Jesus teaches His disciples to pray…

From the Sermon on the Mount…

Read Matthew 5:5-15

When we seek God’s kingdom first, we don’t need to worry. We can be sure that He’ll take care of us.

Matthew 6 Notes

GOD, Father—This chapter makes frequent references to God as Father.

God is not the caricature of a doting grandfather. His loving compassion for His children is genuine, but not blind indulgence.

The Father’s love can be a tough love, a love that withholds blessings that we want and do not deserve.

God will not be manipulated, for He is a good Father, with our best interests at heart.

Some try to draw a contrast between the NT emphasis on God as Father and the OT emphasis on God as Lord as though one is the image of love (NT) and the other is the image of stern justice (OT).

Such a contrast does justice to neither expression for God.

The sovereign justice of God may be a little more prominent in the OT and the loving warmth more prominent in the NT.

There is certainly no conflict or contradiction. God as Father not only sees what is said or thought in public.

He also sees what is said, done, or thought in secret and responds accordingly.

He blesses or punishes, as may be appropriate. God invites the believer into a relationship of intimacy (6:9-13).

We express that intimacy in prayer as we address God as Father.

Standing as a sinner before our Creator and Judge, we would never dare be so bold except that we are invited to this intimacy.

God encourages us to address a wide range of petitions to our Father: praise, forgiveness of our sins, daily needs, the coming of God’s eternal will for time and eternity, relationships with one another, and our relationship with God himself.

We can rest in the assurance that God as our heavenly Father will faithfully provide for all our basic needs in life if we are properly related to serving Him in our lives (6:25-34).

SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things)
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Thursday, Dec 26
cFaith

Faith Food Devotions
by Kenneth E. Hagin

OUR FATHER

“…For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father…” (Matt. 6:8-9)

Although God had given to Israel as clear a revelation of Himself as it was possible to give spiritually dead men, they still didn’t really know Him.


They didn’t recognize God manifested in the flesh when Jesus stood in their midst.


(Under the Old Covenant, God’s Presence was shut up in the Holy of Holies.)


Thus, it was into a hard, harsh atmosphere of Justice that Jesus Christ came.


And the Jews of His day could not understand Him. He talked about God as His Father. He told of the Father’s love and care for His own!


It mystified them.


When Jesus introduced God as a Father God of love, His words, for the most part, fell upon unresponsive ears.


Yet we must admit, as we meditate on Jesus’ words about the love of God, that even born-again children of God sometimes fail to see the love side of God.


Israel never grasped it. They didn’t understand who it was Jesus was talking about. It was new to them.


To tell the truth, it’s new to most church members today!


They have been taught to fear God, and to shrink from a God of Justice.


They’ve never really seen the love side of God that Jesus came to reveal.


Confession:
I hereby make a quality decision to see and know the love side of God that Jesus came to reveal.


I will meditate on Jesus’ revelation of God until I really know Him as my Father God of love.

[Source: Faith Food Devotions by Kenneth E. Hagin]
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