{"id":1582,"date":"2022-01-23T20:36:32","date_gmt":"2022-01-23T19:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1582"},"modified":"2022-01-23T21:41:44","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T20:41:44","slug":"our-father-in-heaven-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1582","title":{"rendered":"Our Father in Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is the beginning of our Week of Prayer and Fasting. Each day we will begin our times of prayer together with a reflection. All the reflections are in a booklet with the title, Praying the Lord\u2019s Prayer. You can use those reflections for your own prayers if you aren\u2019t joining with us to pray.
\nThe best book on prayer I have ever read is \u201cPrayer \u2013 finding the heart\u2019s true home\u201d by Richard Foster. In it he says, \u201cPrayer is nothing more than an ongoing and growing love relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.\u201d For every Christian, our life of prayer is the heart of our relationship with God. Every one of us needs to learn how to pray better. We all need to get to know God better. And as a church we need to learn how to pray, to release God\u2019s love and power into our lives and into our town.
\nThe disciples asked Jesus, \u201cLord, teach us to pray.\u201d When we ask, \u201cLord, teach us to pray,\u201d God\u2019s answer to us will be the same. We can learn to pray through praying The Lord\u2019s Prayer. For 2000 years Christians have been praying what we call the Lord\u2019s Prayer but of course Jesus gives it to us to be The Disciples\u2019 Prayer. The Lord\u2019s Prayer is a pattern prayer, not just a parrot prayer. Beyond the words and phrases, The Lord\u2019s Prayer gives us a pattern for all our prayers, a way of praying. Over the next seven days we will learn how to pray better. And we will start today by learning just who we are praying to! This is the secret of all true prayer, to know who we are praying to. Prayer is conversation with God and in any conversation it matters who we are talking to. So the Lord\u2019s Prayer begins by reminding us just who it is we are praying to \u2013 \u201cOUR FATHER, IN HEAVEN.\u201d
\nIN HEAVEN
\nWe need to begin by reminding ourselves just how different God is from us human beings. God is God IN HEAVEN. Not just in a different place from us, but in a spiritual realm which is totally inaccessible to mere mortals.
\nIMMORTAL, INVISIBLE, God only wise,
\nIn light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
\nMost bless\u00e8d, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
\nAlmighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise.
\nUnresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
\nNor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might;
\nThy justice like mountains high soaring above
\nThy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.
\nGod is God IN HEAVEN. Consider the greatness of God \u2013 God is Almighty God, all-powerful, nothing is impossible for God! The prophet Isaiah gives us this vision of our magnificent God.
\nGod is the creator of everything that exists.
\nIsaiah 40 12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
\nor with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
\nWho has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
\nor weighed the mountains on the scales
\nand the hills in a balance?<\/p>\n

God is all-knowing, omniscient.<\/p>\n

13 Who can fathom the Spirit of the LORD, or instruct the LORD as his counsellor?
\n14 Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way?
\nWho was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding?<\/p>\n

God is Sovereign Lord of all God is so much greater than nations and kingdoms and all earthly rulers
\n15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
\nthey are regarded as dust on the scales;
\nhe weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. \u2026
\n17 Before him all the nations are as nothing;
\nthey are regarded by him as worthless
\nand less than nothing.<\/p>\n

The one true God is so much greater than all the false gods and idols human beings have manufactured.
\n18 With whom, then, will you compare God?
\nTo what image will you liken him?
\n19 As for an idol, a metalworker casts it,
\nand a goldsmith overlays it with gold
\nand fashions silver chains for it.
\n20 A person too poor to present such an offering
\nselects wood that will not rot;
\nthey look for a skilled worker
\nto set up an idol that will not topple.<\/p>\n

God is indeed almighty, ruler of all, King of Kings and Lord of Lords
\n21 Do you not know?
\nHave you not heard?
\nHas it not been told you from the beginning?
\nHave you not understood since the earth was founded?
\n22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
\nand its people are like grasshoppers.
\nHe stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
\nand spreads them out like a tent to live in.
\n23 He brings princes to naught
\nand reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
\n24 No sooner are they planted,
\nno sooner are they sown,
\nno sooner do they take root in the ground,
\nthan he blows on them and they wither,
\nand a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.<\/p>\n

Indeed God is creator and sustainer and ruler, not just of the whole earth but of the whole universe<\/p>\n

25 \u2018To whom will you compare me?
\nOr who is my equal?\u2019 says the Holy One.
\n26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
\nwho created all these?
\nHe who brings out the starry host one by one
\nand calls forth each of them by name.
\nBecause of his great power and mighty strength,
\nnot one of them is missing.<\/p>\n

This is God Almighty! God IN HEAVEN
\nGod is Almighty. God is All-knowing. God is Ever-present, everywhere all the time!
\nAnd God is ETERNAL \u2013 beyond space and time!
\nPsalm 90 1 Lord, you have been our dwelling-place
\nthroughout all generations.
\n2 Before the mountains were born
\nor you brought forth the whole world,
\nfrom everlasting to everlasting you are God.
\n3 You turn people back to dust,
\nsaying, \u2018Return to dust, you mortals.\u2019
\n4 A thousand years in your sight
\nare like a day that has just gone by,
\nor like a watch in the night.
\n5 Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death\u2014
\nthey are like the new grass of the morning:
\n6 In the morning it springs up new,
\nbut by evening it is dry and withered.<\/p>\n

God is heaven is the eternal God. And God in heaven is the HOLY God.
\nHabbakuk 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.
\nHuman beings are selfish and greedy and proud. God is different. God is God is Holy and pure and just and righteous, and yet at the same time God is also all-loving: God IS love.
\nAlmighty, eternal, holy, all-loving. And there is one more word which describes God very well \u2013 God is TRANSCENDENT. In every way God in heaven exceeds, goes beyond, rises above, excels over , surpasses ANYTHING we can begin to imagine. We thought about this before Christmas when we were thinking about the incredible miracle that God did not just become a human being, Immanuel, God with us. As Jesus of Nazareth God became a tiny new-born baby. Yet God is transcendent. God is above and beyond and unreachable and unattainable and incomprehensible. God is \u201cIneffable\u201d – indescribable, inexpressible, beyond words, overwhelming. WHATEVER ideas you have about God, your God isn\u2019t big enough! Your ideas about God aren\u2019t great enough! God is infinitely beyond our knowing \u2013 beyond even our imagining. God in Heaven is transcendent. Bow down and worship, for this is your God.
\nThis is the God we are praying to. Our prayers will become deeper and more meaningful the better we get to know the God we are praying to. So it is good to spend time meditating on just who God is. There is the expression that a person in high office has the ear of the Prime Minister, or of the Queen, or of the President. Christians have the ear of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We have the ear of God IN HEAVEN.
\nLast night I came across a quote from C.H. Spurgeon I hadn\u2019t heard before which makes this point. \u201cTrue prayer is neither a mere mental exercise nor a vocal performance. It is far deeper than that \u2013 it is a spiritual transaction with the Creator of Heaven and Earth.\u201d
\nThe God we are praying to is God IN HEAVEN. Throughout their history the Jews recognised this truth. They would always come our God in humility, addressing God with deeply reverential titles such as \u201cAlmighty, holy and eternal God, Creator of heaven and earth and Lord of all\u201d?
\nSo what then is the name that Jesus gives to us for the God we are praying to? Nothing complicated. On the contrary, the name Jesus gives to his disciples to address God with is simply this.
\nFATHER
\n\u201cOur Father in Heaven.\u201d There are different words for Father in the languages Jesus spoke, Hebrew and Aramaic. The Lord\u2019s Prayer in both Matthew\u2019s Gospel and Luke\u2019s Gospel uses the Greek word Pater. But when Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane Mark\u2019s Gospel keeps the Aramaic word which Jesus used to address God, Abba. That is the same word a young child would still use today to address their father. Abba. Not quite Daddy. Respectful but at the same time intimate. Abba. Scholars believe that Abba was the word Jesus Himself used for God, time after time, particularly throughout John\u2019s Gospel and especially in his own prayers. Abba, Father.
\nNo respectful Jew would ever have dared to address God in Heaven as Abba. The word is far too familiar, far too intimate. But Abba, Father is the word which Jesus teaches His disciples to use as they come to God in prayer. Christians are allowed to address Almighty God with the same language as Jesus Christ the Son of God himself did. We can come to God as our Abba Father because of what Jesus has accomplished by His death and resurrection.
\nAfter His glorious resurrection this is what the Risen Jesus said to Mary in the garden.
\nJohn 20 17 Jesus said, \u2018Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, \u201cI am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.\u201d \u2019
\n\u201cMy Father and your Father.\u201d Jesus dared to call God \u201cFather\u201d, and now his followers can call God \u201cFather\u201d as well. Because of Jesus, all of us who put our trust in Jesus become God\u2019s children. We are born anew into God\u2019s forever family. We can call God our Father.
\nJohn 1 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God\u201413 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband\u2019s will, but born of God.
\nChristians are born again into God\u2019s family, and we are also adopted into God\u2019s family.
\nRomans 8: 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, \u2018Abba, Father.\u2019 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God\u2019s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs\u2014heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
\nHere in Romans 8:15 and again in Galatians 4:6 Paul actually uses the Aramaic word, Abba, as the word Christians will use to address God in our prayers. Christians are God\u2019s children, and that gives us the right to call God, \u201cAbba, Father.\u201d
\nJim Packer wrote, \u201cYou sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one\u2019s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God\u2019s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. \u2018Father\u2019 is the Christian name for God.\u201d
\nWhen we call God Father that reminds us of all our privileges as His children. We can come to God and call Him Father as naturally and easily as any of us would come to our own human parents. The Christian name for God is \u201cFather.\u201d Prayer is about having a relationship to God in Heaven which is THAT close!
\nWe can come to the God of Heaven and call Him \u201cFather.\u201d The version of the Lord\u2019s Prayer in Luke\u2019s Gospel begins simply with \u201cFather.\u201d Matthew\u2019s version begins instead with \u201cOur Father\u201d and that is the way the Church has generally used the prayer. Roman Catholics refer to the Lord\u2019s Prayer as the \u201cOur Father.\u201d \u201cOur Father\u201d reminds us that our salvation and our access to God and indeed all the blessings God has for us come, not just to me individually. These blessings are shared with every other Christian. They come to us all together, collectively. For Christians, the emphasis is not on God as \u201cmy Father\u201d but as \u201cour Father\u201d. Our salvation is corporate \u2013 it comes to us in the fellowship of the church. \u201cOur Father\u201d reminds us of our brothers and sisters every time we pray the Lord\u2019s prayer.
\nWe need to get to know God more and love God more and worship God more. The secret of prayer will be to really get to know the wonderful God we are praying to. We sometimes spend a long time thinking about what we ought to ask for in our prayers. We need to spend just as long thinking about the Person we are praying to
\nAnd we have here, right at the beginning of the Lord\u2019s Prayer, two truths which we need to hold together as we come to God in prayer. God is God in heaven, almighty, eternal, holy, transcendent. And yet we have the incredible privilege of coming to this God in Heaven and addressing him as Abba, Father. That will give us plenty to reflect on as we begin our Week of Prayer and Fasting. God is inviting us into his presence. \u201cDraw close to God and He will draw close to you.\u201d So let us all set time aside to pray this week, remembering that whenever Christians pray, this is always the God we are praying to: \u201cOur Father in Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is the beginning of our Week of Prayer and Fasting. Each day we will begin our times of prayer together with a reflection.…<\/span><\/p>\n

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