Good morning, Watermark.
All right.
I love you guys.
Those are some of the university students.
All right.
Yeah, if you don't know me, my name is Alfie,
and I help out with the university ministry here at Watermark,
reaching out to HKU.
And today is actually quite an exciting Sunday for me,
because I think for the first time in four or five years,
my whole family is in a church service together.
And that's really exciting.
So, please come and say hi and make them feel awkward.
You know, if you've heard stories about my dad,
you can ask him if they really are true.
My dad, my mom, my sister, we all live here in Hong Kong.
But I don't see my parents that often.
Usually what happens is, after about the third week,
my dad will send me a text message and say,
you know, your mother misses you.
And so I know it's time to muster up the effort to get on the bus
and go out into the middle of nowhere to visit them.
But thankfully, you know, I get to communicate with my parents in other ways.
You know, just with my telephone, you know, I can send text messages.
I can call them.
I can, you know, WhatsApp them.
I can FaceTime them.
If I'm really fancy, I can, like, find a website and order some flowers and send it to them.
There are many ways in which I can communicate with them.
But not all of them are really quite, like, being there face-to-face
and seeing them and touching them.
You know, I really wish I could do that more often.
And I tell them, you know, if they ever move, you know, closer to the island,
then maybe I'll consider living with them.
That hasn't happened yet.
But I think many of us feel like that when it comes to relating with God.
Because we know he's there, but he seems a bit far off.
It's kind of hard to get to.
And we know we're supposed to pray, but we've been taught about prayer,
but our experience of it doesn't match up with what we've been taught,
what we want to expect.
You know, we feel like we're sending an email that never leaves the computer.
Or, you know, we're sending a text message,
and, you know, we're waiting for a ply that's going to come, you know,
floating in a bottle, and we have to be at the beach at the right time to find it.
And, you know, I think that even for people who have been Christians for a long time,
the idea of what prayer is is a bit of a mystery.
And we have lots of questions about prayer,
questions that we ask other people,
questions that we ask God about prayer.
You might ask God, are you there?
Do you hear me?
Am I good enough?
Have I done enough good things for you to answer my prayer?
Am I saying the right words?
Am I formal enough?
Am I kneeling the right way?
Do I keep my eyes closed or open?
You might ask,
God, I'm sorry that I keep falling asleep
when I'm trying to pray.
You might ask,
what's the formula?
What's the series of words that I need to say
to make sure
that God hears me?
Sometimes we're angry at God
and we don't want to pray.
Is it okay to pray to God when we're angry?
Can we express what's going on in our hearts to God?
Even if it means using a few, you know, naughty words?
How can we be expected to pray without ceasing?
Why do you tell us to do that?
I think there's so many questions about prayer
that I don't even know the answers to
that many people ask each other,
they ask of God about prayer.
What is prayer?
What does it mean?
How does it work?
How can we talk to this amazing, huge God?
You know, I think I could go on
asking different questions about prayer.
And, you know, a lot of them are usually along the theme of,
you know, what is prayer?
What am I doing while I'm praying?
How does it work?
And the second part is,
does God care?
Does God love us?
Today we're going to be starting a series
for the next couple of weeks on prayer.
Myself and a couple of other preachers,
we're going to be going through the Lord's Prayer
one bit at a time.
And we're going to try and talk
and unwrap this idea of prayer.
In fact, this is a focus that we'll be doing
across Watermark for the next couple of weeks.
You'll see that even the prayer that we do
before the service is a little bit different.
So I encourage you to come early,
come 1010, it starts at 1015,
and get involved with that.
Also, we're going through other stuff
in our community group.
So if you're not in a community group,
join a community group.
You're not going to want to miss
this journey that we're taking as a church
in unwrapping prayer.
Now, as we've been talking about
why we want to do this focus,
we've kind of come up with different goals
of what we hope to achieve
through this series in prayer.
There are three of them,
and the first is that,
it's right here,
that we want to teach an attitude of prayer,
not a form of prayer.
We don't want Watermark to end up
two months from now
with everyone praying the exact same way.
But we do want Watermark to be a church
where people are coming
with the right attitude before God,
before their Heavenly Father.
We want to, the second goal is
we really want to encourage you guys
to be praying out of a relationship
with a loving Heavenly Father
that is based in reality,
that we're not, you know,
praying into some, you know,
unknown spiritual air,
but that we have a relationship
with a real Heavenly Father.
Lastly, we want Watermark to be a church
that prays more expansively,
not just praying at mealtimes
and when we're in trouble,
but to pray often,
to pray all the time,
not just to pray about ourselves,
but about our community,
to pray about God's kingdom.
We want us to be a church
that's praying about
more than just asking,
but also in thanksgiving
and praise and a confession.
All right, we want Watermark,
we want to teach you guys
an attitude of prayer,
not a form.
We want to encourage you to pray
because of a relationship
with your Heavenly Father.
and we want you to pray more
and more expansively.
And so, even as you're
in community groups
and in this prayer time,
as you're thinking about prayers,
you're listening to these sermons,
look out for some of these things.
How is our relationship
with God coming out?
How are we encouraged
to pray more expansively?
Now, before we start,
really, we should have
a definition for prayer.
Now, as many people as you ask,
you'll have a definition
for prayer.
At a community group yesterday,
my community group
was talking about this,
and, you know,
everyone has a slightly
different idea of what prayer is.
And as many books as you read,
you'll also find
different definitions,
except for one book that I read
where he quoted another guy.
So, two books, same definition.
All right.
But, I'm glad I get to go first
because I get to pick
the definition of prayer,
and everyone else
has to follow that.
No, no, no, I'm joking.
Oh, really, we sat down as a team
and we talked and we prayed
and we discussed.
And we tried to figure out
a good definition
that would capture prayer.
All right.
Even after we settled on this,
there was still discussion about,
ooh, should we change it?
But we're going to go with this.
And we hope that,
at least for this time,
that this definition
will help us understand
and begin thinking
about what prayer is.
And so, we'll put it up here.
And it says that prayer is
a child calling out
to their loving,
heavenly father
in response to him
reaching down to them.
prayer is a child
calling out
to their loving,
heavenly father
in response
to them,
to him
reaching down to them.
Today, I'm going to be focusing
on our relationship
with God
as we look at the
first couple of lines
in the Lord's Prayer.
prayer.
In Matthew chapter 6,
Jesus tells the people
to pray like him.
And Matthew chapter 6,
you'll find is
right in the middle
of the Sermon on the Mount.
In the Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus is here
and he's gathered
his disciples
and his followers
and he's telling them
about how to live their lives.
And he makes
some pretty big asks of them
and he tells them
that they need to
turn the other cheek,
they need to walk
the extra mile,
that they should
love their enemies.
He asks difficult
things of them
and at the end,
he gets to the gist of it
and he says that
all of our lives
we're living before God.
Everything that we do
is before God
and he wants us
to live our lives
in the presence of God.
And so when we come
to looking at the Lord's Prayer,
we're trying to figure out
how is it that
as God's people
in the presence of God
do we talk to him?
How do we call out
to our Heavenly Father
if our lives
are being lived
in his presence?
Now,
Jesus uses the idea
of Father.
God is our Heavenly Father
to describe
the way in which
we address God.
And, you know,
I think everyone
has a different idea
of what a father is
based on our experience
with our own earthly fathers
and those
begin to shape
the way that
we look at God.
Now,
some of us
have good experiences
and some of us
have bad experiences.
And even in the course
of our lives,
our relationships
with our fathers
change.
You know,
if you're younger,
then, you know,
your fathers are
paying the rent
and they're giving you
food and clothing
and they're paying
your school fees
even though you'd wish
they'd rather not.
all right?
And maybe if you're
a bit older,
your parents are
dependent on you
and you are caring
for them
and you're providing
and taking care
of them.
You know,
I think each of us
has such different
experiences.
I was talking
with my brother
the other day
about an experience
that I had had
with my dad
and he looked at me
with this blank expression
because even though
we lived in the same house,
he was completely oblivious
to my struggle
with my dad
at that point in time.
Even in the same household
and experiences
of fathers are different.
You know,
I think I had
a fairly good relationship
with my dad
growing up
except when I was 11,
13,
16,
and 20.
All right?
Everything else
was great.
Those were some
rough years.
But even as I talk
with different people
in this congregation,
I realize that
you guys have had
many different experiences.
many of you
have had difficult
experiences
with abusive fathers
or absent fathers,
fathers who didn't love you
or didn't know
how to love you.
You know,
I think,
as I look out here,
I know that,
you know,
some of you
don't love your fathers
and you find it hard
to think about
how do we love
our Heavenly Father?
How do we love
our God
when our earthly father
has disappointed us
and failed us
in so many ways?
You know,
my hope,
Watermark,
is that as we're looking
at these passages
that we will get to see
and we'll form
a different picture
of our father,
that we will see
our Heavenly Father
as good
and beautiful
and amazing
and loving
and perfect,
that even
my good relationship
with my father
doesn't compare
to the amazing
Heavenly Father
that we have
in God.
So,
how do we pray?
Right at the beginning,
Jesus says,
you'll find it
in verse 9,
he says,
pray then like this,
our Father
in heaven.
Now,
the Bible doesn't
give us the reaction
of his disciples,
but I think
that the disciples
would have been surprised,
would have been shocked
that Jesus was calling
God his Father.
And it's interesting
because so much
of Jewish life
and culture
was about God
being with them.
You know,
when they were wandering
in the wilderness,
the tabernacle,
the tent
where God rested
was right in the middle
of their camp.
God was close to them.
Even when their temple
is in the middle
of their city,
their entire lives
revolved around
being close.
But the Jewish people
were hooked
on this idea
of a transcendent God,
a holy God,
a God that is big
and marvelous
and untouchable.
Not that God
isn't those things,
but God is also
a God who is close.
A God who is near.
And I think for us,
even that is a big shift.
Trying to think about
God who is
holy
and amazing.
A God who is our savior.
A God who is the creator.
But he is also
our Father.
Father.
You know,
I think the Bible
tells us about
the kind of father
that God is.
In Ephesians 3,
it says that God
is able to do
far more
than we ever imagined.
In Romans 8,
it tells us that
he adopts us
as his children.
And he gives us
a spirit to remind us
of that.
In Matthew chapter 7,
we have this interesting,
it's right after
the Lord's Prayer,
he says that,
you know,
which of you,
as a father,
as an earthly father,
gives your child a stone
when he asks for bread
or a snake
when he asks for fish?
He says,
if it's earthly fathers,
you know what is a good gift
and what is a bad gift.
How much more
does our heavenly father know
what is a good gift
to give us?
If you look through the Bible,
this is a story
of God's amazing love.
In its pages,
you'll see the love
of a father
for his children.
You'll see how God
loves Joseph
in his prison cell
and uses him
not only to save Egypt,
but to save his family.
We see how God,
as a father,
loves his firstborn son,
Israel,
and calls him out of Egypt
and out of slavery.
The relationship
of God
to his children
is one
that is surrounded
by this amazing,
holy love.
But us,
we have this
poor,
broken image
of what a father
is like.
we have this
incomplete picture
of what a father
ought to be.
And even if we try
to imagine
what our perfect father
would be like,
it wouldn't come close
to what God,
our father,
is really like.
Imagine you're a villager.
You're living
in this island
and there is
no one else.
There's no other island
within a thousand miles.
And one day,
as you're looking
up at the sky,
you see the moon.
Yeah,
there we go.
You see the moon
and you think,
man,
the moon is amazing
because it's this
little plate.
It's this plate
of ice cream
in the sky.
You know,
how big is that?
You know,
maybe two feet wide
and it's attached
to this curtain
that moves across
the sky
day and night.
And sometimes
we see the moon,
sometimes we see the sun,
but on this curtain
is attached
this plate of ice cream.
But these strange people
come and they have
these little,
you know,
devices with glass
and metal
and they're playing
with them all the time
and they come
and they tell you,
oh no,
that's not ice cream
up there.
But it's actually
this huge rock.
It's this huge rock
in the sky.
The moon isn't
what you thought it was.
It is something
completely different.
It's not a two feet
wide plate of ice cream.
It is a giant
million mile wide
rock.
I don't know
if it's a million miles wide.
But it's a huge rock.
That's the way
that I think
we,
our view of our fathers
and our view
of our godly father
is different like that.
It's like comparing
a plate of ice cream
to the moon.
They're not the same
in any kind of way.
The moon
of the big rock
is actually
far more exciting
than a plate
of ice cream
which is gone
in a couple of minutes.
And that's what it's like.
We have this flawed picture
of God,
of our father.
You know,
we have this father
who is good,
who is perfect,
who is loving,
who knows
his children,
who gives good gifts
to his children.
We have this father
that throughout
the history of the Bible
is calling
and bringing his people
towards him
and inviting him
into this relationship
of love.
And I think
the love of a father
is something
very special,
very unique.
I'm not a father,
but I have some friends
who are.
And I was talking
to some of them
this week.
And one of them
was telling me
that he started
to love his child
the moment he found
out his wife
was pregnant.
The moment he found
out his wife
was pregnant,
he loved his child.
They didn't have a name.
They didn't know
its gender yet.
They didn't know
what it would look like.
But he loved
his child.
Right?
And as his child
grew and became cute,
you know,
he loved his child.
He loved his child's poop.
Right?
But the child
grew older
and became whiny
and moany
and, you know,
complaining.
And he still loves
his child
even though
he was frustrated.
And, you know,
God loves us
in that same way.
Except, you know,
God loves us
from before
eternity began.
The Bible says that
he knew us.
He knew his children
from before creation.
And before creation,
he loved his children
who are yet to be.
And I think a lot of us,
we spent so much time
and effort
trying to please
our Heavenly Father.
You know,
we relate to him
like we do
our earthly fathers.
We try to do good things
so that we'll be
rewarded for it.
We try to avoid
bad things
so we don't get in trouble.
You know,
we're always worried
about whether
our Father
really loves us.
Imagine the love
of our Heavenly Father
not just while you're alive,
but in all
of eternity.
we look at the story
of the prodigal son
where we see
this picture
of God's love
for his children
where
this son
insults his father,
wishes him dead,
and says,
give me my inheritance.
And after squandering it back,
he comes
and he wants to earn
his father's love.
And he says,
let me work as a slave,
as a servant.
I don't deserve
to be your son.
But the father says,
no.
He says,
you're my son.
I love you.
Come.
We're going to kill
the fattened calf.
We're going to have a feast.
Here's a ring.
Here's a cloak.
Here are sandals
for your feet.
I love you.
And the watermark,
our Heavenly Father
loves us.
And it doesn't matter
where you've been,
what you've done,
how far you've wandered,
how deep you find yourself
in sin.
Our Heavenly Father
loves us.
He wants to be
close to us.
So when we come
and we see these words,
our Father,
I think we need to learn
how to put aside
our pictures
of our broken,
fallen,
earthly fathers
and look
to this amazing
Heavenly Father
who loves
and is calling
and bringing us
and inviting us
into a relationship
with Him.
inviting us
to call Him Father.
You know,
our childness,
our sonship,
our daughtership
isn't something
that we can break
by sin
or insult.
It's not something
that death
can even hurt.
our relationship
with our Father
ought to be one
where we know
we can rely
on Him
and trust Him.
that we can call
on Him
because He is a Father
who through Scripture
and through our lives
is calling to us,
is reaching out to us
and asking us
to call Him
our Father.
Father.
Now,
I guess the next question
is how do we know
that He is our Father?
And Jesus says
our Father in Heaven
but Jesus is Jesus.
How can we
know that God
is our Father?
In Romans,
in Romans chapter 8,
we learn about
the spirit of adoption
which God gives out.
The Bible says that
when we trust in Jesus
to repair our relationship
with God,
when we trust in Jesus
as the sacrifice
for our sins,
that we receive
the Holy Spirit.
In Romans 8,
He calls it
the spirit of adoption
that witnesses
to our hearts
that we are children of God.
If you have faith
in Jesus,
you are a child
of God.
And sometimes
people say that
everything and everybody
is a child of God
but a tree is not
a child of God.
It is created by God
but it's not His child.
If you,
if you're not
a Christian believer
then
God
isn't your Father.
But what the Bible says
is that
to become
God's child
is to
accept
Christ
and His sacrifice
for us.
And you know,
that's what Franklin
was talking about
in communion.
His body,
His blood
that repairs
our broken relationship
with our Heavenly Father
and makes us
His children.
It says that
the Spirit of God
witnesses in our spirit
and calls out
Abba, Father.
that's our Father.
Now,
even
our prayers
however,
as we
relate to our Heavenly Father,
as we come to Him
and we
have this picture
of Him
as our perfect
Heavenly Father
who is
far away
in His heavenly throne
but is also
close
and here
with us.
You know,
sometimes
these prayers
get tangled up
in sin
when we don't
approach
our Father
the right way.
And we see that
in verses 5-9
where God,
Jesus,
gives two examples
of how not to pray.
He talks about
Pharisees
who are so excited
about their
supreme holiness
that they can't wait
to get to the synagogue,
that they stop
in the street corners
to pray
where everyone
can see them.
And Jesus says
don't pray like that
because
they're not praying
for God,
they're praying
for themselves.
They're praying
for their approval
from other people.
And He talks
about the pagans
who will repeat
the same phrase
and mantra
over and over
and over and over
again in hopes
that God
would hear them.
He says
don't pray like that
because
God is your Father.
He knows you.
He loves you.
Even before you ask
what you need,
He knows it.
You know,
I read these sometimes
and I think,
well,
this doesn't really
apply to me
because I'm not
really a hypocrite.
I'm not really
a Pharisee.
And then I stop
and I think
and I realize,
oops,
I am.
Because I know
that, you know,
I think growing up
in church,
you get to hear
some amazing prayers.
There's some people
who pray
and it's almost
like poetry.
There's one old man
that I really love
and to this day
he prays in the
King James Version
and it's fantastic.
But, you know,
I like,
every now and then
I'll hear this phrase
or this ending
to a prayer
and I think,
ooh,
that sounds really nice.
I'm going to start
praying that
and when people
hear me praying
they're going to say,
oh, Alfie,
thank you so much
for praying.
I was so blessed by it.
And here I am thinking,
yes,
I am a good prayer.
But no,
I'm not.
I'm a terrible prayer
because those prayers
aren't for God.
They're for me.
They're for the approval
that I want
from other people.
And then when I go,
when I'm alone
in my room,
my prayers then turn
into the prayers
of a pagan
because there's no one
there to listen to me.
There's no one there
who's going to watch me.
And so now all my insecurities
I don't have to hide.
And you know what?
When I'm alone,
I'm afraid
because I don't trust
that God really loves me.
I don't trust
that God
wants to provide for me.
I don't trust
that God cares for me.
And so I'll pray
and I'll start,
you know,
and I'll spend
about 10 minutes
telling God
how amazing He is
and how beautiful He is.
And then when it comes
to asking about
what is on my heart,
you know,
I only ask about 30%
because I think
if I ask too much,
then God just won't
give me anything.
All right?
But I think that's
praying like a pagan
because I'm not seeing
God as my Father.
I'm seeing God
as this miserly old gentleman
who I'm trying to convince
that I deserve
something from Him.
The Bible says,
no,
the Bible says
that He is our Father,
that He loves us,
that He has great gifts for us,
and that when we pray,
we don't have to repeat
babbling phrases,
that we can come to God
and simply open our hearts
and say,
Father,
I need help.
Father,
I need you.
I think that one of the most
difficult things,
and I spent a week praying
that I would kind of
get this tension right,
is that while God
is our Heavenly Father,
this Creator,
this Rule of the Earth,
He's also close
like a Father.
You know,
as humans,
we're very good
at extremes,
and I think we can think
of God as our
earthly Father
who is close by,
and we can come to Him
at any time,
and it's like,
hey,
what's up?
I need this,
thanks,
and get on with our life.
Or,
we see God
as this faraway,
holy God
who we can't reach
and who we are afraid
to come before.
The Bible says
that God
is both of these things.
That's why
when you're seeing
the first two lines
in the Lord's Prayer,
it's our Father
in Heaven,
our Father
who is close
and loving.
Hallowed
be your name.
Let your name
be made holy.
Let me honor
your name
because you are
a great
and amazing God.
How is it
that we keep
this tension?
This Father
that loves us
and calls us
His children
is the same Father
that tore down
the walls of Jericho.
The Father
that tells us
to call Him
Child,
to call Him
Abba.
is the same
Father
that flooded
the earth
when Noah
built the ark.
I think that
one of the most
difficult things
and something
that I'm trying
to learn
is
how do I pray
keeping
both of God's
characteristics
in mind?
This
holy,
amazing,
huge God
and this
close
Father.
how do we
hallow God's
name?
How do we
make God's
name holy?
How do we
honor God's
name?
And I think
when Jesus
teaches His
disciples to
pray,
that He
teaches them
to honor God's
name in the
way that they
pray
and in the
way that
reflects in our
lives lived
out.
God's
name
when we're
concerned about
His kingdom.
When we say
Your kingdom
come,
we're not just
saying it,
that our lives
reflect that in
the things that
we do.
That when we
pray,
we honor God's
name when we
confess our
sins by
striving to
live holy,
righteous lives.
We honor
our Father
when we pray
that we
forgive the
debts of
others when
we go out
and we do
forgive and
love the
people around
us.
You know,
I grew up
with an
African father
and I think
that taught me
something a
little bit about
reverence because
as a child,
when we were
playing, if my
dad called for
us, we
turned up
immediately.
None of this
like, oh, I'll
be there in a
minute.
You know, if
dad called, you
were there.
It doesn't
matter what
level in the
video game you
were, it
doesn't matter if
you were texting
your girlfriend,
whatever.
You were there.
And I think, you
know, even today
that still happens.
Dad called, yes,
I'm there.
But that's the
way we show
reverence to our
Father, that we
do the things that
he tells us, that
we are loving to
people as he
asks us to be.
That we honor
him when we
follow through on
the prayers that
we're praying.
Irreverence is
not to do
that.
It's to come to
God and expect
him to give us
things left, right,
and center while
we spend the rest
of our lives
ignoring his
commands.
You know,
irreverence is
throwing his name
and reputation
in the mud.
Irreverence is
treating God like
a genie who is
there at our
beck and call to
give us the things
that we need.
Irreverence is
having our holy
time with God
and living the rest
of our lives in an
unholy manner.
prayer.
The Sermon on the
Mount, the Lord's
Prayer, is not
just about the
holy moments in
our lives.
We don't just come
to God as our
Father in community
group and at
church.
But we come to
him in all of our
life, in our work,
in our relationships,
in our relaxation,
with our money,
in our faith,
with our forgiveness.
all of these
things.
These are things
that we honor
our God with.
We show our
Heavenly Father
that he is holy
when we honor him
in all of our
lives.
When we say,
hallowed be your
name,
does that show up
in our lives?
When we say,
our Father in
Heaven,
is that reflected
in our prayers?
You know,
this Lord's Prayer
is more than just
a script,
something to say
that will let us
know this is the
way to pray.
Pray it and
everything is great.
But it's a call
for us to live
lives, to pray
prayers that are
different because
of our relationship
with God.
You know,
for some of us
today,
we don't like to
come before God.
We don't like to
call him Father
because of the
hurt we've
experienced from
our own fathers.
Look to God.
See the kind
of Father that
he is.
See the perfect,
loving Father.
that he is.
The great
Father who
brings his
children close
and says,
you're my child.
It doesn't matter
how you are.
I love you.
I think for some
of us today,
we're not sure
that God is
our Father.
And let me
invite you to
come and step
into this journey
and this family
and this relationship
with your
Heavenly Father.
To call on
him as a
child.
To trust in
Jesus and
become his
heir, the
heir to his
kingdom with
Jesus.
others of
us, I
think we
know we're
God's child
and we
don't have
that relational
struggle.
But when we
live our lives,
we don't honor
the God we
claim to be
praying to
when we pray
our Father in
heaven.
Amen.
I want you
guys, I
want all of
us, it
doesn't matter
where you
are, to
come and
marvel at
this.
That the
God that
created the
heavens and
the earth,
the God
that sent
his own
son to
die for
us, would
call us
his child
and call
us to
call him
Father.
God
I've
gone on
for a
while and
I think I
could go
for much
longer.
But there
is so much
in prayer.
There's so
much in the
Lord's prayer
for us to
learn.
And we're
not all going
to do it
today, but
really let me
encourage you
one more time
to join a
community group
this week and
join the study
in prayer.
Come to
Watermark for
the next couple
of weeks and
hear how prayer
changes our
lives.
What does it
mean for
Christ's kingdom
to come?
What does it
mean for us
to have our
daily bread?
What does it
mean for God
to lead us
out of
temptation?
Watermark,
when we see
our Father
as heavenly
and holy
and also
close
and loving,
when we pray
in wanting
his kingdom
because it's
his glory
in our
inheritance,
when we
pray trusting
him because
he is our
Father,
when we
pray trusting
his forgiveness,
when we
pray relying
on his
protection from
evil,
when we pray
to our
Father we
can rest
and be
secure
because nothing
can separate
us from
his love.
Nothing on
earth and in
heaven can
separate us
from the love
of our
Father
who is in
heaven.
Let's pray
together.
Dearest
heavenly
Father,
you are
amazing.
You are
amazing and
great and
holy and
I'm amazed
that you
invite us
to call you
Father,
to be a
part of
this close
relationship
with you
and I
confess that
I don't
always come
with this
attitude of
awe and
reverence and
love and
security.
I confess
that I
project broken
images of
my Father
onto you.
I confess
that I
ignore you
as my
perfect
heavenly
Father.
God, I
thank you
that you
are loving
and forgiving
and I
thank you
for the
comfort of
knowing that
you hear
us,
that you
love us,
that you
see us,
that you
give us
good and
perfect
gifts.
Help us
Father to
pray to
you,
to pray to
you often,
to pray to
you earnestly.
to pray
plainly and
simply because
you are our
Father in
heaven,
to pray in
reverence and
in confidence
because your
name is
holy.
In Jesus'
name,
amen.
Amen.