Our Father
Journey Through the Lord's Prayer — Devotion 1 of 14
Matthew 6:9 — “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
Opening Reflection
When Jesus' disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, He did not hand them a theory of prayer — He gave them a pattern: “Pray then like this” (Matthew 6:9). What follows is not a formula to be recited by rote, but a model meant to shape how God's people approach Him for the rest of the church's history. It is fitting that Jesus begins this pattern not with a request, but with an address — a single word that reorients everything that follows: Father. Of all the ways He could have taught His disciples to speak to God, He chose the simplest and most startling. In first-century Judaism, God was addressed with careful, reverent titles — Sovereign, Almighty, Holy One. To open a prayer with “Father” was an act of astonishing intimacy, and Jesus places it in the mouths of ordinary men and women as the very first word of the model prayer. Before we ask for anything, we are taught who we are speaking to, and who we are to Him.
Taking a Devotional View
This is not a title we earned. Scripture is clear that this kind of access is the fruit of adoption. Paul writes, “you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15), and again, “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:6). “Abba” was the intimate, familial word a child used for a parent. Jesus is not teaching us a polite form of address; He is teaching us to pray out of an identity that has already been given to us in Him.
Notice, too, that Jesus says “Our Father,” not “My Father.” Even in private prayer, the disciple is taught to remember that he does not approach God alone. Every believer who prays this prayer joins a vast family of adopted sons and daughters, praying the same words, held by the same Father. Intimacy with God is never meant to isolate us from His people; it is meant to bind us to them.
Key Thoughts & Takeaways
Key Thoughts
- Jesus gives the Lord's Prayer as a pattern for prayer, not a formula to recite mindlessly (Matthew 6:9a).
- Jesus teaches His disciples to address God with the intimate title “Father,” not a formal title of distance.
- This access comes through adoption, not personal merit (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).
- The prayer says “Our Father,” reminding us that we pray as part of a family, not in isolation.
Ask Yourself
- Do I treat the Lord's Prayer, and prayer generally, as a living pattern to shape my heart, or as words recited without thought?
- Do I approach God more as a distant authority or as a Father who has adopted me?
- How does remembering I am His child change the way I bring my requests to Him?
- In what ways does praying “Our Father” connect me to other believers, not just to God?
Father, thank You for teaching us not just what to pray but how, through the pattern Your Son gave His first disciples. Thank You, too, for the staggering privilege of calling You by that name. I did not earn this access — You gave it to me through Your Son, and Your Spirit now cries out within me, “Abba, Father.” Teach me to pray with the confidence of a child who is fully loved and fully known, and remind me, even in my most private prayers, that I belong to a whole family of Your children. In Jesus' name, amen.