PRAYING TO THE FATHER
Matthew 6:9
There is great joy as a dad when my children ask me to provide some assistance in their life. Now it can be a little trying at times when all seven ask simultaneously. But like any father, and especially grandfathers, I delight to give good gifts to my children. How can you deny a precious little blonde-haired girl with blue eyes who says please?
We must remind ourselves of the relationship we enjoy with the Almighty God as we communicate with Him. He is our Heavenly Father. He delights in His children. He desires to care for His children. We once were children of wrath (Eph. 2:3) and children of the devil, but now by God’s grace we are children of the Father in heaven (1 John 3:1). We can call him Abba, Father (Gal. 4:6). This would sound irreverent in Jesus day. A little too close. Too snuggly for communicating with the inapproachable God hidden behind the veil. Even the high priest only had the opportunity to approach Him once a year.
At first, we may not understand the significance of addressing God this way, but no Old Testament Jew addressed God directly as My Father. The Old Testament highlighted God as father to describe God’s relationship as the One who birthed the nation of Israel. Father was never used in the personal sense to refer to God. And yet, here and throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus refers to God as father so frequently you could call it the Sermon on the Father.
We should find rest in praying to God as our Father. There is a level of personal intimacy we enjoy as His children. Come to God as His children asking and knowing that we have a God that desires and can give good gifts to His children (Matt. 7:7-11). We are more than servants of the High King. We are His sons and daughters. Pray like it. Ask like it. Appeal to Him in this way since you have been reborn and adopted into His family.
Some have a distorted view of fatherhood because we live in a broken world where sin has destroyed the family and the relationships between fathers and their children. It is essential that our prayers be oriented to Our Father to help redeem what has been lost in our personal experiences. By His grace, we have a Heavenly Father who can do something good, gracious, and merciful unlike our imperfect fathers here on earth. We just need to talk with Him about it. Do so today.
Pastor Chris Thompson