"You have not received a spirit of bondage to fall into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption which makes us cry out: Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15).

Not only is God our Father because He created us, but God also has the right to the name of Father, because He has adopted us. Having adopted us, he gives us his inheritance : "We are his children, and we are his heirs" (Romans 8:17).

When we pray, it is vital to approach him, having this perception that he is our Father full of love and compassion. He receives us, as James says, without reproaching us : "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all simply and without reproach" (James 1: 5).

Calling God our Father implies attitudes toward him that are those of respectful children towards their respectable father. Now God is a respectable father. Some children have a distorted image of God because their natural father is (or has been) violent, angry, or rude. It is important that this distorted image of God be replaced by that given to us by the Bible, that of the father of the prodigal son, for example. (Luke 15.11 / 32).

God being our Father, we owe him the honor : "If I am a Father, where is the honor due to me" (Malachi 1.6). Honor our Father, not only with our lips, but with our hearts (Isaiah 29:13). Let us honor God by our life, that it be the reflection of his person. Let us honor God by our works, so that they may become subjects of praise to those around us (1 Peter 2:12).

We owe him, too, obedience. "Our fathers according to the flesh have corrected us and respected them, and how much more must we submit to the Father of spirits" (Hebrews 12: 9). It also reminds us that we owe him respect.

Praying with this respectful vision of God is a fundamental element of the effectiveness of prayer. God is not our friend, and even if he is close to us, he is our respectable and worthy Father.

Advice for this day :

Pray to God by being truly aware that you are in the presence of the most holy, most respectable, most worthy of honor. Accept his sovereignty over your lives, and approach him with confidence, he loves you more than you can imagine. Direct your requests directly to him as the first disciples did : "The Church never ceased to address ... prayers to God" (Acts 12: 5).

Paul Calzada