The Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer


'OUR FATHER...' MATTHEW 6:9
Jesus taught His disciples to pray: 'After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father...' (Matthew 6:9 KJV). Don't miss this: the relationship you have with someone determines the level of comfort and confidence with which you approach them. So Jesus begins by emphasising: The person. 'Our Father...' Now, if you had an absentee father who was never there for you, or an abusive father who hurt you, or an emotionally unavailable father who never showed you much love or acceptance, then you need a new concept of God; a Scriptural one; otherwise your past will sabotage you. Before you can trust someone you have to know they really care about you. Once that happens you'll open up to them. Only then can your wounded areas be made whole. 'Our Father...' that puts an address on the envelope! You need to understand Who you're talking to, and the relationship you have with Him. You approach God on the basis of who you are to Him, and Whom He is to you. Your Heavenly Father is a covenant making, covenant keeping God. When two people in Bible days made a covenant it wasn't a casual 'call me sometime' with no commitment. No, they sealed it with blood, meaning, 'I'll give my life for you if necessary.' You can actually call God 'Papa' without a trace of irreverence: 'This resurrection life you received from God is...adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?"...We know who He is, and we know who we are: Father and children' (Romans 8:15-16 TM). So, to pray the Lord's Prayer effectively we must recognise and rejoice in who He is to us - 'Our Father...'

fa‧ther [fah-ther] –noun

a male parent

a man who exercises paternal care over other persons; paternal protector or provider.

Doesn't it sound perfect, yet father / dad / daddy all nearly impossible to say without being overwhelmed with pain. How difficult it is to see God as a loving father when the image I have is so distorted. This last few days I have been drowning in grief, I feel the old bitterness coming back.

I sit here and cry over what happened to me, I have had my childhood, my innocence robbed from me by someone who should have protected me. I have spent the majority of my life in fear of 'the next time' knowing there would always be a next time. And now having escaped the madness, the abuse and my own slow death, I am still sat here in fear, an emotional wreck who today is struggling to hold it all together.

I am supposed to be looking to the future, not dwelling on the past. But today I feel too wiped out to even think about tomorrow, right now this minute I am just aiming for each hour. Today I am a little child looking for security, safety, protection and desperately in need of a parents love.