A Devotion from J.D. Jones
When you pray, say: “Father.” —Luke 11:2
The prayer Jesus taught his disciples begins with a new name for God. “When you pray, say: ‘Father.’ ”
In the Old Testament God is very seldom spoken of as Father, and when the name is used, it is always with reference to the nation of Israel and not to individuals. From Genesis to Malachi you will not find a single instance of an individual speaking of God as Father. Moses did not dare to use this name [or] David [or] Isaiah. It was left to Jesus Christ to tell us God’s best and truest name. It was left to him to say, “When you pray, say: ‘Father.’ ”
The secret hidden from the prophet and psalmist and seer is here declared to the world in this name Father. One of the chief ends for which Christ came to earth was to tell us this new name and so to bring sunshine into our souls and hope into our lives. In Bethlehem, in Nazareth, in Galilee, in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the cross of Calvary, Jesus was spelling out for us this new name, revealing to us that God is more than wisdom, more than power, more than justice—that God, above and beyond everything else, is love. So the very opening phrase of this “pearl of prayers” brings us the best news ever whispered into human ears. It tells us that love is at the heart of all things. It tells us that God is our Father and we are his children.
Is God Father to everybody? Yes, to everybody. He is Father to the humblest, the poorest, the most degraded. All belong to God’s family, and on all some trace of the family likeness is to be seen. And though people sin, the Father still loves. That is what Jesus would teach us in the parable of the prodigal son. God is Father not only to the obedient son, but he is Father also to the son who has strayed. The Father’s heart yearns for that wayward child, and when that son returns with penitent heart, it is the word “Father” that leaps to the prodigal’s lips, and it is with the word “son” that the father welcomes him home again.
Yes, God is the Father of all. But all are not his children. People become his children only through Jesus Christ. Christ came into the world to show us the Father, to seek lost children and bring them back home again. Those who receive him into their hearts receive the Spirit of adoption. They speak the name Father with a new accent. It becomes to them invested with a richer and fuller meaning.