In Matthew 6:9 Jesus teaches his disciples to pray saying, "our father." Leave it to Jesus to take a word like "our" and fill it with life-changing revelation power. According to Webster's 1828 Dictionary, "our" means, "Pertaining or belonging to us; as our country; our rights; our troops." Simple right? Everything of Jesus is simple. We just need to become as simple little children to understand simple things.
While I was praying yesterday, I was filled with gratefulness to Jesus for using the word "our." I want to focus on three powerful realities that the use of this word reveals about our relationship with God.
First, Jesus shows us that we are in the exact same relationship position with God as himself. Both he and us are children of God and can address him as father. This truth alone should be enough to rock our worlds. Jesus takes a bunch of ex-sinners whose righteousness was as filthy rags and makes us equal to him. Amazing! We can approach our Heavenly Father just like Jesus!
Second, he shows us our relationship to himself. Jesus says, "our father" implying that God is both his father and our father which makes him our brother. We are his little brothers and sisters. If you have siblings, then you understand how special and unique this relationship is.
Finally, he reveals his location during our times of prayer. This is evident when we read the context of this scripture. Right before Jesus teaches us how to pray, he tells us where to pray. He said that we should go into a room, close the door, and pray in secret. He then goes on to teach that we should use the word "our." The use of "our" must mean that Jesus is with us when we pray because Jesus was the one speaking when he said "our" which would include him and other than him, we are in a closed room praying in secret without anyone else. This is fitting because the only way we can even approach God is through Jesus and the Scriptures continuously command us to pray in Jesus' name.
Isn't it wonderful that our big brother Jesus lifts us up to his level and is always with us to teach and enable us to pray to OUR Father?
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