Our Father in Heaven

This post is a continuation of the series, “Meditations on the Lord’s Prayer.” Click here to read the introductory post.

“With these words, God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true Father and that we are his true children, so that we may pray to him as boldly and confidently as dear children ask their dear father” (Luther’s Catechism, Northwestern Publishing House: Milwaukee, 2017, p. 243).

Prayer—the humbling ability to come before the almighty God with our requests, troubles, thanks, and pleas—is such an undeserved gift.

So often, we don’t even think about what an amazing gift it truly is. Other times, when feeling the weight of our sins and the burdens of guilt and shame, we might be tempted to think, “Who are we to think we can speak to God and expect that he will listen to us—much less answer us?”

In the address of the Lord’s Prayer, we are reminded to whom we pray and how the almighty God wants to be called by us: he’s our Father in heaven.

Yes, God is mighty, and we know that he alone can answer our prayers because all authority under heaven and earth is his alone. And yes, we can address God with many names and titles . . . but never forget that when you pray, dear Christian, you speak to your heavenly Father who loves you more than you can imagine.

Maybe your experience with the word father has been tainted by the sinful world we live in. Perhaps it’s a word that leaves a bitter aftertaste in your mouth when you speak it; a painful cringe when you hear it.

If that’s true, I’m so sorry. Even if it isn’t true for you, all earthly fathers are sinful. They have flaws and failures. They know it, and we, their children, know it too.

Come and see in the pages of Scripture a different Father. A better Father. A perfect Father. See the God who calls you his dearly loved child—the God who loved you so much that he gave up everything, even his own Son, to rescue you from sin, death, and the devil. He did that to make you a part of his own family.

God is our Father, yours and mine, not because of anything we’ve done, but entirely because of everything Jesus has done for us. And when we speak that word—our—it calls to mind that we are part of a family that transcends blood, space, and time.

Look at your family, dear Christian. See how God has blessed your brothers and sisters throughout the pages of Scripture and history, all the way to the present age. See how he cared for them and answered their prayers—often doing immeasurably more than they even thought to ask.

Look at your own life. See how your heavenly Father blesses you too, first by salvation through Jesus, and then with so many other undeserved blessings that overflow—even ones you haven’t asked for—because God is your true Father, and he delights in you, his true child.

That changes how you and I talk to God and what we ask of him, doesn’t it?

It also changes how we act when we’ve spoken and laid our requests before him, waiting for his response. As our good and perfect heavenly Father, we know that God is going to do what he knows is best for us and our spiritual good.

As his children because of Jesus, we can confidently call upon God and boldly trust that he will be who he says he is—our heavenly Father—and do what he promises and answer our prayers.

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