Let’s go into The Lord’s Prayer, not as someone who needs to be born again; but, as someone who IS born again but has sinned. Let’s approach The Lord’s Prayer as a person who accepts the fact that they have done wrong, bad, or evil. Let’s see how The Lord’s Prayer helps you get the grace and mercy of your heavenly Father. It is important to learn these principles so you can IMMEDIATELY come to your heavenly Father EVERY TIME you get the impression that you need this prayer from the Bible, Jesus, the Holy Spirit speaking to your conscience, or a friend pointing something out to you.

Mat 6:9 This, then, is how you should pray: Jesus is giving you this prayer and telling you that this is how He wants you to pray to your Father, Who is in heaven. Assuming that you have the attitude of the tax collector in Jesus’ parable, you are now ready to do what Jesus is telling you to do. This, then, is how you should pray, when you have done something wrong and you are allowing yourself to feel bad about it.

The Pharisee was claiming to be without sin; the tax collector was admitting his sin and confessing it to God. When you come to your Father in heaven with the attitude of the tax collector, He is faithful and just and will forgive you your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness. Can you see why you should do what the tax collector did and not what the Pharisee did?

All during our human lives we were able to make mistakes, do bad things, and hurt others while getting by with most of it because we didn’t GET CAUGHT. We could lie, cheat, steal, gossip, bully, and mislead people; and, as long as we didn’t get caught by our parents, the authorities, or governmental officials, we were safe. You may still be maintaining that attitude; you may feel like as long as NO ONE knows about it you are safe. But now, we are dealing with God Who knows everything, sees everything, and is everywhere. We can’t get by with even the smallest word or deed; He even knows all our thoughts and feelings.

Let’s look at 1 John 1:8-9 (NIV) again: If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. You may be involved in something you can’t get out of; you may be involved in something you are struggling with WANTING to get out of; you may be involved in something you are having a hard time feeling like it is all that wrong; you may be involved in something you are trying to justify, explain away, forgive yourself for, or that your friends are telling you it is okay. But, if you will bring it before your heavenly Father and allow Him to decide what you should do, He will help you.

Since we are humans, we make A LOT of mistakes, do things we shouldn’t, and sin against ourselves, others, and God. The Holy Spirit speaks to our conscience and helps us realize we have thought, felt, said, or done something wrong. This feeling of wrong is our warning that we need to take steps toward getting God’s help. WE can’t change the fact that we make a lot of mistakes; but, WE can allow ourselves to feel guilty so we will go to God. He will GRADUALLY change us and make us into people who are more yielded to His power. However, we have to know what we need to do WHEN we do turn to our heavenly Father in order to get His help.

The only way we are going to grow and change is to:

1. Admit we did wrong.


2. Allow our self to feel guilty about that wrong.


3. Want to change.


4. Come to our heavenly Father for grace, mercy, and forgiveness.


5. Allow Him to start working on the CAUSE for why we did wrong.

Because you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, Lord, and King, you are a child of God and a citizen in His Kingdom. One of your rights and privileges is to come to God, as your Father, and ask Him to forgive you. And, you can join Jesus so He can help you change. The Lord’s Prayer is your path to forgiveness AND change. No matter how bad a word or deed you said or did, you not only CAN, you desperately NEED to come to God, as your Father, and start praying this prayer; ask Jesus, and He will help you pray it.

The way to know it is time to come to God as a wrong doer is when He causes you to feel guilty about something. If you feel strong guilt that tries to drive you away from God, then that is Satan and not your heavenly Father. If you feel large quantities of guilt about a whole lot of things you feel, think, say or do, that also is Satan and not God. God always only deals with one or two issues at a time. No matter what kind of guilt you feel or how many issues you feel guilty about, take them ALL to God; He will help you sort them out.

If, because of some wrong doing, you are having problems FEELING a love and closeness to your heavenly Father, say: MY Father in heaven a few times until you are able to FEEL the relationship grow. Once you are able to feel His love, you will be ready to start including the rest of your Christian family by saying: “Our Father in heaven.” Once you have felt His love and have been able to address Him as “Our Father in heaven” you are ready to move on to the next step in The Lord’s Prayer.