Praying to Our Father

Note: Remember hearing these words? “We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to give back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right” -- Rev. Joseph Lowery, President Obama inaugural benediction, Jan. 20, 2009.

Even Rick Warren’s opening prayer in which he uses the name “Isa” at the end of his prayer caused a stir as to whom was he referring to. Some suggest that he was praying to a Muslim god. But nothing could be further from the truth. All Rick Warren was doing was saying the name “Jesus” in Arabic, “Isa.” He used the Hebrew name, “Jeshua,” the Greek name, “Jesus,” and the Arabic name, “Isa.” Remember, although the New Testament was written in Greek, when Jesus walked the earth, He along with most living at that time spoke Arabic. So let’s not be too quick to throw one of our dearest brothers under the bus by claiming that he was praying to some Muslim god.

However, how we do address God and by what name we use is vitally important. One of my favorite theologians is R.C. Sproul. He has written a short but powerful article on the terms we use in addressing God, especially the phrase, “Our Father.” Check it out!

Praying to Our Father
R.C. Sproul
Renewing Your Mind

The next time you attend a prayer meeting, pay close attention to the manner in which individuals address God. Invariably, the form of address will be something like this, "Our dear heavenly Father," "Father," "Father God," or some other form of reference to God as Father. What is the significance of this? It would seem that the instructions of our Lord in giving the model prayer, "The Lord's Prayer," is emulated by our propensity for addressing God as Father. Since Jesus said, "When you pray, say, 'Our Father,'" that form of address has become the virtual standard form of Christian prayer. Because this form of prayer is used so frequently, we often take for granted its astonishing significance.

The German scholar Joachim Jeremias has argued that in almost every prayer that Jesus utters in the New Testament, He addresses God as Father. Jeremias notes that this represents a radical departure from Jewish custom and tradition. Though Jewish people were given a lengthy number of appropriate titles for God in personal prayer, significantly absent from the approved list was the title "Father."

God has only one child, His only-begotten Son, the monogenēs, which restricts this filial relationship to Christ. We do not have the natural right to call God "Father." That right is bestowed upon us only through God's gracious work of adoption. This is an extraordinary privilege, that those who are in Christ now have the right to address God in such a personal, intimate, filial term as "Father."

Therefore, we ought never to take for granted this unspeakable privilege bestowed upon us by God's grace. We note in the Lord's Prayer that Jesus instructs us that now when we pray, we are to refer to God as "Our Father." Again the "ourness" of this relationship is grounded in the unique ministry of Jesus by which, through adoption, He is our elder brother and He gives to us those privileges that by nature belong only to Him. Now, by adopting us, He says that we may regard God, not only as His Father, but as our Father.

The first petition of the Lord's Prayer is found in the words, "Hallowed be Thy Name." The opening address, "Our Father, who art in Heaven," is simply that, an address. From that address, Jesus instructs His disciples to offer certain petitions in prayer.

The first and chief of those petitions is that we pray that the name of God will be hallowed. This is also extraordinary in that as the prayer continues, we ask that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven and that His kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. Both of these desires can only be met when and if the God of the kingdom of heaven and of earth is treated with supreme reverence, honor, and adoration. When we fail to observe the third commandment, when we fail to honor God as God, and use His name as a curse word, or in a flippant, careless manner, we fail to fulfill this first petition.

Perhaps nothing is more commonplace in our culture than the expression that comes from people's lips on many occasions, when they say simply, "Oh, my God." This careless reference to God indicates how far removed our culture is from fulfilling the petition of the Lord's Prayer. It should be a priority for the church and for every individual Christian to make sure that the way in which we speak of God is a way that communicates respect, awe, adoration, and reverence. How we use the name of God reveals more clearly than any creed we ever confess our deepest attitudes towards the God of the sacred name.

Dr. R.C. Sproul is chairman of Ligonier Ministries and senior minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Florida.