“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, ‘Abba, Father.’ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:14-16 NLT
The first and most important step in prayer Jesus teaches us is the address, “Our Father.” Equally important is who is able to address God as “Our Father.” There is a misconception that was brought about in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through a book by German Theologian and church historian, Adolf von Harnack, entitled ‘What is Christianity?’ His thesis was the doctrine of Christianity can be reduced to two propositions; ‘The Universal Fatherhood of God’ and ‘The Universal Brotherhood of Man.’ Simply stated, since God created man, then all are God’s children, and all are brothers and sisters. But careful study of scripture does not reveal such a hypothesis. It is true in the sense of creation, God has created all of mankind. Each one of us has God as their creator.
The term “Our Father” is not an address seen in the Old Testament, but has significate meaning in the New Testament. It is the reality of adoption into the family of God, becoming a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ, God the Son. Scripture says, “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” (Jn. 1:12) Having that right to become children of God, Christians have the right to claim God as their Father and the right to address Him properly as “Our Father.” Those who have not trusted in Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection for the remission of sins and have not accepted Him as Savior have no valid reason to address God as Father.
The Lord’s Prayer is recited mostly every Sunday in churches around the world depending on the denominations and style of worship. If your church is one of many who pray the Lord’s Prayer, are you able to truly address God as “Our Father” with those in the family of God with whom you are worshiping. God desires for you to address Him properly as His child, and you can make that happen. As Paul writes in Romans chapter 8, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, ‘Abba, Father.’ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.”
If you repent of your sins and accept Jesus Christ as your Savoir as the only way of salvation, you will be saved and will be able to say along with your brothers and sisters in the family of God, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Word for the Soul 