"Pray then like this: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day 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 evil.'" Matthew 6:9-13In prayer, we come to the eternal God with our needs, knowing we are heard because of the Mediator, Jesus Christ. And so by the Holy Spirit we cry out, Abba, Father.“By the benefit of prayer, we reach those riches which are laid up for us with the Heavenly Father. We see that to us nothing is promised to be expected from the Lord, which we are not emboldened to ask for in prayers. Therefore, we dig up by prayer the treasures that were pointed out by the Lord's gospel, and which our faith has gazed upon.” John Calvin, Institute 3-20-2OUR NEED:"O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; oh, restore us.You have made the land to quake; you have torn it open; repair its breaches, for it totters.You have made your people see hard things; you have given us wine to drink that made us stagger.You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow." Psalm 60:1-4 "And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” Psalm 50:15Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 189Q: What does the preface of the Lord’s prayer teach us?A: The preface of the Lord’s prayer (contained in these words, Our Father which art in heaven,) teacheth us, when we pray, to draw near to God with confidence of his fatherly goodness, and our interest therein; with reverence, and all other child-like dispositions, heavenly affections, and due apprehensions of his sovereign power, majesty, and gracious condescension: as also, to pray with and for others.Heidelberg Catechism, Question 20Q: Why did Christ command us to call God “our Father”?A: To awaken in us at the very beginning of our prayer what should be basic to our prayer—a childlike reverence and trust that through Christ God has become our Father, and that just as our parents do not refuse us the things of this life, even less will God our Father refuse to give us what we ask in faith.AWAKEN CHILDLIKE REVERENCE AND TRUST:"You sum up the whole of the New Testament teaching in a single phrase if you speak of it as a revelation of the Fatherhood of the holy Creator. In the same way, you sum up the whole of the New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. ‘Father’ is the Christian name for God.” J.I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 182“All those that are justified, God vouchsafeth, in and for His only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption: by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God; have His name upon them, receive the Spirit of adoption; have access to the throne of grace with boldness; are enabled to cry, Abba, Father; are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him, as by a father; yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises, as heirs of everlasting salvation.” &nb... Speaker: Buster Brown