Friday, November 4, 2011

November 5, 2011

EKG Devotional Day 30

We're probably so familiar with this opening line that the full impact of its radical nature doesn't startle us the way it did Jesus' first-century disciple. The intimacy of address Jesus used in approaching God as "Father" is our first signal to the radical nature of this prayer. No one in Jesus' day would've ever dare address the Creator and King as "our Father." This level of personal intimacy with God was unheard of.

But it wasn't an accident on Jesus' part. Nor was it descriptive only of the realtionship He had with the Fater as the result of being His Son. For Jesus would later tell His disciples, "Anything you ask the Father in My Name. He will give you'" (John 16:23)

All of His children were invited into this relationship.

This is the prayer of the child who knows that His Father's kingdom is paramount and thus His first desire is to advance the Kingdom. It is the prayer of a child who know His Father is trustwrthy and therefore He submits to the will of the Father. It is the confident prayer that knows our Father is in the heavens.

Paul said that when we recieved the gift of the Holy Spirit, He gave us the right to cry out, "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15), a word that actually carries the meaning of our word Daddy. This is a testimony to God's love and grace, not an offensive devaluation of His holiness. It took a great God to stoop down to us, to desire to be our Father.

In the space below, write a note thanking God for the privilege of calling Him Father.