"Our Father in Heaven"

How dare I address him as "Father"? Sin, starting with Adam's in the garden and continuing with mine in daily life, has severed my connection with the holy God. Judge would be a more fitting name for my unclean lips and fearful heart. Yet, in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus teaches me to call God my Father.

At once I'm reminded that not everyone can use the Lord's Prayer. Only those who know that they are "[children] of God through faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26) dare approach him. Only those who know the Father, whose love sent his Son to become our brother and to restore us again as his children, can crawl up on his lap with confidence. Jesus marks his prayer "For believers only" by using that word Father.

"Our Father," Jesus also teaches me to pray. Could it be that he wants to broaden my sphere of concern and circle of prayer? That he wants me to pray not just for my own needs but also in broader concern, for all others with me in the family of believers? When I pray, "Our Father," I'm including believers around me whom I can name. I'm praying for my spouse and family members, my pastors and teachers, the members of my congregation. I'm praying also for believers I cannot name. Included are God's children oceans away and miles apart from me. What a wide net of prayer Jesus teaches me to cast with "Our Father"! What comfort when I realize that believers across the world are praying for me every time they speak those same two words!

And my Father is "in heaven." He's not some earthly father whose love is limited and whose reach is curtailed. "Nothing is impossible with God," Scripture assures me (Luke 1:37). My Father "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20). Unlike earthly fathers, my heavenly Father never makes a mistake. When life makes it seem so-if what has come my way seems heavy and hard-it's time to look up again to the One who sent it. That's my heavenly Father, whose power guided by his love will take good care of me and all those who are his in Christ Jesus.

"Our Father in heaven"-only four words. But what wealth of meaning is in them, meaning we want our hearts to treasure each time we use the prayer our Savior taught us.