Title Yeongam Church Prayer School (30) Lord's Prayer...
Contents
Yeongam Church Prayer School (30) Commentary on the Lord's Prayer (3) 2003.06.18.
When we call God our Father, we must be confident that God is our Father as Jesus is Father, and we must go boldly as Jesus approaches the Father and as a loving son approaches his loving father. And while God rebukes and beats us for our mistakes or wrongdoings, we need to be sure that God does not deal with us as a fearful judge, but as a loving, caring and forgiving Father.
When we call God our Father, we should think of the forgiving and merciful true Father in the parable of the prodigal son. A child who deeply feels this love of God will neither despair nor perish under any circumstances.
This prayer is not only a call and an appeal, but also a vow. That is, it is the bond that binds ourselves to the supreme love of God, to obedience to God, and to moral conformity to God. He said, "Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect." The noblest prayer is the cry, "Abba, Father."
The word “in heaven” is an expression of recognition of the transcendence, nobility, and perfection of our Heavenly Father.
The Greek word for "heaven" is uranos, a plural noun that literally means 'heavens'. This sky is not an astronomical or physical sky, but a symbolic and spiritual sky, which is understood to mean the divine spaces in which God resides, the transcendence of God's existence, and especially the heavens in which He resides.
And the expression "in heaven" is a symbolic phrase that expresses God's transcendence of the earth above all facts, implying the idea that God is transcending from creation, from earth's limits and conditions, and from all variability and imperfection. It shows the drastic difference between God and man.
(1) The idea that our Father is in heaven reveals a divine Father who transcends man. It deepens our reverence for God, making us more humble, and deepening our love to dispel fear. It is to approach God the Father humbly with intimacy and awe.
M. Magdalgen said, 'Intimacy balances respect, familiar calling balances awe. The immanence of God who dwells in us is balanced with his transcendence.'
(2) The idea that our Father is in heaven reveals the image of a noble Father without any weakness and variability. This reveals the image of the earthly Father: an omniscient, omnipotent, and loving Father who has narrow vision, lack of firm purpose, lacks benevolence, and transcends finite strength.
⑶ The idea that our Father is in heaven shows the omnipresent Father who transcends all places and time. The idea that our Father is this spiritual being saves us from the worship of the tangible and the worship of the visible. Therefore, this name gives us a correct understanding while being wary of focusing on the external and secondary forms, time, and place of worship.
Because our Father is everywhere and anytime, we do not need to identify a specific place, set a time, and go to meet him. Anytime, anywhere, we can go to Him, meet, pray, and worship Him. However, there are different rules for public assemblies.
(4) The idea that our Father is in heaven draws our hearts and desires to our Father's homeland. So, our minds are dragged up there, and we are freed from our excessive attachment to the world and common sense and our narrow view, so that we can look at that heaven.
When we pray and call God our Father, we should be reminded of His majesty and holiness. We must not approach and talk to God in an arrogant or presumptuous manner. Especially in public worship, we should feel and feel awe of God's majesty and holiness, even if we pray at any time. If done wrong, the idea that God is our Father tends to flow sentimentally or to become a comforting faith. He is a good father, so don't think it's okay to do anything or treat him badly.
God is a God of justice who executes his just wrath and judgment on all sins, faults, and errors. But it must be remembered that in God there is love and holy harmony. When we pray and call God our Father, we should be reminded of His great love. Heavenly Father loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son on the cross for us. What will he spare for us when we remember the love of God and the grace of our Lord who ripped his flesh and shed his blood for us on the cross?
When we pray and call God our Father, we should be reminded of His omniscience and omnipotence.
- Human abilities are finite.
- Although people have love and enthusiasm, they are sometimes frustrated by a sense of helplessness. How many loving parents find themselves helpless by the bed of their sick child!
- It's really hard to get us to do something for someone or not to do it.
- Parents of spoiled children know it well.
- How often do you start work with a big vision but fail halfway?
- But our Father in heaven can do whatever he wants (Psalm 115:2).
Remember that you are approaching God the Holy and Almighty Father. Remember the holy justice and love of God who gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, on the cross for us.
- God loves every soul.
- God knows the needs of each of us.
- God watches over us with tender compassion.
- God wants our happiness, joy, and prosperity the most.
- God can give more abundantly than we ask for or more abundantly than we think.
- God, as “our Father in heaven,” is eager to bless us far more than he wants us to.
- There is no limit to God's almighty power.
- God can bless us with all the blessings of heaven.
- God will gather all His children to their heavenly hometown and enjoy blessings by His side forever and ever.
Let us remember this when we pray and call God our Father. As we approach God the Father, we remember his holiness and the justice and love of God who gave his only begotten son for us on the cross, and we are reminded of his power and all things working in love.
Let us remember the love that is at work behind His ability to know and do all things. Then you will find new strength in hope. This is how to pray. Before beginning supplication, even asking for our daily bread, before asking for anything, be sure to recognize that we are in the presence of our Father in Heaven, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our Father. You should do that.
3. The name “Our Father” is an expression of the brotherly love and community of believers, that is, the expression that unites the children of Heaven into one family.
The addition of "in heaven" to the name "Our Father" reminds us that the relationship between God and the believer is a new family relationship rather than the traditional family conception of blood and blood. Those who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ belong to the community of the church and believe in God.
Serving and serving Everyone in this new community can confess God as “our Father.” We Christians are all one brother and one father. Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Holiness denominations each have different theological emphasis. But they are all our brothers who have one father. Believers who call God our Father should not hate each other.
(1) The true enjoyment of blessings depends on whether we share these blessings with others. If you try to keep it, you lose it. We enter into a great community through faith, and through this prayer we express our consciousness of being part of this community.
(2) The effect of this sense of community on our prayer serves to destroy the selfishness of prayer. In other words, it serves to free the prayers of the children of heaven from selfish immersion in seeking only their own joy and need. We are all one family serving our Heavenly Father.
⑶ What is the effect of this community idea on our lives? What plans can we make just for ourselves when we get up from prayer?
How often do we forget brotherhood in personal hostility, vanity, selfishness, rivalry? racial differences. Differences in education, occupations, and regional differences in ideas make us scattered. Differences in wealth and status make us alienated from each other. Differences in our notions of the Christian faith often separate us and make us heartbroken.
But when we say "Our Father," all of this is wiped out. Think of the generations who have gone into the grave while praying this prayer. What a wonderful prophecy about the heavens this prayer is. In heaven all will come together and feel more deeply that one another is 'brothers under one Father'.
And this is the only basis for instilling true brotherhood among men. Can consensus instill true fraternity? Humans are not thinking machines. Can the unity of interests instill true fraternity? Humans are not governed by calculations. And such alliances destroy true unity. Can common goals instill genuine camaraderie? This is vulgar and superficial.
Can national or ethnic unity instill true fraternity? This is artificial and cannot achieve universality or globality. There can be no true brotherhood except that which is founded on the fatherhood of God and the sonship of Christ. Christ came for the world. We are no longer "strangers and strangers". Let us, therefore, lift up our voices and cry out, "Our Father," as we listen to the voice of Christ and rely on Him, who with Him made us heirs.