Our father

The Lord's Prayer is the model prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ provided to his disciples in response to their request to teach them to pray. Its form, order and content shows us what the elements and attitudes that characterize any appropriate sentence should be.

The Lord begins his prayer by saying: "Our Father." This way of addressing God must have been surprising and unusual for the disciples. Rather, the Jewish religion featured a stern, distant, and unapproachably holy God. A Pharisee would never have thought of referring to God as "Father."

On one occasion the Lord addressed God with the word "Abba", which means "daddy" or "daddy." Surely, the strict Pharisees who criticized Jesus so much for his unconventional view of religion would have been scandalized in this irreverent way for them to refer to the Creator of the universe.

But Jesus knew the Father intimately. He knew of his infinite love, his limitless mercy, his eternal desire to have a relationship of tenderness and intimacy with his children. That is why he felt free to address God by calling him "Father," and to encourage us to approach him with the same sense of trust and affection.

The writer of Hebrews encourages us to approach "confidently the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and to find grace for timely help." When we pray to God, we must visualize him as our Father, patient and merciful, eager to bless us and help us, his beloved children. We don't have to beg him. We should never feel like we are pestering or asking illegitimately.

Confidently approach the throne of grace! Ask confidently and ambitiously. God never spares His blessings. His greatest pleasure is attending to our needs and helping us in time of need. His heart is, indeed, the heart of a father!