Series 1 - Lesson 1 - Annotation 9
What benefit comes to us from praying to God as "our Father" (Matt. 6:9)?
9. The benefit which comes to us from praying to God as "our Father" reaches into all areas of our life. Recognizing God as "our Father" causes us to see ourself as heir to the qualities (also termed ideas, truths, principles) that make up His nature.
Primarily, a father is one who has begotten a child. The word beget is made up of "be," which is to enter into a living relation with an object or an idea and "get," meaning to cause to be. God as "our Father" has entered into a living relationship with us as His son, His idea of Himself in action. A father is also called a generator; to generate is to produce a being similar to the parent. Man is a spiritual being because, created by and of God, he is similar to his Parent; he is God's image, patterned after His likeness. A father performs the office of a parent through affectionate care, maintenance, counsel, and protection. In like manner, God as "our Father" maintains us, supplies us with all that is essential for a full and complete expression and manifestation of our spiritual nature. God shows His affectionate care for us by all that He has provided for our well-being.
"See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are" (I John 3:1).
The possessive adjective our in "our Father" links us with all humanity as brothers. Because there is but one Creator, all men have the same Father; every human being belongs to the family of God and each is an heir to God's estate of good. Consciously recognizing God as "our Father" inevitably moves one into the larger perception of the brotherhood of all men where God is recognized as the universal Father of all,
"One God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all" (Eph. 4:6).
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Preceding Entry: Explain the meaning of the statement "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
Following Entry: What and where is heaven?
