Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matt. 6:9).
The concept of God as Father is more prevalent in the New Testament compared to the Old. We have such text as Psalm 2:7 “I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” And yet the predominate focus of God in the Old Testament is a ruling Deity, an exalted, supreme being who created all things. Jesus focused on God as Father more than anyone. He taught His disciples to pray to their “father who is in heaven” and God is portrayed as a Father who cared for His children (Matt. 5:9). The stronger inference in the New Testament is that we are children of God. Jesus even placed the faith of children as the perfect expression of faith related to the kingdom of God.
If we reverse engineer our theology (work backwards from the New Testament back into the Old Testament) with the assumption that God does not change, underneath the image of an omnipotent, ruling sovereign, especially over His people Israel, is a heavenly Father who deeply cared for His children. God loved Israel even when they abandoned Him (Hosea 1:10-11). This quality is not something God “puts on” or “takes off” but it is His special affection and nature towards His children. God does not simply play a parental role; He is in every sense of the word a loving parent that cares deeply for His children. This is His nature. He exudes all the qualities that we would associate with being a father to His children and those qualities we best associate with mothers. God embodies all these attributes. Nothing could demonstrate this more than His willingness to “give us His only begotten Son” so that all who believe in the sufficiency of His sacrifice would not perish but have everlasting life.
What might be more striking is making sure we do not divorce these paternal characteristics from the glory of God. Ezekiel 1 describes the magnificence of the glory of God. Isaiah 40:12-31 describes the immensity and sovereignty of God, a breathless description of none other than the one whom Jesus referred to as our Father who is in the heavens.
Our “dad” is amazing. He provides the parental love and care that keeps calling us to live as His children in a broken world. Because He is sovereign and omnipotent, we can live knowing that He has His fingerprints on our journey and He is more concerned for our wellbeing than we are. He can redeem anything that seeks to destroy His children. Even when we abandon Him, He is deeply committed to keep on showing His love to us. As Psalm 139 affirms, there is no where we can ever go, whether the deepest parts of the earth or the farthest reaches of the unknown universe that God would not consciously be present with us. This is our Father, who is in the heavens.
Pastor Brad
