How to Pray

10/21/23 – 10/31/23

Our Father in Heaven

By Michael Youssef, Ph D.  10/25/23

Too often, we treat heaven like a house we bought but didn’t move into or a trip we planned but didn’t take. We seldom think about it or make any attempt to find out more about our eternal home. We busy ourselves with making more plans for this life rather than investing in eternity.

In the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, the word heaven is used to describe three different realms: the atmospheric realm, the realm of the galaxies, and the heavenly country where God resides. God is in control of all three realms—it is through His power that He is sustaining all three. And still, as incredible, vast, and transcendent as He is, God lives in the believer’s heart.

Our Father is very much in heaven, and yet He walks with us and talks with us every single moment of every day. God is almighty—He is the sovereign Creator—and yet He also comforts us, blesses us, and speaks a word of peace to our troubled hearts. Our Father is holding together the engine that orchestrates the vast galaxies as they rotate, and He keeps them from spinning out of control. Yet, He is closer to us than our hands and feet.

Read Matthew 6:9-13. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus did not waste a single word. Jesus told His disciples, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father, who is in heaven.'” He wanted the disciples to focus on where God is and where we are going. There is not a single Christian who does not experience on a daily basis the incredible pull of the world, of sin, and of the devil. Every single day, we are tempted to make more plans for this short life rather than making plans for eternal life. Again and again in the book of Revelation, Jesus said that the rewards in heaven will be given to the faithful—those who stand firm, refusing to compromise, resolving to love God with all their hearts.

Take a moment to reflect on this wonderful prayer the Lord Jesus taught us. Write down your praises, petitions, and confessions before the Lord.

Prayer: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

“Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:16).