Anyway, the prologue to say that I can't overvalue my time of Wednesday prayer with the group of men from church. Having a concentrated time to just be with the Father, thanking, praising, petitioning or simply resting in His spiritual arms does far more to lift up the soul and spirit and lighten the heart than any shot of caffeine, good night's sleep or any other corporeal fix. The only way a fatigued soul can find rest is at the source. Everything else is just placebo or worse and, as the prodigal son found out, leads to a downward spiral. The spiral may not be so graphic or obvious, but is perhaps worse as by appearances we are doing fine, but inwardly we waste away.
So on Wednesday we considered three great prayers of the New Testament and their commonalities. Specifically, their starting points. Matthew 6:9, "Our Father...", John 17:1 "Father, the hour has come..." and Eph. 3:14ff, "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name." We are taught as sons and daughter by THE Son how to pray - "Our father". He does it himself in John, crying out "Father" and Paul extends this by saying he kneels before the Father of all fathers. So when we pray we come to God as children to a father and this relationship is key to our walk with Him.
Before going further, I think it is worthwhile to say that the Son and Spirit play key roles in prayer but the clarifying statements, at least for me are these -
There is a mystery in prayer and certainly a mystery in the trinity, but from the text it seems that we have very powerful advocates on our side; both Son and Spirit also going to the Father on our behalf. I don't want to get hung up on semantics and the enigma that is the trinity, but I do want to say that coming to God in prayer as "our Father" is, for me, a powerful image of the person to whom I pray.
Romans 8:26-27 - "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."
Hebrews 7:24 - "but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them."
I admit that part of this revelation of fatherhood has to do with my own fatherhood. Before I became a father it was an idea that I understood by proxy and observation. I was a son, so I saw what my father did, I was a teacher so I understood in part an adult-child relationship, but this knowledge was very incomplete. Now I have the pleasure and awesome responsibility of fatherhood and this is but a glimpse into the fatherhood of God. When I come to him as son, I now have a better picture of how he sees me (but, of course, I only see in part - through a glass, darkly.)
I think, too, of how a son responds to a father - demanding attention, seeking approval, wanting advice, needing help. If my son came to me seeking wisdom (he hasn't mastered language, so I'm guessing this is a few years off...) would I not offer the best I could give? If he sought provision would I not give it? If he needed help, would I not help him? Of course, I would.
So, when we pray, we pray as children to a father. Something we fail to grasp, either because we have no earthly fathers, our earthly fathers were/are poor examples or our fathers were/are fantastic but pale in comparison to the Father of fathers. As we grow deeper in our relationship with Him, we also grow to understand both what it means to be a son and what it means to have the ultimate Father. We fall in love with Him not only because of all He's done, but more importantly because of who He is. My prayer is that every day I may know the Father a little bit more, a little bit better.
