of the drive thru in order to somehow get me out of this place. But then it gets even worse because I thought you know, Buenos drive thru is pretty windy. Taco Bell just has the one, the one curve. So a few days later, I went and got stuck in the taco Bell drive thru.

And I think sometimes, sometimes we're not behind the wheel because the map feels too big and overwhelming. But sometimes you're trying to power through and you just get stuck.

That's why the disciples, they asked Jesus in Luke eleven, they asked him, teach us to pray, teach us to pray.

And when they do, you know, it's amazing to me, if you think about it, that scripture never records the disciples asking for anything else to be taught from Jesus. It doesn't record them asking how to preach, how to heal, how to cast out demons, how to remain steadfast in the face of death as you are being a witness. They just, they see Jesus life and ministry, and they make that connection to his prayer life, his relationship with the father. And they say, teach us that. Teach us to pray.

They recognize that this is the greatest need that they have, that we have, is to connect with God. So they say, hey, tell it to me like I'm five. Teach us to pray. So how do we break down this map and start to approach God? Over the next three weeks, we're going to look at Jesus answer to this question, his model that he gives for prayer.

And I just want to ask you to go on a journey with us together. Because the prayer is familiar. We know how simple it is. But it's also so comprehensive in its scope. It's so comprehensive.

That's why the series is called the Lord's prayers, plural, because every prayer throughout scripture is contained in this prayer. Everything that you could pray is contained in the Lord's prayer, including the psalms. There was Israel's prayer book. That's what trained them in prayer. It's what trained Jesus in prayer.

You ever thought about Jesus the master learning how to pray? He didn't come out as a fully bearded baby preaching. He had to learn. Luke tells us Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. So Jesus learned how to pray.

The psalms were his dojo. That's where the master learned. They were constantly on his lips. You think of at the cross, he says, psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And so these psalms, they give a texture and a complexity to our lives, things that we wouldn't even normally feel comfortable or adequate.

Praying. They teach us how to pray. So he summarizes this in the model with the Lord's prayer. So it's comprehensive. But I also love how simple and flexible it is.

Jesus doesn't give us a scientific formula for exactly how to make God move like it's a sterile lab. It's more like dance moves. It's more like learning the moves of a dance. First you learn the steps, then you learn to improvise. When I was learning how to play guitar, I hated having to learn scales.

If you've ever learned an instrument, it's just, it's so boxy. You don't feel like it doesn't sound like music. But when you learn the notes that you can play, then there's some. It starts to bring this freedom and expression. You can riff on it.

You start to have this freedom and creativity in that expression. So the themes in the Lord's prayer, those are the scales, the dance moves that teach us how to pray. And Jesus gave this prayer on two separate occasions. One was in Luke, Luke eleven, and one was in the sermon on the mount. And they're worded a little different, but they have the exact same themes.

Matthew just fills them out a little bit more. So I'm going to show you side by side, so you kind of get a feel for the differences. Luke, when jesus is talking to the disciples, he says, father, hallowed be your name. In Matthew, he fills it out a little bit more in the sermon on the mount, our father in heaven, or we'll see our father in the heavens, hallowed be your name. In Luke eleven, he says, your kingdom come.

And Matthew fills it out a little bit more. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This middle part is basically the same. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And then he tells them, in Luke, lead us not into temptation. And then Matthew fills it out a little bit more, but deliver us from evil. So you have these basic themes in here. I had an acronym I wanted to give you, but I feel like if I were to give you another acronym to learn, there's a lot of good acronyms on prayer, and I don't want to give you another one to have to remember. And I really don't want this to feel like some scientific formula.

It's more like dance moves, more like just moving through these movements with God. So we're gonna divide these three weeks into three basic movements. We start with this upward movement. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is an upward orienting prayer that gets us in the right mindset of who we're talking to. Who is it that we are talking to in prayer? So today we'll talk about just the purpose of prayer and connecting with God in this upward movement. Then we'll see next week in this daily practice of prayer, there's this move from this upward prayer into, really this kind of inward prayer. We're praying for daily bread.

We're praying for the things that are important to me on my heart. And then God is pointing out in us the things that are important to him, that he wants us to change. We start to confess. So this is the inward movement of prayer. Then the last week, we'll look at this, this outward movement of prayer.

We start to look at circumstances, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil. In this last movement, we're going to look at spiritual warfare and suffering. And what does it mean when it just doesn't feel like God is hearing me or answering my prayers? But these are the essentials. This upward, inward, an outward movement of prayer that we're gonna look at.

It's not a formula. It's just a divine dance. And these three pieces, they don't have to be present in every single prayer that you pray, but they all should be a part of a vibrant prayer life with God. Okay. Ultimate freedom of expression is gonna come when we learn to rehearse these scales the way that the master did it.

Okay? So let's come in here on this first part. Pray. Then, like this, he says, our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. The first thing that we learn in prayer is that we are talking to a father, that we are coming as a child to our father.

And there's an important element here, because before we ever ask for anything, we recognize who it is that we're talking to. Dallas Willard said that this is one of the things that distinguishes prayer from just worrying out loud. Just worrying out loud or silently about. He says. You know, he says, this is something that many people have confused with prayer.

You could just be worrying out loud. Now, here's what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that you can't just go straight into a request. Sometimes life is so heavy, you just get in there and you just have to blurt it out. You just start where you are.

The psalms do this all the time. These movements all can start in different places. But one of the things that I've noticed in my life is that if I start, if I start and I'm rehearsing all the things in my life, that I'm anxious about. Sometimes I'll find myself, I'll get to a point where I've been rehearsing them, and I don't feel any better at all. I just feel just as anxious as when I started.

And catch yourself when you do that, when you get to that point, catch yourself and reorient back to this upward movement in prayer. Who is it that I'm talking to? There are times in my life where when I do that, when I reset and move in this upward movement, I start to realize who I'm talking to. And some of those things, not all the time, but some of those things just start to melt away when I realize who it is. The psalms do this a lot.

I want to keep referring to the psalms, just showing how these themes play out and how scripture is training us in prayer. Psalm 73 is such a good example. Asaph starts out, and he's got this long complaint of these circumstances that are going on in his life. And over half of the psalm takes over half of the psalm before he recognizes, he says, then I went into the sanctuary of God, and that's where his perspective switches in the psalm. When he comes into God's presence, that's where the psalm shifts.

So psalm 73 is a perfect example of how it's training us that, hey, it's perfectly fine, go straight in, blurt it out. But at some point, you've got to incorporate this upward movement, knowing who you're talking to. It's critical in this, in a prayer life. So we're talking to the father, which means we're coming to him like a child, okay? This is an invitation into an intimate relationship, and it's part of what it means to pray in Jesus name.

Jesus is the son of God. He's the one that opens up the relationship to us. He is the only begotten son of the father. And when we take on his righteousness, we take on his sonship. We become sons and daughters of the king.

If you don't have, if you don't come to God through Jesus, you can't know that fatherly relationship. That's part of what it means to pray in Jesus name. We're adopted into this family, and it just reiterates that theme that Jesus talked about over and over again through the scriptures, through his teaching that you come as a child or you don't come at all, you come needy.

So when we come to the father in prayer, it's coming in desperation. Okay? Desperation in need, not perfection. Do you ever get into your time of prayer, and you sort of feel like you have to spruce yourself up a little bit before you go in or clean yourself up. Like, I'm not going to be able to approach God today, or you're trying to get your wording just right so that God will accept it more.

One pastor, he writes, when it comes to prayer, God isn't grading essays. He's not grading essays. He's talking to children. So when we come to him, we come with spiritual poverty, all our imperfections all laid out there before him like a child. John Calvin.

I love what he says about this, about prayer, because he says, no one. No one has ever carried out prayer with the uprightness that was due. No one's ever done it except for Jesus. No one has carried out prayer with the uprightness that it's due. And then he says, without this mercy, there would be no freedom to pray.

There would be no freedom to pray, because there's nothing you can do to make your prayer worthy. There is nothing you can do to qualify yourself for that access to God.

Jesus is the one that opens up that invitation for us. So prayer, it's not based in performance. It's a childlike desperation and need. You know, I told you this story in here before, but my daughter, this is probably about five years ago. I woke up in the middle of the night to my wife yelling my name from the other room, which is never a good sign, in the middle of the night.

And I wake up, and I see her arm's length, running my daughter to the bathroom. And when I get into the room, I see, okay, my daughter has pooped in her diaper, taken it off, and turned her room into a mud spa.

And I will tell you, I have never in my life desired more to have a flamethrower torch it. It is unsalvageable at this point. Be done with it. But my wife's cleaning her up. I'm trying to clean this room up and the sheets and everything else.

When we're all done, I come in, and my daughter is there. She's got these big eyes just looking up at me. She was young, but she knew what she was doing. She knew it was wrong. She looks up at me with these big eyes, like she wanted to do something to make it right.

Let me just do something.

And so I pick her up, and we just sit, and I just hold her in the rocking chair. And after a little while, I whisper in her ear that I love her. I pray with her. I put her back in clean sheets. And then I go to bed.

And I just am overwhelmed in that moment by the spirit of God, because that is not always my response, but that is how the father treats us.

We go, I mean, how many times have I soiled myself in some way? Have I messed up my life? Just made a mess of it? And I'm looking up at God going, let me do something to make it right. Let me earn my way back.

And he picks me up, sits with me, makes me know that I'm loved, and lays me back down in clean sheets, because that's who he is. We come with our imperfections. We don't clean it up before we get there. That's who we're talking to. That is what a relationship with the father looks like.

It's something you can only know when you come through the sun. You come to him through Jesus. And maybe you don't have a good example of a father. I know I'm not always a good example of one, but remember when Jesus, in the sermon on the mount, he says this, he says, which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?

If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in the heavens, give good things to those who ask him?

We don't pray to a father who's like us. We pray to a father who is so much more our father in the heavens. This word heaven right here is actually. It's singular in the Greek. I mean, I'm sorry, it's plural in the Greek.

It's singular here. And it's kind of a shame, because the idea here, our Father in the heavens kind of brings out this idea that he's not just. He is not just our father who is enthroned on high in heaven, but he's in the very heavens around us, the atmosphere that we breathe. Dallas Willard says that this is really a shame that we don't translate it with the plural, because he says the whole sense of this part is our father who is always near us, close enough to touch our Father in the heavens. And when you recognize God for who he is, when you see the love of the Father, you feel that connection, that relational intimacy, your first request, hallowed be your name.

When you recognize who you're talking to, hallowed be your name. This is a weird word for us because we don't use it much. It's from the same root as holy to be holy to be set apart. And so the sense here of the word, of the request is, I want your name to be uniquely set apart in my life, to be uniquely treasured and loved in my heart, in my life, and in the world around us. And so part of this request is not just a request, but it's also a lament that this is not the way it is, that his name is not always uniquely treasured and loved in my heart and life like it should be, and it's definitely not in the world.

We're lamenting the fact that that's not the way that it always is. And requesting, God, Father, let your name be set apart as treasured and loved and holy, unique, hallowed be your name.

And so we get to the second request in this movement of prayer. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This heaven is singular in the Greek because the idea here is your kingdom, your rule, your will, where you, everything you say goes in heaven.

Make that happen here. It's requesting, bridge heaven and earth for us. Bring them together. Your will and your ways are done in heaven. And we see that it's not the case here.

Make your will and your ways, your kingdom come here on earth, just as it is in heaven. It's asking for that bridge to be, to be made.

We see here that it's not just a personal relationship with God with the Father, but he's also the king. He's also our lord and our master and our God.

So that means in this upward movement of prayer, I'm connecting with my father on a personal level, but I'm also in this upward movement, relinquishing control.

I'm coming again and saying, I'm giving it over to you. This is so important in your prayer life to have a regular rhythm of saying, I am not the center of the universe. There's a daily practice of consent here to what the Holy Spirit wants to do in my life.

We're bringing ourselves under his rule again because he has taken us from the kingdom of darkness, scripture says, and transferred us into the kingdom of light. And so I am putting myself under that authority again today, reminding again, God, I want your kingdom to come. I want your will to be done, and I want you to bridge heaven and earth. I want you to bridge heaven and earth. And if we miss this part, if we miss this part of the relationship, one author said, it may be we don't.

We want a mascot, not a monarch.

Sometimes it seems we want to mascot somebody that we can rally around, but we don't want a king.

This is bringing us back under his kingdom rule, his authority.

He's transcendent, high above us. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. But he's also imminent. He's also here in the very atmosphere around us.

Both are true. We hold both intention. And do you see why we use scripture as our training ground for prayer?

I wouldn't pray all of this out of the poverty of my heart. It wouldn't happen.

But the Lord trains us in prayer. He trains us for what these movements look like in this upward movement toward him. Tim Keller says, in every case, the nature of prayer is determined by the character of God. He says, without immersion in God's words, our prayers may not be merely limited and shallow, but also untethered from reality. We may be responding not to the real God, but to what we wish God and life to be like.

Indeed, if left to themselves, our hearts will tend to create a God who doesn't exist. And that is why we pray through scripture the way that the master taught us. We're tethering ourselves to reality. Talked last month when we were talking silence and solitude, where we're feeding on unreality all the time in our lives. This is a place where we tether back to the reality of who God is as he's revealed himself through scripture.

That's what this upward orientation is. So in this upward movement, we're orienting our hearts to God. We're glorifying him for who he is, rejoicing in the father, asking that his name be uniquely set apart and treasured and loved. But then we're also relinquishing control, giving it over to him, putting ourselves back under that kingdom rule. You'll find these themes all throughout scripture.

But the Lord's prayEr, it takes that big map, and it turns it into a gps. It gives us the lane that we need to be in the right at the moment. It trains us. So when you LEarn this upward movement of prayer, you'll see it in more places throughout scripture. This is a perfect example.

It's so familiar. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord. All caps meaning in Hebrew. This is Yahweh.

Yahweh. The one who created the heavens and earth, the one who delivered his people out from their oppressors in Egypt, the one who sent the plagues to deliver them. The one who the psalms give this picture of when he parted the red sea, like it was a blast of the breath of his nostrils. That God is my shepherdess. This holds both of those ideas in tension.

This God who is enthroned on high, cares about me, wants to be with me, is caring for, providing for me. He's my shepherd. You could pray psalm 23 and never get past this line.

Just exploring with God how rich that idea is. I'll tell you, there are times when I'm praying through the themes of the Lord's prayer, and I don't get past this first upward movement because God sort of just derails the rest of it and says, no, this is where you're going to go today. You're just going to sit, and you're just going to be in my presence. And so if, you know, that's a really good principle, by the way, if you have an agenda that you're going into your prayer room with and you say, I'm gonna pray through this whole thing, and God happens to derail your prayer time, let it be derailed. Martin Luther talked about this in a book.

Actually, Chuck Combs introduced me to it the first time he had this book called a simple way to pray that he wrote for his barber, of all people, his barber wanted Martin Luther teach me how to pray. So he writes this book and walks through the Lord's prayer. And one of the things Martin Luther says is to let the Holy Spirit preach scripture to you. If you get in there and you don't make it past that first movement, let it be. Don't try to power through.

Let God derail the time and dictate where it's going to go. That is such an important element of prayer or prayer lives. So really, we've just talked about this first upward movement of prayer, just orienting our hearts around the father, asking him that his, his name be uniquely treasured and loved in our hearts and in the world. And then we're relinquishing control to him as king. And I just want to spend the last few minutes together exploring just what this might look like in your practice of prayer when you sit down today, tomorrow, in your prayer time.

You know, over the last few months, one thing that has been so rich in my own prayer life has been this idea of the praying imagination.

The Puritans talk about it. Some of the older authors write about this. When I say imagination, though, a whole lot of things can come to mind. So I want to tell you first what I don't mean. I wrote a few of these down.

When we think of the imagination, we think of things like make believe. Right? My daughters will play make believe. They're making stuff up they're playing pretend. It's fantasy, right?

They're escaping from reality and cognitively and socially developing. So there's make believe. Fear. Another form of imagination is kind of fearing what's not there. Fear, the monster under the bed, in the closet, wherever.

Or maybe it's hallucinations. Maybe it's a mental episode. You might hear somebody say, hey, it's all in your head, right? So there's another form of imagination. Maybe a healthier form of the fear aspect is strategic planning.

Right? You're anticipating things out in the future that could go wrong, and you're imagining how to not let it get to that point. Another one would be creativity, right? You're creating art, you're inventing something new that didn't already exist. So creativity is another use of the imagination.

Empathy is another use where you're imagining yourself in someone else's shoes. Goal setting. Some of the Olympic gold medalists saying, I have imagined this day for my entire life, so it's used for goal setting. But when I speak, when these authors speak about the praying imagination, I'm not talking about pretending or fantasizing. I'm not talking about creating reality or manifesting it.

When I'm talking about the praying imagination, I'm talking about waking up to reality, waking up to what is most true in our lives. Second Corinthians tells us this. I think it's chapter four, verse 18. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. Why?

Since what is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal. We as Christians, as Christ followers, we are fully invested in the unseen realm.

In prayer, we're connecting with our Father, who fills the heavens, but we don't see him. We don't see him now.

So we're asking for this bridge for heaven to meet earth. So the praying imagination, it takes what is true from scripture and meditates on it until it becomes so vividly real to you what is most true in the world. It's where you wake up from this enchantment that the world has. You wake up from it, and you step into what is ultimate reality. Eugene Peterson says it this way.

Imagination is the capacity to make connections between the visible and the invisible, between heaven and earth, between present and past, between present and future. He says. For Christians, whose largest investment is the invisible, the imagination is indispensable, he says, for it is only by means of the imagination that we can see reality whole, in context. Imagination, he says, is the mental tool we have for connecting material and spiritual, visible and invisible. Earth and heaven.

It's the praying imagination. When I was in Yosemite a number of years ago, backpacking, I went up this mountain. It had worn me out. And I see the mountain range of all of these famous mountains, from the half dome to El Cap to all these mountains I would never name, probably will never be back to probably never touch in my life. And the psalm comes to mind, psalm 97 five.

That the mountains melt like wax in the presence of God.

Now, I didn't have a vision, but in my mind's eye, in my imagination, God brought this psalm to mind. And I just see the mountains melting away, overwhelmed with this picture of how great God is. But if you don't find yourself in Yosemite very often, what is that going to look like when you get into your prayer room tomorrow, when you sit in your rocking chair with the lights dim, maybe a book lamp next to you, your bible in your lap? That is what is seen. But I want you to try something when you go into your prayer room next, meditate on ephesians two six.

Ephesians two six says that God raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's what's most true about you when you're sitting in that rocking chair. You are sitting at a banquet table with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. What if you went into your prayer time and you just sat and imagined that? What that feels like, that you're wanted in that space?

What would that do to your identity? What would that do to your sense of self?

Maybe you explore man. What insecurities do I bring into that, that I would actually be wanted in that space? The praying imagination is waking us up into ultimate reality. It's like neo from the matrix waking up from this long dream, this enchantment of the world.

I want to give a caution, though. Be very careful. Be very careful in this praying imagination that you're not putting words into God's mouth that you want him to say to you. We're talking about meditating on the truth of scripture. We're not adding things to it.

And the more you saturate yourself with scripture, the more fodder you have in these moments, we're not trying to fashion God into an image of our own making. We're trying to wake up to the reality he's revealed, what is most true.

Just like two corinthians tells us, what is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal. So try it out this week. You know, if you have been. If you've just started out in your, in your prayer life or if you've been walking for God for years, you don't graduate past the Lord's prayer. You go beyond it by going deeper in it.

You're just exploring these themes. You're gonna explore them in different places in scripture. But these are the scales, these are the music notes. These are the dance moves that we start to learn in our time with God. So pray through the Lord's prayer this week.

Let your mind just wander in conversation with God just down these paths. Take that big map of scripture and reduce it down. Start to explore with God. Learn the moves. Just remember, I just put this out here.

Access is dependent on Jesus. The only way that we have that access to the father is through the work of Jesus Christ. If you're in here and you don't know what that looks like, you haven't given your life to him as your lord and your savior. We'll have people at the end of the service to pray with you in the corners to be able to talk that through. But today starts 21 days of prayer together as a church.

Are you ready? You ready? Okay. Well, if you feel led to fast one day a week, or if you want to give something up for those 21 days, you know, fasting really is just taking something important to us and saying, God, I want to feast on you in this time. Obviously, there's some healthy guidelines around what fasting looks like.

So if you need some more ideas there, then, you know, you can, you can chat with us as well or send some questions in an email. But if you've got prayer prompts, if you go to the website, there is a banner at the top that has take you to this prayer page with 21 days of prayer prompts. Wherever where you're walking through a psalm that explores these themes of the Lord's prayer that we're going to walk through every week. You can also sign up to receive the prayer journal. If you're a partner, you can help us pray over just the needs here as a church.

So that's on there as well. And let me just end with this. If a real danger about talking about prayer is that it never moves to practice, it's like when God told Ezekiel, the prophet Ezekiel, he said, indeed to them, you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words, but they do not put them into practice.

Be a people that put it into practice. Okay, join us on this 21 days of prayer and let's just see where God moves. Let's just seek his face and see where he moves. Each of these weeks, we're going to close with a different person coming up here and just ending in the Lord's prayer in their own words. And so, Diane, if you would go ahead and come up here and if you would stand, we're going to pray together, and then we'll close.

Pray with me. Gracious heavenly Father, you are indeed holy. There is no one like you. We desire your perfect will and your mercy covered ways here today. We trust you fully to provide our needs every single day.

And we are so thankful that your heart is for us. You forgive us when we repent, and you command us to forgive others who have hurt us. Yet you alone enable us to do this. Because of your great love, Father, lead us in your holiness. Move us towards your holy plans for us.

Protect us, lord, from evil and from all forms of temptation. Only you can deliver us safely, and we trust you. Yes, Father. We trust you because it is all yours, Lord, all the power, all the glory. Remind us each day that we do belong to you and that you hold us tenderly, now and forever.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the holy spirit. Amen. If you'd like to pray with someone today, please go to the corners there in the back of the sanctuary. Have a blessed day.