Mt 6:7-15
[Jesus said to his disciples,] 7“In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9“This is how you are to pray:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread;
12and forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors;
13and do not subject us to the final test,
but deliver us from the evil one.
14If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. There seems no need for our petitions, for a litany of wants and needs, for a list of intentions and recommendations. The Father knows all of them even before we ask. In fact, God knows the number of hair on our heads! So is there no need to pray anymore? The Father knows what we will ask for anyway.
But wait, God does not know whether we will thank him or not, praise him or not, forgive or not, and follow his will or not. This can only come from us freely.
So talk to God about what he does not expect; God will listen and bless you. Praise and thank God, and receive God’s forgiveness. As Jesus promises, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides” (Mt 6:33). Next time you pray the “Our Father,” focus less on the daily bread. Pray and feel more “your will be done” and “as we forgive.” Thank God as Our Father who loves us and experience God thus.
Father. The familiarity and intimacy conjured by fatherhood may have prevented the Israelites from addressing God as “father.” Rarely is fatherhood applied to God, and only in the context of Israel’s creation and election as God’s very own people. When Jesus addresses God as Abba (“dear father”) and teaches his disciples to do likewise, he is introducing something new, even revolutionary. Yet this kind of relationship—simple, secure, intimate—is precisely what Jesus reveals as the definite image of God. He is, above all, Father.