We are in a series on prayer, and this morning we are continuing to look at what is called the Lord’s Prayer in the the gospel of Matthew. When Jesus teaches His disciples to pray, He begins His prayer with “Our Father.” If we are going to pray like Jesus prays, He knows that we really need to understand fathers and what they are like. In fact, in both Matthew and Luke’s account of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus follows the prayer with a story about a good father so that we can know what a good father is like. To address God as Father in prayer was not anything unique with Jesus; Jews often addressed God as “Our Father” in prayer. We see that in Isaiah 63 and other places in Scripture. What was unique about Jesus teaching us this prayer in response to the heart cry of “Teach us now to pray!” is that the one teaching us to pray “Our Father” is actually the true son of God. So, when the only begotten Son of the Father is asked about how to pray, His first thought is, “I want you to know that My Father is also your Father.”
