OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN
How much do you love your kids? That question is almost unanswerable, isn’t it? We cannot measure the love we feel for our kids. And Jesus is trying to remind us that He loves us THAT much and more!
Let me give you a brief historical context here. The Jews had always viewed God in two ways: as the Father of Israel and as their spiritual Father. This is taught in the Psalms. But through the sinful history of the Jews involving foreign cultures and their pagan gods, they had lost and forgotten that second fact. When the disciples made the request, “Master, teach us to pray,” Jesus first reminded them that God is their FATHER … and He used the Aramaic “Abba,” translated “Daddy.”
Can you remember when you called your father “daddy?” Isn’t it a wonderful sound when your little one calls out, “daddy!” How intimate. How touching. How pure is that love. That term could represent joy, excitement or even fear, and so it is when we begin our prayers with “Our Father.”
Author and pastor John McArthur states it so well in his book The Lord’s Prayer. Allow me to paraphrase his comparison of an earthly father’s love for a child with God’s love for us.
We need not fear – we can approach Our Father
We have hope – how much more does God love us than we love our kids
We can conquer loneliness – Our Father will never forsake us
We have infinite possibilities – Our Father controls all of Heaven and earth
Our Father — how much He loves, accepts, forgives … US!
That is Who you are praying to!
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