Our Father, who art in heaven…

We’re going to spend the next few days going over how Jesus taught us to pray. This is foundational — it is bedrock to our faith — and we need that right now. When so much seems to be flying apart, we need something solid to hold onto.

So we start with the fact that we pray directly to God the Father. We have access to Him. We don’t need a mediator. We don’t need representation. We are family, and we can walk into His office at any time without an appointment. In the annals of human history, this is unheard of. In human history, gods are mean, powerful, distant, and to be feared. Don’t get me wrong; our God is all-powerful and to be feared, except that He says to us, “Fear not.”

This God is close, available, compassionate, and conscious of the slightest details in our lives. My wife likes to picture herself on His lap, playing in the folds of His royal robe. He is that intimate.

I have heard that He delights is us — even dances over us with singing. You can imagine all these things about Him and be right.

And He is in heaven. What is the significance of that? Heaven is the place of ultimate authority. He is the all-powerful judge of the world. He did not set the world spinning and then go off somewhere else in the universe leaving us to our own devices. God in heaven is a picture of His control over all things. There are no surprises with God.

It was this understanding that led Robert Browning to write, “God’s in His heaven; all’s right with the world.” That doesn’t mean everything’s good. It means He is in control. Even His enemies can’t get away with evil without God’s permission.

This is where all our prayers begin. Our Father, who is in control, with whom there are no surprises, who never goes, “Whoops,” and never misses anything… who is working out His perfect plan for us and for the world even when things seem chaotic and out of control. This is why we call this a foundational truth; you can count on it at all times.