March 15

”Our Father…” (Matthew 6:9)

I am going to focus on God as our Father in the next few meditations. When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, He began by making clear that God is like a father. That immediately establishes my position as a child. If God is my father, I am God’s child.

One sometimes hears that people have difficulty in relating to God as Father, because their own father was a poor example of fatherhood. However, if we begin thinking in that way we begin working from the wrong end. Doing so means we use our own presumptions as the measuring stick instead of using God’s measure. No one would dream of refusing to accept an authentic Rembrandt, just because they have seen a counterfeiter’s rendition of the masterpiece.

In the letter to the Ephesians Paul writes that God is the image of all that ”Father” means in both heaven and on earth. We must continue to speak about God as a Father and accentuate His wonderful characteristics. He is loving and forgiving. He is fair and righteous. He longs to have a relationship with His created children. He never compromises with evil, but forgives us again and again when we seek it. He comforts and encourages and “strengthen you (us) in every good deed and word.” (2 Thess. 2: 16) The Father is in short, like Jesus. (John 8:19)

Prayer
Our Father who is in heaven. May Your Name be blessed. Let Your Kingdom come. May Your will be done on earth as in Heaven. Give us this day our bread for the day to come. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not place us into temptation but save us from all harm. (Matthew 6: 9-13)