Have you ever considered what is commonly called the Lord’s Prayer? In the Good News recorded by Matthew, Jesus says this is how we should pray:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.*

What Christianity is about above all is revealed in the simple phrase: Our Father in heaven.

You see, there are many ways Jesus could have spoken about God – Shepherd, King, Master. In the old testament, they often would say, God of our father Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jesus says, “Our Father.” Not “A Father” or “The Father.” He says, “Our Father” and if you were saying this prayer by yourself what would it be? My father.

It’s very intimate, very personal.

It could be even more intimate than we can imagine because Jesus spoke Aramaic and the evidence is he used the word Abba which we now understand to be a term of endearment, like our English word, “Daddy.”

Would you consider letting God be your dad in heaven?

*Matthew 6:9-13 on BibleGateway

Have you ever considered what is commonly called the Lord’s Prayer? In the Good News recorded by Matthew, Jesus says this is how we should pray:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.*

The context is really important. Just a few minutes before, Jesus tells us that prayer is not for show, prayer is to be done in secret, prayer isn’t mindless babbling. That gives us an idea of what their prayer life was like.

Would you consider letting Jesus teach you how to pray?

*Matthew 6:9-13 on BibleGateway

In the early stages of our relationship, one of my ex-girlfriends used to say about our dates, “I’ll pencil you into my calendar.”  It was kind of a running gag that I laughed about but I am confessing now that I was glad when it stopped (I think the first step was she switched to saying she would use a pen). Don’t get me wrong, we had a good relationship. It’s just that the joke had an underlying sense that what we had was fleeting; temporary until she got a better offer.

This is one of the reasons that God’s divine date day speaks to the deepest part of me.  Long before I knew him of even wanted him around, he said that I was so important to him that he would write down a weekly date with me. The best part is that he didn’t write it with pencil or even pen but his own finger in stone.  Isn’t that an amazing commitment?