I used to think, when I was much younger, that Jesus taught His disciples to pray a prayer in the secret place instead of showing off in public like the Pharisees or babbling like the pagans. 

As a lonely teenager, I prayed the Lord’s Prayer in a hotel room, first, because my family was without a home while our new home was being built and, second,  because I didn’t know how else to pray… and God answered my prayer by saving me a few weeks later! So, that’s what I prayed as a new believer, but I dutifully prayed the Lord’s Prayer like a recitation, as often as I remembered, which wasn’t that often, I must admit.

However, I have come to realise, as I have grown in my knowledge and understanding of prayer, that Jesus didn’t say, “Pray this,” but He did say, “Pray like this.”

“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This is a “pattern” prayer, with great truths expressed in seed form, each new thought loaded with the truth that grows, like a seed, as we meditate and pray each thought. 

Let’s start at the beginning. 

“Our Father in heaven…” Imagine the reaction of the disciples to this simple address. They would have been raised on the prayers recorded in the Tanach, and particularly in the Psalms which were the personal expressions of faith and cries for help written down for posterity. Their prayers were mostly the repetition of the prayers of others. 

To utter a simple two-word address to the great God of heaven must have been unfamiliar to them, to say the least! To address God as Father would have been equally unfamiliar.  

One of Jesus’ purposes on earth was to teach His people to know God as Father. John’s gospel, in particular, is peppered with this truth that God is our Father and we are His children by the miracle of new birth…and by faith in Him, Jesus!

Again, Jesus has also come to reconcile the Father’s children to the Himself through His death. 

Look at this !

One of the first things Jesus said to Mary after His resurrection was…

“Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

‭‭John‬ ‭20‬:‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Brothers…my Father and your Father…the status of the disciples had radically changed. As the writer to the Hebrews explained…

“Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭2‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In the dispensation of the Old Covenant, and especially in the ritual worship of the tabernacle/ temple, a holy God could only be approached through sacrifice and  the priesthood as the people’s representatives. His people prayed to Him, yes, but in the awareness that He was not obligated to answer because of their sin. In fact, on many occasions, God refused to answer their prayers because they stubbornly defied and disobeyed Him. 

“When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭1‬:‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

What, then, had made the difference between the then and the now? Was Jesus saying that His people were entering a new dispensation when they would no longer need to go through animal sacrifice and human mediators to reach God… that He would no longer be to them a far-off deity but a loving Father? 

What would happen to make the difference to them in this life-changing transfer from Old to New Covenant?

Again, the writer to the Hebrews gives us the answer…

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭19‬-‭22‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Did you notice the words, “confidence” and “full assurance”? The disciples, at that moment, when Jesus uttered those words, “our Father in heaven”, were still under the  old dispensation but He was introducing them to a new status. They were standing on the threshold of a radically transforming event. The God who had held them at arm’s length, so it seemed to them, was in fact, the God who embraced them as sons and held them close to His heart because of His own Son. 

All barriers had been destroyed. The debt of sin was paid. They could step right up to God’s throne, in the heavenly realm He reigns over as King of His kingdom, and  whisper, “Abba, Father!” and be heard.