Fridays with the Heidelberg

Lord’s Day 46

120. Q. WHY DID CHRIST COMMAND US TO CALL GOD “OUR FATHER”?

     A. At the very beginning of our prayer Christ wants to kindle in us what is basic to our prayer-the childlike awe and trust that God through Christ has become our Father. Our fathers do not refuse us the things of this life; God our Father will even less refuse to give us what we ask in faith.

121. Q. WHY THE WORDS “IN HEAVEN”?

     A. Those words teach us not to think of God’s heavenly majesty as something earthly, and to expect everything for body and soul from His almighty power.

Sunday morning during the High School lesson, we studied the Love of God demonstrated through the sacrificial death of His Son.  The message of the gospel is the good news that by faith in Jesus the Son of God, who died for our sins, we are adopted as God’s children.  Adopted into the very family of God.

In our fallen condition, the Scriptures teach that we are “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3).  But through Christ alone, sinful man can be reconciled to the Father.  The Scriptures identify believers as “Children of God” (John 1:12),  “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Gal. 3:26), “for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).

As believers, we have been adopted into God’s family, so we can now approach Him by faith in prayer.  And just as any father will not refuse the needs of his children, “God our Father will even less refuse to give us what we ask in faith.”