We are not to think of God as this big grandpa-like figure handing out Werther’s Originals to his grandchildren; just kind of a benevolent super-star up above doting on his little ones. While we confess and gladly believe that the Lord loves us with all His might and grace, we also recognize in humble reliance the same God who swirled around the top of Mount Sinai in thunder and lightning. His power and authority is the reason why we can pray at all. We must never domesticate the living and true Jehovah. He is the one who moves the mountains that we pray for, and He is the one who can alone deliver us from the trials and tribulations of this life.
I’ve made this point, probably too much, that the central beauty of the Presbyterian way of looking at things is that we are to always understand ourselves to be a part of a covenant community grounded in the free gift of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What that means practically is that the unity of the body is bound by the promise of mercy we have in the forgiveness of sins and the new life in and through our savior. It is a joint blessing and there is no sense in which we are to experience these glories alone. Even when we pray for individual needs we do so in the sure and certain knowledge that our brothers and sisters in Christ are likewise lifting us up to the Lord of glory. This mutual benevolence of faith people is united together in the eternal nature of our Triune God. That is part of what Paul is speaking about in his letter to Thessalonica as he encourages the people by giving thanks for the way they are always praying for the brethren in Jerusalem and elsewhere.
Another aspect of this is discovered in the picture drawn in the Old Testament of how the tribes were to help one another in the conquest of the land, and also how each of them were in turn and kind then to support their brother Levites in their labors. It is this image of the parts working together with one purpose that the more godly elements of the church is to follow in time. What does all this have to do with the Lord’s Prayer? As we enter into the separate parts of the Lord’s Prayer to whom and why we are lifting up supplications to God needs be kept central.
Let’s go ahead and read the Q/A and get started:
Q. 189. What doth the preface of the Lord’s prayer teach us?
The preface of the Lord’s prayer, contained in these words, Our Father which art in heaven, teaches us, when we pray, to draw near to God with confidence of his fatherly goodness, and our interest therein; with reverence, and all other child-like dispositions, heavenly affections, and due apprehensions of his sovereign power, majesty, and gracious condescension: as also, to pray with and for others.
That first word is what the opening paragraphs have been all about. Our. Our Father. Also, remember the One who is introducing us to this form of prayer is the Son of the Living God. When He says Our think about what that means. We get a deeper sense of that in Jesus’s prayer in John 17.