The Goodness Of The Father - Brian Taylor
As part of our weekly worship at Heritage ARP in Springfield, Mo., we corporately join together to pray our Lord’s prayer. This means that weekly, we confess and affirm the most beautiful of truths. We confess God as our Heavenly Father. The fatherhood of God is a great source of comfort and strength, especially when we do approach Him in prayer. Our Larger Catechism provides us with good insight into this preface to the Lord’s prayer:
Q. 189. What doth the preface of the Lord's prayer teach us?
A. The preface of the Lord's prayer (contained in these words, Our Father which art in heaven) teacheth us, when we pray, to draw near to God with confidence of his fatherly goodness, and our interest therein; with reverence, and all other childlike dispositions, heavenly affections, and due apprehensions of his sovereign power, majesty, and gracious condescension: as also, to pray with and for others.
Note, the first item our catechism touches upon as to the preface is that it teacheth us, when we pray, to draw near to God with confidence of his fatherly goodness…
Indeed, this is what Scripture reveals about God’s relation to his people, that he is good. We see this testimony early on in redemptive history, as God, revealing himself to Moses, proclaims: ““The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation””
(Exodus 34:6–7). He is indeed a righteous God, punishing the guilty, but He likewise is a gracious, patient God, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Such goodness of our God was on full display in the redemption of his people from Egyptian bondage. Though that generation would prove an unbelieving,faithless generation, in his dealings with them, he could yet describe his care for them as a man carries his son(Deuteronomy 1:31). He did deliver them, lead them through a dangerous wilderness and provide for their every need, just as a father cares for his son. It is through such a historical witness that our hearts should likewise find strength to draw near to our God with confidence of His fatherly goodness.
This is especially the case for believers today, who have an even greater revelation of the fatherly goodness of our God, as we live in the shadow of the greatest of his redemptive events. We live in the shadow of the cross, to which we can look back and see the love God has for us in the suffering of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It was indeed because He loved us that He sent His only begotten Son to be a propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10). He, in Christ, has made us His own. The only reason we can even address God as our Father is because, in our union with Christ, we have become the adopted children of God. Turning to our Larger Catechism again, we find this about adoption:
Q. 74. What is adoption?
A. Adoption is an act of the free grace of God, in and for his only Son Jesus Christ, whereby all those that are justified are received into the number of his children, have his name put upon them, the Spirit of his Son given to them, are under his fatherly care and dispensations, admitted to all the liberties and privileges of the sons of God, made heirs of all the promises, and fellow-heirs with Christ in glory.
As the adopted children of God, we have the Spirit of His Son, by whom Paul states we cry out, saying, Abba Father (Romans 8:15). It is, additionally, the witness of the Spirit by which we do know that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). And, as the Spirit works in our lives, particularly governing us regarding our growth in sanctification, we are assured that we are God’s sons and daughters (Romans 8:13-14). By such gracious activity, in our salvation and sanctification, we do again have the greatest of testimonies of our God’s fatherly goodness to us.
So, today, as you meet with need or desire comfort, pray to the Lord your God. And as our Catechism teaches, draw near with full confidence of your heavenly Father’s goodness. What a privilege and what great consolation it is to begin our prayers with, Our Father, who art in heaven…