Seven days in Matthew 6: pray to the Father, ask for His kingdom on earth, and seek that kingdom first.
About 10 minutes a day · 7 days
Aim
To learn prayer from Jesus’ own words — addressed to the Father, aimed at God’s will on earth, and free of show.
Open the week
This is a week, not an hour. Each day, read the verses, sit with the note, and answer the questions. Jesus does not send us to a third person when we pray. He says, “Our Father.” He does not teach us to ask for a flight of souls to heaven. He says, “Your kingdom come… on earth.” Stay with that, and the week will do its work.
Day 1: Not for show
Jesus assumes his people will pray. The warning is about an audience. Hypocrites stand in public so they will be seen. He tells us to go into the room, shut the door, and pray to the Father who is in secret. Then a second warning: do not heap up empty phrases. The Father knows what we need before we ask. Prayer is not informing God, and it is not performing for people. It is children speaking to their Father.
To talk about
- Who is the audience Jesus wants for your prayer?
- If the Father already knows, why still ask?
Day 2: Our Father
The first words settle who we speak to. “Our Father in heaven.” Jesus prays to the Father, and he teaches us to do the same. The Father is the one God. Jesus is His Son, the one who shows us the Father and brings us to Him. This week, do not address the Holy Spirit as a person you pray to. The Spirit is God’s power at work in consecrated people. Prayer, in Jesus’ mouth, has a name: Father.
To talk about
- What does “our” add that “my” would miss?
- How does praying to the Father keep Jesus in his place as the Son who leads us there?
Day 3: Hallowed be your name
After “Father” comes the first petition: that His name be treated as holy. Prayer is not first a list of our needs. It is a wish that God be honored as God — the one Father, above all. When His name is cheapened, everything else in the prayer loses weight. Start here even on days when you came to ask for bread.
To talk about
- What would it look like, in a day of ordinary talk, to treat the Father’s name as holy?
- Why does Jesus put this before daily bread?
Day 4: Your kingdom come — on earth
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Heaven is where the Father is. The request is not that we fly there when we die. The request is that what is already true of God’s throne become true of this earth: His will done, His kingdom established. That is this church’s hope — a literal kingdom yet to be set up throughout the earth, with Christ as king. Pray it as Jesus worded it.
To talk about
- Where does Jesus locate the doing of God’s will in this sentence?
- How is this different from asking to leave the earth behind?
Day 5: Daily bread
After the kingdom, Jesus allows the ordinary: bread for today. Not a storehouse for ten years. Not a spiritualizing that pretends bodies do not eat. The Father cares for mortal people who need a meal. Ask Him. Then get up and work as people who trust Him for the next loaf. Anxiety about tomorrow will wait for day 7.
To talk about
- What does “this day” protect you from in your asking?
- How does asking for bread sit under “your kingdom come” instead of replacing it?
Day 6: Forgive us, as we forgive
We ask the Father to forgive our debts. Jesus immediately ties the request to our own practice: if you forgive others, your Father will forgive you; if you do not, He will not. This is not earning grace with a kind mood. It is refusing to hold what we have just asked God to drop. A people waiting for a kingdom of righteousness cannot keep a private ledger of revenge.
To talk about
- Whom do you need to release so this petition is not empty in your mouth?
- Why would Jesus put such a sharp condition on a prayer about mercy?
Day 7: Deliver us — and seek first the kingdom
Jesus has already taught, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Now he turns to food and clothes, and to worry. Do not be anxious. The nations chase these things. “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” The week ends where day 4 began: the kingdom. Seek that first. The Father who is in heaven has not forgotten bread. The earth is still the place He intends to put right.
To talk about
- What are you seeking first this week, if you tell the truth?
- How does “your heavenly Father knows” keep you from treating heaven as an escape hatch?
Handle with care
Verses people often read through a later tradition. Stay with the text.
“Our Father in heaven” as “we go to heaven when we die”
Jesus locates the Father in heaven. He then asks that the Father’s will be done on earth. The Christian hope in this church is not a soul flying to the Father at death. The dead sleep. Immortality is given at the resurrection. The prayer is for the kingdom to come here.
Praying to the Holy Spirit as a person
Jesus does not teach that. He says to pray to the Father. The Spirit is the power of God, not a third someone to address. That is this church’s teaching.
This week
- Day 1: Pray once today behind a shut door, with no one to impress.
- Day 2: Begin every prayer this week with “Father.”
- Day 3: Speak God’s name without using it as filler.
- Day 4: Pray out loud: “Your kingdom come on earth.”
- Day 5: Ask for today’s bread, then thank Him when it comes.
- Day 6: Name one person to forgive, and do it.
- Day 7: Write what you are seeking first. Put the kingdom above it.
Close
You have a Father. You have a Son who taught you how to speak to Him. You have a kingdom still ahead, on this earth. Pray like that until he comes.