To call God Father is the privilege of those who know Jesus Christ as their brother. The universal fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man may have been hallmarks of 2oth century liberal theology, but they are not exactly biblical categories. We are not born into God’s family as some natural right. We must be reborn into his spiritual family. Only by adoption do we have the right to call upon God as our Father.
We see hints of this in the Old Testament—about fifteen times God is called Father in this relational sense. But what is hinted at in the Old Testament becomes abundantly clear in the New Testament: God is revealed as our Father almost 250 times.
The fatherhood of God can be challenging to some—there are bad fathers, abusive fathers, absent fathers, unkind and unknown fathers. The word father does not always conjure up good thoughts. But here again we must let Scripture reinterpret our experience rather than reinterpreting Scripture through our experience. God wants to be known as a Father. He wants to remind us that we are his precious children, that he loves to hear from us, that he knows what is best for us, that he alone can do all things.
Think about it: The Father who loves us is the King who reigns over everything. God is your Father, and your Father is God. The one who knows you best and loves you most can also do and see and know all things. We ought to have all this in mind–and plant it deep into our hearts–every time we pray.
The distinguishing characteristic of Christian prayer is not so how we pray, or how much we pray, but to whom we pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
