Over these past few months, pastors, churches, businesses, and families have learned to be creative with how they commune. Although creativity is part of how we display our image bearing function, God does not call us to create new ways to commune with him. In fact, he does not permit creativity in how we approach and commune with him. He has commanded common ways for us to commune with him and other believers in Christ, and his desire is that we would increasingly conform our communion to the pattern that he has laid out for us in his Word.
When COVID-19 hit the scene, it did not bring with it a metaphorical pair of scissors that sliced and diced the Scriptures. God’s Word remains unaltered and true. His commands are still binding. His common ways of hallowing his name, advancing his kingdom, and caring for his children have not changed. Prayer is one of the common ways of communion with the triune God. “Pray then like this”, Jesus commanded in Matthew 6:9.
Jesus begins the famous “Lord’s Prayer” by establishing the gospel relationships that motivate prayer and order what kind of requests we make. He draws our attention first of all to…
The Privilege of Prayer
Prayer is rooted in gospel-based relational categories. We pray and God hears us only because we have been brought by God into a new relationships with Him through faith in Jesus Christ his Son (John 1:12-13). And we see in the first two words of this prayer – “our Father ” – that this relationship is two dimensional.
Vertical Dimension
First, the most obvious is the vertical relationship: for everyone who receives Christ as Lord and Savior by faith, God is properly addressed as “our Father in Heaven.” Before the foundations of the world, he graciously chose to adopt some as his children: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:3–6, ESV)
As our heavenly Father, he lovingly bends his ear towards us with the same attentiveness and love that he gives to his own Son, for we are united to Christ through faith. The privileged status of the Christian believer is free access to the divine throne of grace (Heb 4:16).
Horizontal Dimension
But notice also that Jesus uses the plural, “our”, signifying a horizontal dimension to our praying. He does not teach us to pray, “my Father in heaven” but “our Father in heaven”. God is “our Father”, so logically his children are also our brothers and sisters.
Certainly we can and should pray for God to hallow his name by making us holy, and we are free to present our personal requests and cares to God (see verses 11-13). But we must not allow the tyranny of our own schedules and concerns to steal away a proper – indeed, a Christ-like regard for the needs of others and discipline of taking them to our Father in prayer. This is why prayer lists can be a helpful practice in the spiritual discipline of prayer.
Real Communion with our Father Through Christ our Advocate
When we pray to our Father, we are communing with a living person, not a force or figment of the imagination. God is unseen to our physical eyes, but he exists and through Christ we enjoy real communion. He first speaks to us through his Word, and we speak to him in prayer. As our Father he is always attentive to us, his adopted children.
When I’m working in my basement office I’ll sometimes hear Amelia shout from the top of the stairs, “Daddy, come play!” The relationship and ability to commune doesn’t end because she can’t see me. She calls to me from faith, knowing that I’m there and can hear her and will do what is best for her because I love her. We cannot see God, but we know, based on his Word, that he is always there and favourable towards us. This disposition is not one we have by nature, but by grace because Christ, the righteous one, always advocates before his Father in heaven on behalf of us (1 John 2:1).
This ought to create at least two instincts for our praying
First, the instinct to pray with confidence is forged when the mind apprehends who God is, and in particular that he is “our Father.”
But equally important, the instinct to pray with humility is forged when the mind and heart apprehend that we are by nature children of wrath, as Paul says in Ephesians 2:3, but who receive adoption as sons and daughters through the merits of Christ the righteous one.
Being adopted by God as his children is the supreme blessing and privilege that God himself provides for us through his own Son. Perceiving this truth, the Apostle John properly erupts in praise and wonder: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are (1 John 3:1). Because this is our status in Christ, we have the privilege of 24/7 access to “Our Father in Heaven”, who loves to give good gifts to his children who ask him (Matt 7:11).