Key Scripture: Matthew 6:9 “Pray, then in this way: ‘Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.”

Jesus teaches His disciples to “pray then in this way,” meaning to pray like this. Jesus is not instructing the disciples to repeat these same words all the time, but rather to model your prayer in this way.

First, He teaches us to direct our prayer to “Our Father, who is in heaven.” We are not praying to some false idol or to some dead god. We are praying to the Living God who is in heaven. If we are praying with the intentional focus being on ourselves, that is like praying to a false god, and our prayers will be ineffective. In order for us to be effective with our prayers we must direct them to the right person. How effective would your letter be if you directed it to the wrong address? We must direct our prayer to the one true God who is in heaven.

The second thing Jesus teaches is how to approach God in our prayer. We are to approach Him correctly, and He is worthy of praise. When Jesus says, “Hallowed be Your name,” He is saying that the name of God is worthy to be praised. We should rightly approach the God of heaven with praise and recognition of how great He is. We should not approach Him half-heartedly or inappropriately but humbly, recognizing that when we pray, we are speaking to God. We should not take our conversation with God flippantly.

Think about how important it is when writing a letter that you get the address and the greeting right. The way you view the person you’re writing to matters in how you approach them in your letter.