"Our Father": If We Are to Fully Grasp

Far, far too often... 

• we ascribe to God in heaven 
• all the weaknesses, idiosyncrasies, failings, and inconsistencies 
• of our very unpredictable human fathers.

None of this... 

• was in the mind of Christ 
• when He spoke so sincerely of God as His Father.

His view of God... 

• was not conditioned by His childhood relationship to Joseph... 
• but by His own personal identity with God the Father 
• throughout eons of eternity.

If we are to appreciate fully the kind of person God is...

• if we are to grasp His essential love and goodness, 
• the wonder of His awesomeness...
• then we must see Him as Christ saw Him.

If we are to fully grasp... 

• Christ's innermost thoughts and concepts of God as Father, 
• we must, of necessity, pay careful attention to what He said about Him, 
• as well as observe how Christ conducted Himself before His Father.

We come freely... 

• because He has invited us to come, 
• with an open-handed, 
• great-hearted welcome.

But we can come and receive that welcome... 

• only through true repentance toward God 
• and faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as our Savior.

Adapted Excerpt from A Layman Looks at the Lord's Prayer

By Phillip Keller