Thursday, June 30, 2005
Matthew 6: 9a "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven."
OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN
Even though we do not deserve or merit this in any way, those of us who trust in Jesus can actually call God, the almighty God, our Father. This means that we have a very intimate relationship with God. In an ideal home situation all the children have a very special bond with their father and their mother. They can go to their father with their problems and expect their father to listen to them and help them. They can tell him about the exciting things they have been doing and they expect their father to be excited too.
Jesus tells us that the relationship between our heavenly Father and His children is very special also. Listen to these words of Jesus, as recorded in John 14. "He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Imagine being on the receiving end in a relationship with One who has all power in heaven and on earth, One who is in possession of all things that exist, One who is everywhere at one and the same time. Every day we can get up and say to ourselves: I am loved by my Father in heaven. I am loved by Him who controls all actions in the entire universe. There is nothing outside of His control, and He loves me. What could possibly go wrong? You see, if we have this conviction, we can be sure that no matter what happens on this day, God is going to use it in a way that will be of benefit to me, because He loves me.
Jesus went on to say something just as amazing to His disciples. "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." This is the basis for the teaching called the mystical union. Those who are children of God by faith in Jesus Christ have Jesus living in them. They have God the Father living in them. There are other passages that speak also of the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity. Thus we are not only the beloved children of the Father; our bodies are actually his temples. For God Himself is living in us. The Father and the Son make their homes within us.
Paul Gerhardt, a German Lutheran pastor who lived in the seventeenth century, caught the wonder of these words in his hymn "If God Himself Be for Me." Listen to these words:
"This I believe, yea, rather, Of this I make my boast
That God is my dear Father, The Friend who loves me most,
And that, whate'er betide me, My Savior is at hand
Thro' stormy seas to guide me And bring me safe to land."
