SAINT JOHN OF GOD, RELIGIOUS (OPTIONAL MEMORIAL)

This is how you are to pray.

By teaching us the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus is offering us more than the right words to say. He is giving us the keys to a more intimate, fruitful, and fulfilling relationship with his heavenly Father. Today, let’s focus on several phrases in this prayer to see how they can help us deepen our friendship with him.

Our Father (Matthew 6:9). You have the same heavenly Father as Jesus, and as his adopted son or daughter, you belong to him. In fact, you can be just as secure in his love for you as Jesus was—and as any child is who has a good and loving parent.

Thy will be done (Matthew 6:10). Your Father wants you to pray for his will to be done because it’s what will bless you in the most perfect way. He sees a much bigger picture than you do. This requires you to trust that his way is better than yours and to obey him, even when you’d rather go your own way.

Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11). God wants you to depend on him to provide for all your needs. He is the source of everything you have—every breath you take, every bite of food you eat, and every other blessing you enjoy. Beyond just material blessings, he wants you to ask him for the grace, strength, and love you need to follow him each day.

Forgive us our trespasses (Matthew 6:12). Your Father sent his Son to earth to open the way to heaven. He wants everyone to be saved. All he asks of you is to repent of your sins and try your best to follow him. He knows how hard this can be, so he promises that every time you say the Lord’s Prayer, you have the opportunity to be reconciled with him.

Love, trust, obedience, dependence, and repentance. Today, as you pray the Our Father, consider how it contains within itself the ingredients for the kind of relationship that God desires with each one of us, his beloved sons and daughters. Thank him for the ways you’ve experienced his fatherly care in your life—and then keep the conversation going!

“Jesus, thank you for teaching me how to pray ‘to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17).

Isaiah 55:10-11
Psalm 34:4-7, 16-19
Matthew 6:7-15