When you pray...

Do you pray? Have you thought about the way you pray, and how you address God when you pray? Have you listened to the ways other people pray?

One Bible passage that I’ve been reflecting on during my recent sabbatical prompts these questions:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. (Galatians 4:4-7)

This is one of Paul’s summaries of the gospel – the good news – of what Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection achieved.

There is a lot packed into this short passage, but we can note Paul’s emphasis that (because of our adoption as children, and as siblings of Jesus) we relate to God as our Father. One way that we experience and demonstrate this is in the way we speak to God when we pray.

The Lord's Prayer starts “Our Father…”, and every one of Jesus’ prayers addresses God as Father (except for his cry on the cross, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”), so Jesus taught and modelled praying to Father God.

Praying to God as Father is distinctively Christian. Although the Old Testament does refer to God as in this way at times, none of the psalms open with “Father” and Israelites did not pray to “our Father”.

As Christians we are welcomed into God’s family, and we have the privilege of being children of God. Let’s enjoy this privilege and consider how we address God. Let's allow our hearts, and our mouths, to cry out “Abba! Father!”

(Read more in this new book: James and Galatians by Scot McKnight)


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