Last week we began a short blog series on the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6. This week we look at the first part of the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples:
9 This, then, is how you should pray:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name….”
Prayer is a rhythm of relationship that trusts God with everything that matters to us, but more than that, it’s a rhythm of relationship that trusts God with everything that matters to him! Jesus starts off his teaching on prayer by pointing us to the glorious truth that God matters most of all.
Prayer ultimately is about worshiping God. This emphasis on worship at the beginning of Jesus’ prayer was so great that in the church’s early history, words from Revelation 4 were added to the end of the prayer, “For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.” God is not just the starting point of our prayers; he’s the goal.
Jesus also points us to see that worshipful prayer means being able to call God “our Father.” Referring to God as “Father” was rare among Jews, especially in prayer. They preferred using exalted titles like “Sovereign Lord” and “Mighty One.” Yet, the followers of Jesus would understand that throughout scripture, God chose the metaphor of fatherhood as one of the prime symbols of his intimate and special relationship with his people.
The first occurrence was in Exodus 4:22-23 when Moses boldly stands before Pharaoh and says:
22 “This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son. 23 I told you: Let my son go so that he may worship me.”
The image here of God as the Father of his people meant that God was Israel’s protector and rescuer. He is the God of hope for those who belong to him. So when Jesus was telling his disciples to call God “Father,” he was calling them to recognize that God was the perfect Protector, Rescuer, and Hope of Israel. He was their Protector, their Rescuer, and their Hope.
But another significant thing to point out: when Jesus called his followers to call God “Father” [as he frequently does throughout the Sermon on the Mount], he invited them to address God in the same way he did. Jesus’ words—His use of the plural possessive pronoun “our” is the key—beckon us to take our place alongside Him, entering into, partaking in, and emulating His relationship to God.
For Jesus, that relationship has always been. He has never not enjoyed the privilege of communion with his Father. But for us, that relationship where we begin to call God “our Father” happens the moment we repent of our sins and trust Jesus as the one who paid for our sins by dying on our behalf. God’s word tells us that when we place our faith in Jesus, we can honestly say that God is “OUR Father.” Listen to the apostle Paul from Romans 8:12-17:
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now 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.
Not everyone can call God their Father. We become God’s children when we receive the Holy Spirit, and we receive the Spirit when we place our faith in Jesus alone as the only way to be saved from our sins and to be made right with God. And when that happens, we have the privilege of calling God, “Abba—daddy!—Father.” We are God’s children, his sons, and daughters who can come to him with confidence in our prayers.
Jesus also tells us that our Father is in heaven. What does it mean to pray “Our Father in heaven?” It means recognizing that God is not limited by time and space that mark our human existence. Heaven is where God is and where God rules with authority and power. It’s the place where God’s rule and reign are most fully and perfectly experienced. Everything is as it ought to be. And when you pray to God the Father who loves you perfectly in a place where all things are perfect, it makes sense later when Jesus tells us to pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Calling God “Father” is the great act of faith. It means signing on for the Kingdom of God. When we call God “Father,” we are stepping out into the everyday stuff of life as his sons and daughters, ready to be a people through whom the pain of the world is held in the healing light of the love of God. Here we learn and discover that we want to pray and need to pray.
Pray that we would magnify the name of the Father in our lives, church, community, and world. What a great Father we serve!
–Wade