When you pray, say: ‘Father,…’ (Luke 11:2)
Prayer is the means by which the Holy Spirit enables us to communicate with our heavenly Father, through Jesus who is the Christ, the Son of God.
For anyone reading this devotional, none of the previous sentence will likely surprise you. It sounds about right.
But I want to invite you to take a couple of minutes and rest with these words.
They acknowledge that there is a living being who creates, provides, protects, and nurtures life; who we cannot see and who stretches the limit of our imaginations, yet, to whom we can relate as closely as a child to their loving and life-enhancing parent.
They assume that this Living Being, hears us when we speak. Otherwise, why bother addressing him at all?
They imply that this Living Being not only wants us to engage with him, but wants us to know him as Father.
They teach us that not only does this Living Being whom we can know as Father by the ministry of the Son exists, we can engage with Him in His life and in His mission to this world He loves.
We can participate with the Father. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. This is why we pray.
We will not ever be able to grasp the extent of the Father’s grace, nor fully understand His ministry of creation, redemption, and re-creation. But we can participate with Him and in participating, we get to know Him.
And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3)