Our Father IN HEAVEN

OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN. MATTHEW 6.9.

We are so privileged that the God to whom we pray, after all, is also our Father. Jesus taught us that He is in heaven. He is also our ‘Heavenly or Divine’ Father. Unlike our ‘earthly fathers’, who the Lord said are ‘evil’, the Father in heaven is ‘all together good’.

In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus repeatedly asks us to pray and assures us of answers from the Father who knows our needs. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Mt 7.7-11).

Heaven is the dwelling place of God our Father. He is enthroned in heaven and worshipped by myriads of angelic hosts who obey His commands and minister to us. Unlike your father on earth, your heavenly Father, because He is God Almighty, knows all your needs and that of all the peoples of the earth. He has the power to meet them. Do you know that from heaven He sees you, hears your prayers and comes down to answer you? Listen to what God had to say to Moses about His response to the cry of His people who were slaves in Egypt. The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey..” (Exo 3.7,8).

Though our Father in Heaven responds to our cry, sometimes, answers do not come quickly and the way we expect. It is not just our own experience but it had been so for God’s people before us. The great prophet Isaiah once cried out to God, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! …Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways” (Isa 64 1-5).

Dear believer, keep praying to your Father in heaven. For He sees all things, hears everyone, and comes down from heaven to answer your prayer! Jesus told his disciples a parable (of the widow and the unrighteous judge) to show them that they should always pray and not give up! For Jesus also said, “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly” (Lk 18). Don’t give up! For you are praying to God who is your Heavenly Father!

Pray and practise with me: Dear Lord, You are my Father in heaven and You are my God. You know all things. You are Almighty. You are merciful and kind to hear my cry and answer me. Amen.