Our Holy Father

Our Holy Father
"This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Matthew 6:9 NIV

As Christians, we have a privilege that no one else in the world can boast; we get to call God our “Father”. But I wonder sometimes if familiarity (this gift of son ship and daughterhood) has caused us to take God for granted? Maybe we sometimes forget the rest of this sample prayer; “Holy is your name”?

God is “Father”, but He is also holy. There is no one like Him. Or, you can think of it this way… Before Christ, we were the children of wrath. We represented everything that God isn’t. Or, have you forgotten that there is not a person on earth that does right and never sins (Ecclesiastes 7:20)? God is Holy and He cannot make His home with someone that is not covered with the blood of Christ. You may ask, “Is God loving?” The answer is yes. You may wonder, “Does He forgive?” And the answer is yes, yes. But all of the things we need to get close to God are out of our hands, other than a total and radical reliance upon Christ. And a radical reliance on him shows itself in a changed mind, a changed heart and a changed life.

I am thankful for the ministry of Christ (taking the guilt of mankind on himself in order to reconcile us to God). I am grateful that God is a worthy and exalted Father. For I cannot imagine anyone else who could (or would) make me innocent by the blood of His son. Who else would give so much to buy His enemy out of the grip of sin? None but a heavenly Father, whose name shall always remain holy.