I do not think I have ever met a person who was completely
satisfied with his/her prayer life. There seems to always be room for
improvement. Our prayer lives are, at a minimum, revealing concerning our
ongoing walk with God. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said “There is nothing that
tells the truth about us as Christian people so much as our prayer life.”
Jesus’
disciples were unsure and confused when it came to prayer, especially in light
of the fact Jesus had just told them how not to pray in Mat. 6:5-8. In
Luke’s parallel account (Luke 11:1) we read “Now it came to pass, as He was
praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to
Him, ‘Lord teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” In
response to this request, Jesus gives the words to the most famous prayer ever
given. It is called “The Lord’s Prayer,” “The Model Prayer,” or sometimes
“The Disciples’ Prayer” since it was given originally to the
disciples. The full prayer is found in Mat. 6:9-13.
One
might ask why the disciples needed to be taught how to pray. All people
should already know how to pray – right? Not necessarily. There is
more to it than simply bowing the head, folding the hands, and saying
words. The actual words that are said are important, but even more
important than the words themselves are the deep spiritual truths which
underlie the words spoken. These are truths that are never to be forgotten
when we pray. The Lord’s Prayer has, at its foundation, the character of
God and our proper relationship with Him as His creatures.
Many
have asked the question “Is the Lord’s Prayer simply to be recited ‘as is’ or
is it merely a framework?” Jesus was teaching His disciples essentially
to “Pray like this,” not necessarily to “Pray these exact words.” Andrew
Murray, the voluminous writer on the subject of prayer said “It is a form of
prayer that becomes the model and inspiration for all other prayer, and yet
always draws us back to itself as the deepest utterance of our souls before
God.”
The
first words of the prayer are “Our Father in Heaven.” God is to be
addressed not merely as “God” but as “Our Father.” Very simply, we see a
closeness to God like a father and child, not some distant far-away impersonal
being. It is an amazing privilege to have this level of access. The
very first thing Jesus taught them is “You have access to God like a child has
access to a parent.” No Old Testament Jew ever addressed God in such
terms. God was much more distant to them. Only two words into the
model prayer and Jesus has already said something revolutionary and
earth-shattering to any adherent of Judaism!
The
phrase “Our Father” is a term of tender affection. It is translated
basically as “Abba” or “Father.” It means, in its most literal terms,
“Daddy.” Jesus could have used the normal word for father “Pater” but
instead used the Aramaic word “Abba.” Which is much more personal and affectionate.
“Abba” was the address of a small child to his father. When a child was
weaned, it learned to say “Abba” and “Imma” (daddy and mother). To the
Jewish mind a prayer addressing God as “daddy” would not only be improper, it
would have been sacrilegious, irreverent, and just plain wrong to the highest
degree. Consider for a moment if you were to meet with the President of
the United States, how would you address him? You would probably say
something like “Mr. President,” “Sir,” “President Trump,” or “Mr. Trump.”
You would not call him by his first name, nor a nickname, and certainly not
“daddy.” But, if you were one of his own children you would walk right
into the oval office and address this man, the President of the United States
and leader of the free world, as “daddy.” What Jesus was teaching was
mind-blowing to the Jews. He was saying to believers that you have the
high and distinguished privilege of calling the God of the whole universe,
creator of all things, sovereign over everything, as “daddy.”
God
indeed cares for us like a daddy would. We find this sort of affectionate
language in Scripture. We read in Hosea 11:3-4, 8 of the love and care of
a father for his children when it says “I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them
by their arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with
gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke
from their neck. I stopped and fed them . . . My heart churns within me;
My sympathy is stirred.” The point being made here is that if God is your
Father, He will take care of you. Later in Matthew 6 Jesus asked His
disciples rhetorically “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will
put on. Is not life more than food and the body more that clothing?”
(Mat. 6:25) In 6:21-32 He says “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What
shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For
after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows
that you need all these things.” (Mat. 6:31-32)
Christians are not on the outside looking in. We are on the inside.
We are the children of the living God! Paul wrote to the Ephesian church
in Eph. 5:1 “Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly beloved children.”
Not as slaves, employees, subjects, strangers, foreigners, or unloved people,
rather as “beloved children!”
God is
our Father who resides in Heaven. Heaven is not as distant as we may
think, yet it is far removed from the sin of the earthly realm. For
believers, all access to Heaven is available to us and God is the supplier.
When I was younger I had a friend whose dad worked for Frito Lay.
He got all kinds of snacks that the packages had been slightly damaged, barely
out of their freshness dates, etc. On their kitchen counter were stands like
you might see in a concession stand with rows of chips and snack cakes clipped
to it. I was immediately envious that he had something in his home I
wished I had in mine! In our home we kept our limited variety of Little
Debbie cakes seemingly hidden away in the cabinet as though they were
restricted (and basically were). But my friend appeared to have
all-you-could-eat chips and snack cakes at his fingertips 24/7! To a boy
of about 13 or 14 that seemed like a dream too good to be true, but there it
was before my hungry eyes! My friend had these things for one
reason. He had access! Because of his dad’s job with Frito Lay
he could enjoy an unlimited supply of goodies. Our Father in Heaven has
given us blessings to the degree that He, by comparison, makes snack cakes
look like mud pies! Ephesians 1:3 tells us that “God has blessed
us with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places.” “Heaven” is ‘ouranos
meaning “vaulted expanse of the sky with all things visible in it.”
God is
“transcendent.” He “transcends” everything and everyone. He is holy
and righteous, set apart from all which is unholy. The traditional tall
ceiling in churches are not just for beauty but to signify the transcendence of
God. The transcendent God of the universe is in Heaven and on His
throne and we can come boldly and confidently to Him any time we want to and
say “daddy.” In such a simple phrase as “Our Father Who is in Heaven”
there is a rich portion of theology.
In Christ,
Dr. Allen Raynor, Pastor
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