True prayer honours the Lord more than the pray-er. Jesus commenced this 'pattern prayer' by honouring Father God. He is the source of all life, and He is unchangeable; He is the founder of His Kingdom, which is eternal; and the Commander of the Universe, to whom everybody is accountable. He is the Provider of every necessity, the Forgiver for every sin, the Defender against temptation and the Deliverer from Satan.

The Father's Name is the essence of His character and the sum of all His actions. It is holy, sacred and totally different from the weak, imperfect personalities of human beings. He is always right, always true, always faithful and never corrupted. His Name is therefore to be held in the highest honour, revered and hallowed. That is why we must obey Him and work with Him in such a way that other human beings will also desire to belong to Him. One day, His kingdom will be seen in all its power and glory and we will see what heaven is like.

But until then, we rely on Him for everything - because He is the ultimate provider. He is the source of all good gifts and the only one who can forgive our sins. In turn He expects us to forgive those people who have sinned against us. If we do not do so we leave ourselves open to Satan's power (Ephesians 4:26-27). Ultimately the Lord will subdue Satan (Romans 16:20) as we are obedient to the Father's commands.

This prayer, often called The Lord's Prayer, is a pattern to help believers to relate with their Heavenly Father. It is not wrong to pray it all the way through as a prayer, but it was never intended to be the only prayer we should pray. It is a template for our praying, desiring God's glory first and our needs second. We should recognise that His kingdom is much wider than our own circumstances; and yet we fit into His kingdom as we submit to Him, knowing that our needs will be met, and sins forgiven. Satan's power is only held back by God's power and we are right to declare that truth and rely on our heavenly Father to protect us.