What Jesus Did! 'Father!' — Luke 11:2

From this beginning of Jesus' lesson on prayer, we learn that prayer begins with two realities: The first reality is that the Almighty God, holy and majestic, eternal and all powerful, longs for us to come to him as his our Father, recognizing that this also means we are children. The second reality is that God, our Father, calls us to enter into a relationship where his will and his way set the direction and the meaning of our lives as we voluntarily offer ourselves as subjects of his Kingdom. These complementary realities mean that God is both our Father and our King, so our hearts' deepest yearnings are to come into the presence of our Father and to see the dawning of his unrestrained and untainted rule over all things. Prayer is the perfect place to experience the Father's presence and to anticipate this great day of his complete reign over all things. Prayer is also the place where we affirm to the God we love that he is our Father, that we want his name and character to be honored in all the earth, and that we live in anticipation of the day when Christ brings all his glory to full view. Such few words to express awesome truth; yet these words, this relationship, and this future are ours in Jesus!