Daily Devotional

Look back over the week. The Lord’s Prayer began with our Father and ends with deliverance. In between, every petition has trained us to be the kind of person Jesus called blessed at the start of His sermon: the poor in spirit. The poor in spirit are not those with low self-esteem. They are the ones who know their account before God is empty, who are not pretending otherwise, and who therefore come with open hands. Jesus says theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The Pharisee in the temple in Luke 18 stood and prayed about himself, listing his achievements. The tax collector would not even lift his eyes; he beat his chest and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Jesus said it was the tax collector who went home justified. The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer of the tax collector dressed up in the framework of a son. It is the prayer of someone who shows up at the closed door of a private room with no performance to give, no magic words to leverage, nothing to offer but their need and the honest belief that there is a Father on the other side who already knows.

This is the gospel. The Son of God who had perfect access to the Father, who could have led the most impressive public prayer Jerusalem ever heard, withdrew to the gardens and the mountains to be alone with His Father. He closed the door. He spoke as a Son. And then He went to a cross so that the right to say “Our Father” could be bought for you. It is not a title you earned. It is a title He purchased. Every time you pray this week, you are not approaching as a stranger seeking an audience. You are coming home as a child whose Father has been watching for you. That is who you are in Christ. And that is who you will be for all eternity.