What a morning it was! A joyous Easter morning that Jesus sent Mary Magdalene on a world-changing mission: “Go to my brothers and sisters and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father’” (John 20:17). What incredible meaning for you and for me! Jesus has made His Father, our Father! Let that settle in! Just hours before the cross Jesus prayed that everyone might know that the Father “loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:23). While we were yet sinners, estranged and alienated from God, God reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Now, because of what the crucified and risen Jesus has done for us, we are empowered to talk to His Father just like Jesus talks to Father. The boundless God who spoke the universe into being, before Whom angels hide their faces, longs for us to come to Him, calling Him, “Our Father”.  Theologian J.

I. Packer writes concerning Jesus’ Father, now made our Father:

“If you want to judge how well a person understands Christian- ity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means he does not understand Christianity very well at all.” (J. I. Packer, Knowing God)

It is Jesus who invites, allows, and commands us to call on God, addressing Him as “Our Father”. He who is the King of Heaven, the eternal Son, has made Himself our brother. We will forever be growing in the meaning of that! But having God as our Father changes everything about the way we pray and the way we live. May the Holy Spirit make us bold in praying “Our Father”!

PRAY THE LORD’S PRAYER (Morning-Noon-Night)