“Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9a English Standard Version)
The phone rings early, every morning, around the same time each day, about 7:30 a.m. After the elderly man answers the phone, a young female voice says, “This is your favorite daughter.” The two talk for about 30 minutes. The daughter, actually an “adopted daughter,” is able to talk about any problem she is facing, report on things for which she is grateful, and listen for wise counsel from the father. Every call is unique, different, and not routine. The dialogue is based on real-time happenings and real advice is sought. The favorite daughter, she can cry, celebrate, confide, confess, and converse in a way that she cannot do with anyone else other than the father.
The favorite daughter provides us with an example, and it should give us motivation to call on our Father who art in heaven. While we can call Him anytime and from anywhere, and talk to Him about anything and everything, we need to get to the point of actually calling Him, even if is just to thank Him for the blessing of seeing another day! We need to call Him every morning, as they say, that we wake up on this side of the ground. When we call our Father, we can say, “This is your favorite child,” even though His favorites are numerous. In fact, somewhere I read, “God so loved the world.” Nevertheless, we can call Him feeling special and just as the case is with the favorite daughter, we can cry to Him, celebrate in expressions of thanksgiving, confide in Him by telling Him all about our struggles, confess our sins knowing He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness, and we can converse with Him in a way that you cannot do with anyone else. Real-time happenings can be handled better because God is real and He, the Father, is the real source to get wise counsel, the wisest by all means.
So, the assignment for you this Saturday morning is for you examine your prayer habits, look at how your calling on your Father in Heaven daily compares to the habit of the favorite daughter. Have a great Saturday and don’t forget to attend church tomorrow. Be blessed!
“This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!” (Romans 8:15-17 The Message Bible)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King