Thoughts About the Heavenly Father for the New Year

A few days ago in my devotions, I copied down words of Jesus about the heavenly Father, 

found in the Sermon on the Mount.

As we face a new year, these are precious truths to remember. 

First, how "your Father in heaven...makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."  (Mat. 5:45)

 "Your Father in heaven is perfect." (5:48)

"When you pray......pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly." (Mat. 6:6)
This tells us that when we go to pray, our Father is already there. 
And it also tells us that He sees every secret thing--not just the bad, but also the good.
He sees the secret tears, the secret burdens, the secret self-denial, the secret obedience.

"Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him." (Mat. 6: 8).
That is why, Jesus said, you don't need to vainly repeat yourself like the heathen do, who think they will be heard in proportion to how long or how many times they pray.

 We need only simple prayers in order to be heard,
but let us not merely whisk hasty prayers in order to get about our own things
when we ought not to neglect the spiritual duty and discipline of prayer--
prayer everywhere,
prayer at all times and without ceasing,
secret prayer,
prayer for all men--and it need not be repetitious, but it does need to be prayed.

 I read recently that we don't need to analyze while we pray,
and that had come to me shortly before that, how I tend to get off track when I start to pray for somebody and then go off analyzing the problem or the person.
Let us pray simply and with love and leave the judgments and figuring it all out
to our heavenly Father.

"Your heavenly Father will forgive you," if you forgive.
And conversely, if you do not forgive men their trespasses, "neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."


"Your heavenly Father feeds...the birds of the air."
"Are you not of more value than they?"

  "God clothes the grass of the field, "

and will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"

 "If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"
(Mat. 7:11)
And especially, will He not give His Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?
Those are just simple thoughts mostly straight from the Bible,
but what precious thoughts to begin the New Year with!