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The first part of the Lord’s prayer (found in Matthew 6:9-13) are about God (God is our Father, He is in heaven, His kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven). With this reality in mind, we can ask this question: How often are our prayers actually about God? How often do we acknowledge who God is in our prayers? How often do we say out loud, or in our hearts, “You are God Almighty! You are my heavenly Father! You are God in heaven!”? I think that it is possible to pray prayers all about us and our needs without even acknowledging who God is, which does not help us. Of course, God is not opposed to us bringing our needs to Him because our needs are encouraged in the latter part of the Lord’s Prayer, but here is the concern: Are we so concerned about ourselves that we neglect to praise God for who He is? Is it possible that as we focus so intensely on what we want that we forget to Whom we are praying? I think it is possible for us is forget who God is while we are praying to Him! If we acknowledge God properly for who He is, then that very acknowledgement of Him just might help to take care of some of the needs and requests we have. Remembering that God is our Father in heaven, and all that means, can help us through our trials and struggles, namely, that He will take care of us and look after us.
Think about this: In life, generally, when we begin with ourselves, we usually fail. Whenever we become so self-absorbed over our wants, we become sick in our souls. When all we do is obsess over what we want and need, then we’ll obsess ourselves to death! We think, erringly, that the point of our lives is ourselves, but this is backwards. Our lives are meant to put God first. In all of our ways, in all of our thoughts, and in all of our motives, Jesus is teaching us here in the Lord’s Prayer to put God first. How many lives have we seen destroyed because they put themselves first and never acknowledged God? Jesus is not just teaching us how to pray; He is teaching us how to properly order our lives! Jesus is saying in essence, “God must not only come first in your prayers; He must come first in your lives!” Thus, we begin with, “Our Father in heaven…” Our lives were not created by God to be about us; God created us so that our lives would be about Him. The purpose of the created being (us!) is to serve Him who created us (God the Creator!), which are for His purposes and for His glory! It is simply logical that the clockmaker, for example, gets to dictate what a clock is and does, and not the clock itself. When a clock is used outside of being a clock (a plate, a frisbee, etc.), then it will break. In the same way, our lives “break” whenever we go outside of God’s plan for us. The first question of the great catechism says, “Question: What is the chief end of man? Answer: To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” We should strive to be God-focused in our lives, which includes our prayers.