There are several aspects of this prayer that are related to success in the Kingdom of God.
I. Relationship to the Father.
II. Responsibility of Worship
III. Reality of the Kingdom.
IV. Rewards of Spirit
V. Repentance from Sin.

The first thing that Jesus teaches about prayer is that it is not heard, unless it is heard by God the Father. A famous evangelist once came under tremendous fire because he said that God does not here the prayer of the Jew. What the man meant to say, was that the only prayer that God hears outside of this relationship with Him as Father, is the prayer of repentance through His Son Jesus. That first time we approach God in repentance, we come to Him as the Judge of our souls. In fear and trepidation, realizing that if He chose, He could give us the blast of judgment. But instead, He gave us the blessing of redemption, adopted us into His family, and now hears every request that we bring to Him as a Father responding to a beloved child.

To have this relationship with the Father where it is possible to come to Him apart from fear, and with boldness and confidence, there must first have been the approach to him as Judge. This is only possible through Jesus Christ. Once this has taken place, then you will be able to experience what Jesus was trying to impart to His disciples on this occasion and in all future approaches to the Father. It is important for us at the outset to understand something more about this relationship with God as Father. Therefore, we must first establish a
Rationale Behind the Fatherness of God.
11:2 "He said to them: `When you pray, say Father". In Matthews account, he says say "Our Father." Through our relationship with Jesus Christ, His Father becomes our Father. We need never doubt that. But is only through that relationship with Jesus that this can take place A rationale is defined as an explanation of the controlling principles of belief or practice. There are three primary principals that relate to our understanding of God the Father.

The first is that there is:
I. A Myth to Be Destroyed.
The name Christian today has come to mean more a social or cultural alliance than a distinctive characteristic. But when you ask what it is that makes one a Christian you will hear all kinds of rationale. From the fact that they were born that way, to the idea that since our parents are such then we too must of necessity be. The richest answer I know to define the reason one is a Christian is that a Christian is one who has God as his or her Father in the most personal sense.

Now you may argue that surely this can be said of everyone. Is God not after all the Father of all creation? And there are many who would try and support this idea from scripture, although nowhere in the Bible does it teach that God is the Father of all mankind. The earliest account of this truth may be found in Exodus 4:22, God instruct Moses to tell Pharaoh that the Israelites, His chosen people are His first born son, the seed of Abraham. The Old Testament is distinctively exclusive when it speaks of the Fatherhood of God. The N.T also, in spite of it's overall world vision, shows God as Father, not of every man, but of a specific group of people who, knowing themselves to be sinners, have put their trust in Jesus Christ as their sin bearer and so too have become the seed of Abraham. Galatians 3:26-29 "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, [27] for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. [28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [29] If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

Jesus denied the universal idea of the Fatherhood of God when He confronted the Pharisees. They believed that Abraham, and thus God was their Father, but Jesus told them categorically that they were of their father the devil. So even those that were biologically born into the blood line of Abraham were not necessarily son's of God. It is extremely important to understand this principal in a society where everyone believes it is their inalienable right to claim the Fatherhood of God whenever the moment necessitates His intervention in the circumstances of their lives. This is a myth that has absolutely no grounds or support. It is vital in our understanding of this model prayer of Jesus that we will come to know the true meaning of being God's child.
So in the first place we see that in order to come to grips with the reality of that Fatherhood, there are some myths that must be destroyed. Once these myths have been set aside, we can move on to understanding what this really means. So we see in the second place:

II. The Meaning Determined
If it is a myth that God is everyone's Father, then what does the Fatherhood of God really mean? First we must recognize that there is something called:

1. The New Covenant.
Israel's covenant relationship with God was different. He was known to them as the "I Am." Yahweh was a covenant name, and it spoke to Israel of what their God was in Himself rather than of what He would be in relationship to them. It was the name of Israel's King and so there was something of a regal reserve about it. It was a name calculated to raise up feelings of humility and awe before the divine being more than anything else. The Israelites were not even to speak the covenant name of Yahweh and would never write it. Not even to this day.

The aspect of God's character upon which God laid most stress in the O.T was His Holiness. In Isaiah's vision in the temple, the angels repeated, "Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts" This could be the motto of the whole OLD TESTAMENT. The idea of separateness.

J.I. Packer, great theologian writes, The constant emphasis was that man, because of his weakness as a creature and his defilement as a sinful creature, must learn to humble himself and be reverent before God. Religion was the "fear of the Lord" Again and again it was emphasized that man must keep his place, and his distance, in the presence of a Holy God. This emphasis overshadowed everything else. But in the New Testament we find that there is a drastic change in the relationship.

God and religion are no less than they were. The holiness of God and it's demand for man's humility is presupposed throughout the New Testament. That has not changed. But something has been added. The New Testament. believer no longer deals with God by His exclusive covenant name of Yahweh, but rather by the inclusive, family covenant name of Father - Abba. A name which is calculated to awaken feelings of closeness and approachability. His own sons and daughters. His heirs.

The stress is not on the difficulty and danger of drawing near to the holy God, but on the boldness and confidence with which we may approach Him. A boldness which springs directly from faith in Christ and from a knowledge of His saving work. Ephes. 3:12 In him (Jesus) and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. Hebrews 10:19-22 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, [20] by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, [21] and since we have a great priest over the house of God, [22] let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. So we see that there is now a new arrangement. We also see that Jesus portrays for us:
2. A Living Example.
John 14:8-10 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." 9Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work." Jesus gave us a living example. A way to know the Father in the flesh. Not only was Jesus a living example of the nature of the Father, but He is also the way, the only way,that we can enter into this relationship with God. Some myths concerning His Fatherhood must be destroyed. The meaning must be determined. Now, knowing that not everyone in the world has the right to call God Father, and that an intimate relationship with Him is necessary, we will examine in the third place:
III. The Medium Disclosed.
If the Fatherhood of God is not universal, then how is this obtained. We do not become sons and daughters on the basis of a universal right, or natural birth, but rather of the basis of a supernatural gift. It is not something we can even choose to do on our own. John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father (in other words is acknowledged by God as a son) except through me. In the words of Jesus Christ to Nicodemus in John 3, you come into the Fatherhood of God not through being born, but through being born again.

John 1:12 - 14 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- [13] children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. It is not a natural birth, therefore we are adopted. And what a tremendous act of mercy this is on God's part. That He would choose to become our Father.

In the ancient world, it was a familiar Roman practice to adopt an heir. It was a practice usually confined to the childless well-to-do. It's subjects were not normally infants, but young adults who had proved themselves worthy to be an heir to the fortune of that honorable family, so that the heritage was not lost to the state, and the family name was carried on. This was part of the mystery of the adoption to those early believers. God did not operate in this manner. He adopts us out of free love, not because the record shows us worthy to bare His name, but despite the fact that they show the very opposite. We are not fit for a place in God's family. The idea of Him loving us and exalting us and giving us the same position that He gave His only Son is ludicrous, yet that is exactly what adoption means. Nothing less. Romans 8:14-17 "…because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Oh, what grace.

Dr. J. I. Packer said that if he was to sum up the message of the whole New Testament in three words he would say "adoption through propitiation" Adoption - the plan that God had to bring us into His family. Propitiation(that someone else, namely His Son would pay the price on our behalf) - the only method by which He could accomplish that plan. Today one hears of unbelievable sums of money paid by childless parents to adopt a child into their family. The price God paid for our adoption can never be matched by any some of money. Nor can the benefits of being adopted into God's family be matched by any of those found in the greatest families of the world. The mere thought of this wonderful truth should invoke our praises and cause our very hearts to soar. We ought to echo the question of Charles Wesley in one of his hymns,

O, how shall I the goodness tell,
Father, which thou to me hast showed?
That I, a child of wrath and hell,
I should be called a child of God.

Can you say that you are a child of God? Have you made your peace with God the judge? Have you been brought into the family relationship with Him through the shed blood of Jesus Christ? That is the only possible way for the relationship to change from God the Judge to God your Father. This is the means by which we come to know God as Father. There is no other way. We must come through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. May this be your experience today as you come simply before Him and ask Him to forgive your sins. To receive the provision that He has made for you through Jesus, and then to follow Him in obedience from this day on.