Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:9-10 ESV

Though many times we come to the Lord’s Prayer with a mixture of awe and duty, “Our Father, who is in Heaven,” begins with a line full of hope. It is hope because we are praying to a God who loves us enough to make Himself available as a father. We do not call and receive a heavenly voicemail instructing us to press -1- for emergencies, -2- for billing and -3- to speak to an operator. No matter how young or old, no matter how weak or powerful, no matter our success or failure, we are invited together to call on our Father who is listening in Heaven.

We have hope because we are praying to a Father who is in Heaven and sees our lives and our struggles, from a higher perspective than we do. He is touched by our infirmities, but not threatened by them. He bore our sins in His body on the tree, yet they never entered His heart. The whip marks on His back purchased the healing balm for our diseases, though He Himself is our physician. We need never fear that we have too great a sin, too difficult a dilemma or too desperate a situation. These mountains we face, no matter how high their summits, will never be higher than the throne from which our Heavenly Father rules!

We also have hope, because He calls us children- and not just any children, but HIS CHILDREN! John reflects on this in His letter when He tells us how amazing the love of our God is that “We should be called the children of God!” 1 John 1:3 ESV. He who created the universe and existed before eternity began, wants us to join Him to spend all of our eternal lives as His children! What greater hope is this – that we should be called the children of God?