Matthew 6:9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.'"
In Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount, he taught on a number of subjects. One of the subjects that he taught on in great detail was prayer. Most of our Bibles have the header that reads: The Lord's Prayer. However, this heading is a misnomer because Jesus isn't telling us how he prays, he is teaching his disciples how to pray. So a more accurate way to label this passage would be The Disciples' Prayer.
What Jesus gives his disciples is a model of prayer. If one simply recites this passage, he or she isn't necessarily praying. We are being taught how to pray. When we approach Matthew 6:9-15 with this in mind, it opens up a treasure chest of truth that brings passion and life to our prayer lives. Here's what I mean.
The first thing that Jesus teaches us is how to approach God in prayer. This is important because Jesus uses language that was revolutionary in his time to describe our relationship with God. He uses the word Father to describe God. For instance, in Matthew 6:8 he says, "...your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. (NASB)" He used a term that spoke of intimate relationship with God. Craig Blomberg says, "Christians should consider God as accessible as the most loving human parent."
There is a glorious truth that is revealed in Jesus telling us to address God as our Father and it can be described in one word--adoption. Adoption is an act of God himself and it means that we have been made members of God's family. How did this happen? What does it mean? It happened because God chose us to be his adopted children before the foundation of the world. This was accomplished through the person and work of our Lord, Savior, and Brother, Jesus Christ. It means that when we call on the name of the Lord in prayer we are not doing so from a distance. The moment we say his name, he is listening to us. We have the attention of the One who created and sustains the universe. What a blessing!
I'll leave you with the words of R.C. Sproul on the topic of adoption and how it relates to prayer. In his book, The Prayer of the Lord, he says, "This is not something to be taken lightly. Every time we say the Lord's Prayer, every time we open our mouths and say, 'Our Father,' we should be reminded of our adoption, that we have been grafted into Christ and have been placed in this intimate relationship with God, a relationship that we did not have by nature. It is a relationship that has been won for us by the perfect obedience of the Son, who received an inheritance that was promised to Him from the foundation of the world, which inheritance He shares with His brothers and sisters who are in Him."
Everyone who has turned away from sin and towards Jesus Christ in faith is an adopted son or daughter in the family of God.