|
It is impossible to relate to someone if we do not have an accurate understanding of who he or she is and what he or she is like. We can apply this to any of our relationships in life. In our relationship with God, this means that we must relate to Him based on how He reveals Himself to us in His Word. This seems simple enough, but the philosopher Blaise Pascal once offered this memorable and convicting line: “God made man in His own image, and man returned the favor.” In other words, we often project onto God our own viewpoints, assumptions, and biases instead of letting the fullness of His Word tell us who He is and what He is like.
In Matthew 6, as Jesus is teaching His disciples to relate to God through prayer by giving them the model prayer, He begins the prayer by giving His disciples four powerful words that capture who the God of the Bible is and how He relates to His people: “Our Father in heaven” (verse 9a).
We might find ourselves far too familiar with these words, so let’s examine them again and pray that God ignites them in our hearts today and fills us with a desire to commune with Him. Praying and talking to God as Father “conveys the authority, warmth, and intimacy of a loving father’s care, while ‘in heaven’ reminds believers of God’s sovereign rule over all things” (from the ESV Study Bible). This means that the truth that is the foundation of all prayer is that the powerful Creator of all things is our loving, caring Father.
In my favorite book on prayer, With Christ in the School of Prayer, Andrew Murray writes of these four words, “The words are the key to the whole prayer, to all prayer. It takes time, it takes life to study them; it will take eternity to understand them fully. The knowledge of God’s Father-love is the first and simplest, but also the last and highest lesson in the school of prayer.”
Read that quote again and read it slowly. Why are these four words from Jesus so powerful?
Because God is our loving, caring Father who rules over everything all the time, He desires a conversational relationship with us. Prayer is not just a way to ask God for things (although it does include that), it is a way to commune with the greatest Being that exists. As Kyle Worley explained on the Knowing Faith podcast, “The ancient gods were usually notable because they could execute force on behalf of a subservient people. Whereas the God of the Bible reveals Himself as Father and fulfills that revelation by inviting people not merely into following the power of His force, but welcomes people to enjoy presence of His fellowship.” What greater privilege could there be than that?
Because God is our loving, caring Father who rules over everything all the time, what other response could there be than wonder and awe? We are made for wonder and awe, whether it’s when we are captured by the view of a beautiful sunset or blown away by the bigness of the mountains or ocean. David looked at massive and beautiful scenery like this and said to God, “When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4). The truth that this same God who created everything also cares intimately for him moved David to awe and wonder.
Because God is our loving, caring Father who rules over everything all the time, we can live with deep, heart-level peace even when things around us do not make sense.
Because God is our loving, caring Father who rules over everything all the time, humility is cultivated in our hearts as we are reminded of God’s bigness and our smallness, His gracious provision and our dependence.
Because God is our loving, caring Father who rules over everything all the time, our identity is not in temporary, earthly things but in our permanent status as beloved children of the King. It is not in what we do, but in who He says we are.
Because God is our loving, caring Father who rules over everything all the time, our priority is to live for His agenda and plans, not our own.
Finally, because God is our loving, caring Father who rules over everything all the time, we are even more thankful for the gospel because we know that Jesus was forsaken on the cross so that we might be welcomed in as beloved children of the King and Creator.
|
