Grasping the implications of God's Fatherhood

This past Sunday morning we began a series on the Lord’s Prayer and we looked at the statement, “Our Father in Heaven.” We drew out several applications from this statement. Here are five summarized applications from God being our Heavenly Father:

1) God loves us.

As God's adopted children we are loved no less than is the one whom God called his "beloved Son." As Paul said in Romans 8:39  - Nothing,...will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. To know this truth of God's fatherly love to us gives boundless confidence not merely for praying, but for living.

2) We are God's heirs.

Adoption in the ancient world was for securing an heir, and Christians are joint heirs with Christ of God's glory (Romans 8:17).To grasp this is to know oneself rich and privileged beyond any monarch or millionaire.

3) We have God's Spirit in us.

John 1:12 says, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”  And Galatians 4:6-7 says, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

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4) We must honor our father by serving his interests.

The center of our concern must be "thy name...kingdom...will," and we must be like good children in human families, ready to obey instructions.

5) We must love our brothers, by constant care and prayer for them.

There are no personal pronouns in the Lord's Prayer, but instead, "Our father...give us...forgive us...lead us..." Since God is our Heavenly Father, we have a Christian family that we belong to and are accountable to.

May God bless our continued study of the Lord’s Prayer, and may we grow in our prayer life!

-          Bro. Dave