Matthew 6:9
Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
When we pray to “our Father,” what kind of Father are we talking to? He is a personal Father with a heart to give the best to his children. He is available and generous. He receives us willingly and lovingly. He guards and encompasses us with his goodness. The very idea of fatherhood came from God. He isn’t imitating human fathers, he invented fatherhood. So he is the perfect father–perfectly loving, totally fair, always present, unfailingly wise, a giver of joy, a strong protector, the one who meets needs. We can always depend on him, always talk to him, always count on Him. We know that he will always do what is best for us. And he will love us unconditionally. This is the kind of Father we come to in prayer.
But our Father is not merely loving and personal. If he was, the kinds of prayers we bring would be limited. We could not count on Him in the truly troubling, the cosmically confusing, the globally disturbing, the unceasingly painful matters. But we have a personal, loving Father in heaven. This doesn’t mean he is distant. It means he is over all–he is in the heavens and the earth, governing all. Our Father is the king of the universe, the ruler of history. To quote that great old Hymn, “Crown Him With many Crowns”, our Father is “the potentate of time.” He is both the intimate and the most infinite, perfectly good and all powerful, with you right now and governing every moment for all time. So our most private and personal fears are safe in his hands and heart and our crushing global fears and societal anxieties will be resolved by Him in truth and justice. He is that kind of Father, unlike any other.
I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville, in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.
