Smoodock's Blog

In Matthew 6:9-15 Jesus offers his disciples a model prayer; it is an outline, so to speak, for them to remember and use, when they would enter the Presence of God. When the Lord created us, he didn’t throw the dice and place us in an environment, haphazardly, and leave us there to fend for ourselves. There is nothing random about our lives, because, when God created you and me, he had a plan. He says: “I know what I have planned for you… plans to prosper you, not to hurt you. I plan to give you hope and a good future” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Similarly, when we approach the Lord in prayer, we should have a plan, not a grocery list, for that’s like saying entering the Presence of God was similar to a trip to a supermarket or a department store: “Oh! I like that one. And, look at this. I’ve always wanted one of these. And, it’s on sale! What great luck!” God’s Presence isn’t like that. It isn’t as though we go to him only when we think we need something, or our supplies are running low. Prayer isn’t spinning the wheel of fortune or being rewarded, because one has correctly repeated a certain number of prescribed words he memorized, which might be similar to one pressing the button that sounded the buzzer that announced the approval of God, who then rewarded a man, according to his desires.

Jesus told his disciples that, when they prayed, they should begin with: “Our Father…” In other words, prayer is a family affair, and should be a familiar event. It isn’t like God is “the big man in the sky,” somewhere afar off. He is someone, whom we know (or should know), and, if he isn’t known, then it is we who have wandered away, to seek our fortunes elsewhere (Genesis 3:1-6, 22-24; cp. 4:16).

The Lord is referred to as a father about fifteen times in the Old Covenant text,[1] and those references are more or less similar to his office as Creator. He “created” the nation of Israel. Therefore, he is their Father, and they are his children. He is never understood as the Father of men, vis-à-vis human beings, and especially this isn’t so in the context of being Father to an individual person. The familiar context of God being the Father of men, even the individual, was reserved for the teachings of Jesus in the New Covenant. The term is “Our” Father, meaning the context of Jesus’ outline was group prayer, vis-à-vis his disciples praying corporately. Jesus made a distinction between how God is to be understood as our Father and how he is to be understood as Jesus’ Father (John 20:17).

God was uniquely the Father of Jesus, who was born without the assistance of a human father.[2] Moreover, Jesus is called the only begotten Son of God (John 1:18), meaning he was begotten from the dead (Acts 13:33). We are begotten in or through the resurrection of Christ (1Peter 1:3). Thus, although we have our human fathers, God is the Father of our spirits (Hebrews 12:9) through the resurrection of Jesus, our Savior. This seems to mean that God is our spiritual Father, vis-à-vis, he has made himself responsible for our spiritual guidance and welfare.

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[1] See: Deuteronomy 1:31; 32:6; Psalms 68:5; 103:13; Isaiah 1:2; 9:6; 63:8, 16; 64:8; Jeremiah 3:4, 19; 31:9, 20; Hosea 11:1; Malachi 3:17

[2] The One who became Jesus was already a living Being, equal with the Father, prior to his human birth (Philippians 2:6-7). The Father prepared a human body for his Son (Hebrews 10:5), while our human fathers, together with our mothers provide the substance of the bodies we are given at our individual births. With our new births, we are given the Holy Spirit, divine nature (2Peter 1:4), whereby each of us have been changed into a new creation wherein God is our Father, the Father of our spirits (Hebrews 12:9).