Northview Women's Devotional

May 10, 2012

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The Lord’s Prayer - Our Father

May seems to be a prayer month here at Northview.  We’re hosting a prayer weekend on May 25-27 at Stillwood, and also having a women’s prayer training night on May 31st.

With these events on the horizon I’ve been focused on the study and practice of prayer lately, and so am going to spend a few weeks reflecting on the Lord’s Prayer.  For those of us who rushed through it every morning in elementary school, I think it’s important that we absorb it more slowly.  Permit me to quote in the King James version … it just seems right ☺).

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name

Our Father… As we’ve learned from studying the names of God, the God of Christianity is relational, not distant or unconcerned.  He is consistently represented in the bible as a God who is near, who wants good things for his children and who has their best in mind.  Even if we have not experienced a “good father” on this earth, all of us can visualize what a “good father” would be like. 

A good father guides and lead his children through life. He desires to bless. He rejoices when his children come to Him. He loves them because they are His, not because of what they have done. He comforts them when they feel pain, disappointment and discouragement. He is honored when his children step out of their comfort zone and obey his words to them: when they act in obedience because they trust him.  He expects a lot from his kids because he knows they are capable of acting maturely even if they don’t always display it.

Do you want a Father like this?  Do you know that God offers this relationship to you?

Being a parent has profoundly affected my understanding of God.  I never knew I could love someone SO completely simply because they were mine.  If, like me, you have struggled with understanding God’s love for you, think about the love you have for your children or for other family members and meditate on the following verses:

“The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” Deuteronomy 1:30-31

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,” 2 Corinthians 1:3

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,” Ephesians 1:16-18

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” 1 John 3:1

After thinking through these things, pray, addressing God as “Father”.  It changes so many things…

Kristal Toews
Director of Women’s Ministries