Our Father who art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy name…
This name, this title...
There is an odd reaction to this title.
Father.
Of all the words to cause such extreme reactions…
Father.
For some this word conjures a very positive idea… we love our fathers… our fathers love us. The relationship is healthy… it is safe. Your dad is the provider, protector, and is a great role model.
For some this word conjures up all of those feelings… but in mourning. We loved our fathers… wishing they were still around… you are separated by death, custody after divorce, or by some other means.
For some this word conjures a very negative sentiment within you. Father was absent. Father was gone. Father treated you bad. Father… doesn’t deserve to be given a proper name. Father is the extent of your relationship. Maybe he was embarrassing, maybe he was cruel, maybe both…maybe more. Father leaves a bad memory. Father is something you are avoiding… hating… needing to be released from.
Violence, legalism, abuse, absence…are words that you associate with ‘Father.’
For some… you never knew your father.
There is no feeling except a longing to have one.
Father.
We all have different responses… because we all have different journeys… we all have different experiences with the word, the person, and the idea.
This is the name God chooses to identify himself as.
As a Father.
Why?
Relationship.
Though God is the transcending and all powerful Elohim… he is also a Father to his creation.
As a father provides for his children with as much power as he has, so God wishes to be a father using his power to the good of those who love him…and… for those whom he loves.
All of a sudden we are introduced to another concept: God is love.
But some of us see this differently.
Some of us can’t tie father and relationship to… love.
It’s not possible.
When we pray we don’t want to call him father… we feel God is deserving of a better name… or we can’t pray… we can’t get this idea of God loving us… because we don’t understand this idea of a father actually caring for us.
This is real.
This division.
This feeling of isolation from God…
it’s real.
There are people missing out on love… missing out on God…
Not because of a lack of belief…
Not because of a lack of faith…
People are missing out on Him… because of a lack of understanding because of a past hurt.
We can’t relate to God… the way we need to relate to Him… the way Jesus taught us to relate to Him… without bridging the fallout with the relationship with your father.
God is your Father.
God is my Father.
God is everyone’s Father.
God is everything to the ones with nothing.
Us.
Because we all need a heavenly father.
Psalm 10:14 states,
“But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.”
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.”
Psalm 68:5 tells us,
“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.”
is God in his holy dwelling.”
God describes himself as a father, to the fatherless, and as a father to all.
Jesus used the Hebrew term, Abba, which in our culture would mean ‘Daddy’. One of the most intimate names to use for a father figure.
God wishes to highlight his desire to be in a relationship with His creation.
God as a perfect father… God as a heavenly father… God, great enough to be Elohim… yet intimate enough to care about your needs, my needs, as if we were his only child… the only person he wished to help.
In Romans 8 we see the reality of what God is trying to do within our relationship with him…
God’s spirit beckons.
This life with God as our father is an adventure… a journey. And he wants us to cry out to him asking, ‘What’s next, daddy?’
And how do we get this new life?
Jesus said in John 10:10 “…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Why did Jesus come?
To give us this new life.
He is the way, the truth, and the life.
He, acting on our behalf, saving us, laying down his life for us, as a Savior, as a big brother, as a father, as someone who loves us.
Loves us?
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
God wants his children to be reconciled with him… children who have gone astray and rebelled against him… he has done everything to get us back.
Forgiving us.
Giving us a position in His family.
Children of God.
God as Father.
God could have used many different words, ideas, and analogies to communicate his desire for an intimate relationship with us… why does God WANT us to relate to Him as our Father?
I believe because he wants to drive home a few concepts:
Protection and Provision.
God watches over us. His strength, power, majesty, and wisdom no one can compare to.
He delivers us from Evil.
“He refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.” –Psalm 23:3-6
Many times this passage is used to convey God as a shepherd… watching over us.
Sheep aren’t guided for a name’s sake…
Sheep don’t sit at a table…
Sheep don’t get their heads anointed with oil…
Sheep don’t dwell in the house of the Lord…
Children are.
Father’s give names.
Father’s prepare tables… provide for the table.
Father’s anoint…
Father’s provide shelter in a house…
Fathers do those things.
God is our father… he protects and provides.
The second concept is adoption.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” Ephesians 1:3-5
For those with that negative feeling to the word Father… for those with no father… God has adopted you.
He chose you.
He desires… you.
Adoption to sonship (or daughtership... the original Greek means both son and daughter) through Jesus Christ… our big brother, our savior, our Lord.
He gives us love, He gives us His name, He gives us purpose, he gives us direction… He didn’t have to.
He’s God.
But He chose to.
He chose to take on the responsibility for your sake, for my sake, because He loves us.
He chose to be a Father. A Father that some of us never had, wished we had, and even a Father that goes above and beyond what we already may have. God is giving us new lives.
God will never fail us.
Our father in the Heavens is fully capable of re-parenting… He is fully capable of taking whatever brokenness we have and holding our hearts.
“This, then, is how you should pray:
‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’” –Matthew 6:9-13
Father.
Father.
Daddy.
He loves.
He loves Us.
Your Father…
loves…
you.
