To Encourage You

Matthew 6:9 “Our Father in heaven”

These few words from the lips of Jesus are a wonderful revelation of the wisdom, power, and glory of our great God.  To think that Jesus, the Son of God, could both reveal both His glorious condescension and lift our minds to the highest plane in just four words demonstrates why so many were continually “astonished at his teaching” (Luke 4:32). Gloriously, Luke 4 also tells us that Jesus spoke with magnificent authority.  This One Who spoke all Creation into being, demonstrated His omnipotence by His every word.

Think of it; Jesus, the Son of God, this One Who “thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Philippians 2:6), stepped into our world to speak to us face to face.  This One Who knows everything about everything and made everything that is, came to us personally to teach us with His simple but powerful words. 

Think of the word “our.”  With this three-letter word, Jesus identifies with us. He includes us. He makes known to us, as He so wonderfully told Mary Magdalene outside His tomb, that He was going to the One Who is both, “my Father and your Father . . . my God and your God” (John 20:17). And so we see that Jesus has made it possible for us to be in a relationship with God the Father.  There is an intimacy with this One, the intimacy as with a Father and with the Son of God, as our brother.  It’s a personal thing. It’s the language of love.  It points to a position of protection, provision, elevation, and wonderful communion. We can talk to Him. We can confide in Him. We can depend on Him.  And we can seek Him for help – and always, day or night, He is available to each and every one of us.

But He’s not just any father.  He’s not subject to the weaknesses and the failures of our earthly father.  For you see, THIS Father is in heaven. He’s above us, exalted as high as the heavens are above the earth.  His arm is never too short. His wisdom is never lacking. His power is unsurpassed.  His is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever – it was always such and it will always be.    And this Father is full of Truth.  Everything He has promised He will fulfill. Everything He has said to us is for our good.  We can trust Him. We can rely on Him. We can know that “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). For you see, it is He alone Who possesses all things, and it is He alone that can give them.

So do you know Him – or have you resisted Him? Are you resting your hope on someone or something else? If so, please listen to the One Who asks you, “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.

“Why do you say, O Jacob (you can put your name in here as well), and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God’? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:25-31).

Again, who or what can possibly be compared even remotely to this One, this perfect and matchless God Who has invited you and me to become members of His family and included in a relationship with the one and only Father in heaven.