9.45 Praying to our heavenly Father

Is prayer a religious duty to fulfill to God? Or is it communication with our heavenly Father? To the Pharisees, it would have been a religious duty. They would do it to impress others though their hearts were far from God. When it is a religious duty, you would have to pray a certain times a day, and you will pray long prayers to impress. But when it is a relationship, you can talk to God throughout the day – any time and any where.

Christianity is about relationship. It is about how Jesus reconciled us to God. Notice that it is not about us reconciling ourselves to God. Sometimes people say, “I need to be reconciled to God” or “I need to get back to God”. In reality, it is about God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. It was God who brought us back to Him through Christ.

(2 Cor 5:18-19)
Now all things are of God, who has RECONCILED us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ RECONCILING the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

When Jesus reconciled us to God, He introduced a new name of God. We know that God has many names and titles like – God the healer, God the provider, God our righteousness, etc. But when Jesus came to this earth, he introduced God as the “Father”. In those days, that would be blasphemous to the religious Pharisees. Religion wants to keep God at arm’s length, but Jesus came to reconcile man to the Father.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He taught them to address God as “Our Father in heaven”. God the Creator is now their heavenly Father. It was a quantum leap.

At the beginning of Paul’s epistles, he would address God as Father. He would say, “Grace to you and peace from GOD OUR FATHER and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He reminds the reader that God is now their Father.

Paul explains that the Holy Spirit who indwells us causes us to cry out “Abba Father” or “Daddy God”. He bears witness with us that we are children of God.

So today, in the New Covenant, God wants you to relate to God as Father. God wants you to call Him Father. When we start to relate to Him in this was, and when we start addressing Him in the intimate way that His Spirit helps us to, we will start experiencing a new dimension in prayer. It will become communication in a relationship – rather than a religious duty to fulfill. Your prayer life will come alive.