Whose Father is He?
The Lord's Prayer, Part 3
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Matthew 6:9-13 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen
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I have two brothers and two sisters. Together we have two parents -- a mom and a dad. No one else in the world can rightfully call them "Mom" or "Dad". It's a relationship that only the children who are born to this set of parents can lay claim to honestly. We were born into that family.
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| This prayer starts with two words, "Our Father". Just the same as the only rightful claim to my mom and dad is by birth, so it is with the right to call God "Father". I have heard and sung some songs that are Scripturally wrong. You may recognize the whole song by just a line or two. Let's see....."With God as our Father, brothers all are we."
That's just not so! Even Jesus, God's Son, said that there are some people who are just not a part of "The Family!" He called the Scribes and the Pharisees sons of their father, the devil. He meant it. There are people who are a part of another family. Just like the neighbor kids couldn't lay claim to being in my parents' family, there are some people who just cannot rightfully lay claim to being in God's family.
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So, who can? Jesus told us Himself -- John 1:12 "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." He told Niccodemus, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
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| There we have it. From the same person who gave us the model prayer, we have the way to be born into the family: Receive Jesus as Savior, believe that He is the only payment for your sins and turn to God. Dead to the first family of Adam, alive to the new family of God. Born again. Able to say, "Our Father."
Can you honestly pray this prayer? The rest is just words if the first two are void.
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Father, I pray for the persons out there who are reading this devotional and are asking if they are a part of Your family. Touch their hearts. Lead them to the book of John. That one part of Your book is so rich with Whom You are, Whom Your Son is, and whom we are to you. I pray that whoever he or she is, that today would be the day that they are born again into Your family, our family, the everlasting family of God. Amen.
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