LET’S WORSHIP GOD OUR FATHER

“In this manner, therefore, pray: “OUR FATHER in heaven, Hallowed be Your name” – Matthew 6:9

Beloved in Christ, come LET’S WORSHIP GOD OUR FATHER: “In this manner, therefore, pray: “OUR FATHER in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt.6:9-10). There is infinite intimacy in that statement: “Father in heaven.” There’s transcendence (He is in heaven), yet an utter accessibility that He gives us as He calls us his children. Worship is responding to God – Who He is and what He has done. And the truth that God would give His own Son that He might make us His sons and daughters ought to produce awe and amazement in us.

This truth ought to make us pause and say, “How great is the love of the Father! How could we not sing, shout, or dance? How could we not respond, with all that we are, to all that He has done for us? We need to be captivated by this truth, and let it produce a response of awe-filled adoration in us. What a glorious thing to say, “Our Father, hallowed be Your name!” We need to begin to live in light of that glorious truth – that we are redeemed and adopted sons and daughters of the living God. He wants us. He is with us. And He is for us.

1 John 3:1 says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God.” This love is unlike anything we have ever seen; unlike anything we could compare it to. It’s not from our world. It’s not like any love a human could give. It’s otherworldly, completely set apart. And this is the kind of love that the Father has lavished on us – a that we should be called the children of God. All true worship begins with our adoption. All prayer, praise, singing, and relating to God, begins with being able to come to Him as His children. When Jesus went to the cross, He paid the immeasurable price of our adoption, to make us children of the living God.

We must not miss the hugeness in this statement. It has tremendous implications for us. Jesus says that our Father in heaven is a good Father. He’s not too busy for us. He’s not an absentee, disinterested Dad. When we talk to him, we know He hears. When we pray, and ask, we know that He listens. And better yet, He always knows what is best for us. He provides our needs, shapes, and disciplines us, like a good father would his children. He is happy to do so because He delights in us. No one forced God to begrudgingly take us in. And there was nothing we could have done to earn it. No quantity of good deeds or determination to do better could bring us into the Family of God.

We are God’s because He has made us His. Not because we were born into a certain family or country or bloodline. But because, before the foundation of the world, God chose to adopt us in Christ. And He did what He planned to do by giving His unique Son to take our place and to pay the debt that we owed. Our sin had earned us nothing but death and hell. But Jesus took our death and all the wrath of hell upon Himself, and at the cross, He conquered it all so that we wouldn’t get what we deserve, but would receive grace upon grace. He took what we deserved so that we would have what he deserved.

Beloved, let’s give thanks to God for adopting us into His Family. As our heavenly Father, God is our Guide and Protector, Who promises to always watch over us. Before the dawn of time, He was, and forevermore He shall be. Nothing is beyond His ability and nothing is beyond His knowledge. When we face trials and uncertainties, we can rest under the wings of His love, confident that He is weaving the threads of our lives into the glorious tapestry of His divine Plan.