A Prayer for a Deeper Understand

of the Fatherhood of God

 

 

FATHER GOD!  How glibly and thoughtlessly we address You as “Our Father.”  We confess that too often it is more out of habit than it is the conscious awareness of what it means to call You “Father.”  We use it as just another metaphor to identify to whom we are directing our prayer.  It’s a substitute to calling You “Almighty” or “Eternal” or “Everlasting” or “Holy” or “Righteous” or one of a number of words that describe who You are.  However, when we listen to our Savior as He talked with You, we realize that His favorite name for You was, “Father.”  The record states that more than two hundred times He called You Father.  And when He was asked by the disciples to teach them to pray, He said, “Pray this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed is thy name.” He tells us to call You, "Our Father."

 

Why is this?  Could it be, O God, that Jesus taught us to call You by this name because, unlike most names we use when addressing You, this name tells us something not only about You but about ourselves.  Most other names only tell us something about You.  If You are our Father, then we are Your children.  Such was the teaching of one of Your disciples who wrote, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God; and such we are.”

 

You want us to know not only who You are but who we are.  We are Your children.  Again and again we find ourselves asking, “Who am I?”  And when we call You our Heavenly Father we answer the deepest and most profound question we can ask.    We are Your children.  And not only do we know who we are, but we know that there is nothing that can happen to us, no disappointment, no discouragement, no trial, no tribulation, no hurt, no heartache can defeat us.  We are the children of a Heavenly Father.  Paul reminded the believers in Rome that though they were persecuted, though they suffered for Christ’s sake, they were to remember that they are children who can cry Abba, Father. We can face every unknown tomorrow, every challenge, every circumstance, every bitterness, and every burden for we are the children of a loving, all merciful, all wise, all powerful, heavenly Abba.

 

O God, may we ever feel the deep passion of the soul when we call You, Father.   May we never doubt, not for one moment, that we are equal to the demands of life.  You will provide for us; You will care for us; You will walk with us; You will receive us into Your eternal home, for we are Your children.    

 

Hear our prayer in Jesus name.   Amen.