6th May - 12th May

This week I would like to invite you to focus with me on our heavenly Father. Jesus had much to teach his disciples about his Father and one thing that struck me recently was the extent to which Jesus loves his Father. This is what he said himself: “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.” 

His entire life and especially his sufferings and death demonstrate to the whole world, and to us, how much he loves the Father. And in the first lines of the prayer he taught us, he shows the highest and utmost respect for his Father’s name, kingdom and will.

So, each day of this week, I would like us to focus on various aspects of our heavenly Father and to pray out of these.

Guest contributor - Robert Mullan

Monday – HOLY

The first attribute of our heavenly Father which I have chosen is that of his holiness. This is because it is the first one mentioned in the prayer that Jesus taught us. Being aware of our Father’s holiness helps us to approach him with proper reverence and humility. Like Moses we ‘take off our sandals’ because the place where we stand is holy ground. The Father’s holiness also calls us to holiness. Peter put it like this in 1 Peter 1:14-17:

As obedient children do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 

Our Father, hallowed be your name. We bow in humility and in awe of your holy presence. We thank you for your intrinsic holiness that nothing or no one can contaminate in any way. We thank you for the provision you have made for us in Jesus, in terms of forgiveness and acceptance, which allow us freely and without fear to come into your holy presence. But we are saddened how your name is taken in vain, spoken against and dishonoured, in our world. May your name be hallowed in our minds and hearts and lives. May it be hallowed within the circles of our influence and in the nitty gritty of our daily lives.  

Holy Father, help us to live worthy of our high calling and thank you again for Jesus who sanctified himself so that we too may be truly sanctified. In his name we pray. Amen.

Tuesday – LOVING

Today we get to focus on the most amazing aspect of our heavenly Father. His love. John states the wonder of this in three succinct words: God is love. When we trace love back to its ultimate source, we find ourselves in the very heart of God! No wonder Ignatius of Loyola referred to God’s love as the First Principal and Foundation. John again puts it beautifully when he says: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)

Heavenly Father, thank you for the great love that you have lavished on us. May it not just be something we understand in our heads but what we experience in our hearts, bringing reassurance and rest. We cannot measure it but joyfully revel in this love from which nothing can separate us. We thank you, above all, for demonstrating your love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We love you, Father, because you first loved us. May your love fill us and flow through us to others. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Wednesday – KIND

Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. (Luke 6:35-36)

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. (Titus 3:3-5)

Thank you, Father, for your kindness. We marvel at the extent of it. Your word says, of Jesus coming into our world, that your kindness and love had appeared. Thank you that it was shown to us when we didn’t even know you and that we continue to experience it daily in our ongoing lives. Thank you that kindness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Help us to abide in Jesus so that it will bear fruit in us and extend through us to others. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Thursday – GIVER

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:11)

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are the giver of all things. We acknowledge that we have nothing, whether physical, material, or spiritual that does not come from you. You made the world and all in it and you give life and breath and everything to us and to all of humanity.

More than anything, we thank you for the gift of your Son, the gift of gifts, all other gifts in one, the gift through whom all other gifts come. We thank you that you delight to give and you desire to give us more. We confess that too often we do not have because we do not ask. Help us to seek so that we may find. To ask, that we might receive.

To you Father, the giver of all, we give our humble and grateful thanks. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Friday – MODEL

So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:45) 

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)

Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us. (Ephesians 5:1-2)

We have considered various attributes of our heavenly Father so far this week, but the verses above show us that they are all meant to also be reflected in us as his children. Thankfully we have a perfect model in our heavenly Father.

Heavenly Father, thank you that you are perfect. And thank you that Jesus perfectly represents you and is the exact imprint of your nature. It is our desire that we would be more like you in our hearts, our thoughts and in our conduct. We want no one, other than you, to be our exemplar and pattern for living.

Help us to treat others without partiality as you do.

Help us to forgive as you forgive and to reflect your kind and tender heart.

Help us to imitate you in all we do and to walk in love as Christ loved us.

In his name we pray. Amen.

Saturday – KNOWS

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (Matthew 6:32)

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (Matthew 6:26)

Said the Robin to the Sparrow “I should really like to know, why these anxious human beings rush around and worry so?” Said the Sparrow to the Robin, “Friend I think that it must be that they have no heavenly Father such as cares for you and me. 

Heavenly Father, thank you that you know all about us. We realise that we can’t tell you a single thing that you don’t already know. We confess that our prayers are often not much better than typical pagan ones, majoring mostly on our physical and material needs. At the same time, we thank you that you know all about them and you tell us not to worry because you care. Help us to trust you with such needs and to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness.

Thank you for the prayer that your Son taught us. We pray that your name may be hallowed. That your kingdom will come and your will be done. Thank you that we can trust you with our daily material needs because you know we need them and you care. May it be our habit to seek your forgiveness and to offer forgiveness to others. And we look to you for protection from temptation and evil. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Sunday – TRUSTWORTHY

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. (1 Peter 2:23)

Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. (Luke 23:46)

One important lesson which Jesus sought to teach his disciples was to trust the Father in the same way as he trusted the Father. Trust in the Father was not just something that Jesus taught but it was perfectly exemplified in his own life and especially in his suffering and death. He didn’t need to retaliate or make threats because he knew his Father was trustworthy and he committed every situation to him. His last prayer on the cross was one of trust when he said “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Of this prayer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: “This is the last prayer of our Master, our Beloved. May it be ours. And not only at our last moments, but at all times”. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged in Flossenburg concentration camp three weeks before the end of the Second World War. I would like to finish this week’s readings and prayers with a prayer which he wrote.

My Father, I commend myself to You,
I give myself to You,
I leave myself in Your hands. 

My Father, do with me as You wish.
Whatever You do with me,
I thank You.
I accept everything.
I am ready for anything.
I thank You always.
So long as Your will is done in me
and in all creatures,
I have no other wish, my God. 

I put my soul into Your hands,
giving it to You, my God,
with all of my heart’s love,
which makes me crave
to abandon myself to You
without reserve,
with utter confidence,
for are you not my Father?