Week 2, day 1: We get to call God our Father!

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” (New International Version)

“Our Father in heaven: may your holy name be honoured…” (Good News Bible)

Laura Kerr writes:

Our Father! Isn’t it amazing that we get to call the creator of all things our Father.

As the three of us delved deeper into exploring this, we found ourselves discussing the tension there is between knowing Him as our Father and acknowledging His holiness. Andrew noted that it’s like we can relate to Him on two very different ends of a scale. At one end, He’s the timeless creator, all knowing, holy, omnipresent God. But on the other end He is the Father in the story of the prodigal son, hitching up His cloak to run towards us and who we can run to.

This tension can be confusing as we try to work out how to relate to Him. But what we liked about the framing of the Lord's Prayer is that the declaration of ‘Father’ comes first. It reminded me of a talk from The Gold course (shameless plug there) that included the phrase “He’s a Father that happens to be creator/healer/Lord of all.” It feels like there is the same kind of ordering here. By praying in this way we are starting from a place of declaring this Father-child relationship. It is after we have reminded ourselves of this secure identity that we can begin to explore His characteristics.

Joanna also pointed out the relevance of it being Our Father. In the same way that in the Old Testament, God declare his relationship as the Father of Israel, Jesus teaches us this prayer in which we as a community can declare this filial relationship with Him. It emphasises the fact that we are part of a family.

So what will I take away from this? Well, I feel challenged to start each of my prayers by first reminding and affirming my identity as His child. For it is from the security of knowing His Fatherly love that I can begin to pray His names (El Shaddai - God Almighty, Jehovah Raah - Shepherd, Jehovah Rapha - Healer, Jehovah Jireh - Provider) and characteristics over the situations around me.