God is Our Dad
“Our Father in Heaven.”
Before we begin: What words describe your earthly father? Do you feel comfortable addressing God as “Father?” Why or why not?
“Who is God?”
God is an infinite, personal, eternal Spirit who created the universe by His own power. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and present everywhere at all times. And he exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” I like the first two words: “God is.” Everything after that, while very true, sounds like a recitation from a theology lecture.
The voice from the burning bush told Moses to tell the people that “I AM” has sent you (Exodus 3:14). And what precisely does that mean? The only further explanation is “I AM who I AM,” which points to God’s eternal self-existence. If you know that “God is” and that he is the great “I AM,” you know the most fundamental truth in the universe.
I. When You Need to Know
In Psalm 81:10 God gives a wonderful invitation to his children, “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it." Ask what you need, God says, and I will do it for you. Years ago I heard someone say that Jeremiah 33:3 is “God’s telephone number” because it contains a very clear promise: “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”
1. We Do Not Pray Alone
The Lord’s Prayer begins with a simple statement about who God is. Jesus invites us to say “Our Father” when we pray. The key to understanding the Lord’s Prayer is rightly understanding what that phrase means. First of all, when you say, “Our Father in heaven,” you are admitting that you do not pray alone. The Lord’s Prayer is not a “private” prayer. This is an important insight because it is very easy to become me-oriented when we pray. But when you pray “Our Father,” you are confessing that your problems are not the only problems in the world. You are admitting that there are millions of people around the world who have concerns just as great as yours. To pray like this imparts a bigness and expansiveness to your prayer because it includes all of God’s children everywhere. When we pray “Our Father” as a congregation, we cease to be individuals coming to church with our own particular burdens. Instead, we become part of a family with a common heritage and with shared values. It is a family created by the new birth and made possible by the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ for our redemption.
And that leads us to a crucial theological point. The first step in prayer is to learn to call God “Father." In a true biblical sense, the only people who can do that are those who are the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ ដ្បិážâ€‹áž¢áŸ’នក​រាល់​គ្នា​សុទ្ធ​ážáŸ‚​ជា​កូន​ព្រះ ដោយសារ​សáŸáž…ក្ážáž¸â€‹áž‡áŸ†áž“ឿ​ជឿ​ដល់​ព្រះគ្រីស្ទយáŸážŸáŸŠáž¼ážœ (Galatians 3:26). I know it is popular today to say “We’re all God’s children” with a kind of glibness that blurs the distinctions between those who know Jesus Christ and those who don’t. But in contrast to those who would apply the Lord’s Prayer to everyone, even to non-Christians, we must declare that this is a prayer only true Christians can pray.
2. Like Father, Like Son
Second, you are to call him “Our Father’”. When you call God “Father,” you are saying there is one in heaven who hears and knows and understands and cares.
Sons and daughters have family rights that guarantee them access to their father. That’s a big part of what being a father is all about. My children don’t need an appointment to see me, and I don’t need an appointment to see my Heavenly Father. Even in the midst of running the entire universe, keeping the stars in their courses, and making sure the planets don’t run into each other, and while he oversees six billion people with all their troubles, cares, worries, fears, problems, and difficulties, our God still has time for us. He listens to us as if He had no one else to listen to.
3. A Friend in High Places
Third, we pray to our Father who is “in heaven“. That’s usually a throwaway line for most of us. We tend to think it means that earth is where we are and heaven is where God is, which we imagine is beyond the farthest star. That’s not what it means. The phrase “in heaven” refers to heaven as the center of the universe and the seat of all authority and power and dominion and greatness. You are on earth and are therefore limited to this little ball of dirt floating around the sun in a little corner of a big galaxy called the Milky Way. To say that we are “on earth” means that we pray from a position of weakness and comparative insignificance. God is in the seat of all authority and all power. Therefore, when you say, “Our father in heaven,” you are proclaiming that he has the authority and power to hear you and to help you when you pray. It is precisely because God is in heaven that he has the power to help you.
II. New Way of Looking At God
Without a doubt, the central word is Father. A quick glance at a concordance reveals that the name “Father” is applied to God very infrequently in the Old Testament and never by a person referring to God as “my Father.” It always refers to God as the Father of the nation of Israel. When we come to the New Testament, we discover that Jesus called God “Father” more than 60 times. Why this enormous difference? Because the revelation of God as our personal Father is based on the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. It’s not that he wasn’t a Father to his people in the Old Testament, but that’s not the primary way He revealed Himself. Only in the New Testament do we discover that God is now the Father of those who come to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith.
The word “father” in the Bible means three basic things.
1. First, it refers to source or paternity or origin. God is the source of all that you have. When we sing the Doxology, we begin with the words “Praise God from whom all blessings flow“. Or as the Scripture says, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:25). When you call God “Father,” you declare that your ultimate origin rests with him.
2. Second, the word Father speaks of parental authority. He is God and you are not. He is running the show and you are not. He is a father; you are his child. We should affirm our confidence in his goodness toward us at all times.
3. Third, when you call God “Father,” you confess that he is a God of tender loving care. It is the love that keeping on loving no matter what we do or how badly we blow it or how many dumb mistakes we make. He is a God who never lets his children go. He loves his children with an everlasting love that is faithful and loyal no matter what happens.
When we were far away, he loved us. When we turned our back on him, he loved us. When we broke his law, he loved us. When we went our own way, he loved us. That’s what loyal love is all about. That’s the Father’s love for his children. He is always near us whether we see Him or feel Him or even whether we believe He is there or not.
Is There Anyone Up There Who Cares For Me?
The Lord’s Prayer answers the greatest question of the universe-Is there anybody up there who cares about me? Is there anybody up there who watches over me? Is there anybody up there who knows my name? And the answer comes back-Yes. Yes. Yes. There is a God in heaven who cares about you. And he is called Father
This prayer is the answer to the deepest problem of mankind-the problem of fatherlessness. The Lord’s Prayer reminds us that if we know Jesus Christ, we are not orphans in the universe.
Conclusion:
Jesus made prayer simple because in the end, we are simple people. If it were difficult, most of us would forget it or mess it up somehow. Yet these simple words are profound beyond our understanding. Everything God has for us and that He is for us is wrapped in the word “Father." When we come to Him in Jesus’ name, we are not coming to an angry God, but to a friendly Father. So don’t be afraid to talk to God. Your Father is waiting to hear from you. A Truth to Remember: In Jesus Christ we’ve discovered the most important truth of the universe. Our God is a father.