When I talk to my dad I don’t call him “Andy,” even though it is a name we have in common; both of us share the middle name “Andrew.”  I don’t call him “Mr. Kizer” despite the fact that we are proud of the Kizer name.  I call him “Father” or “Dad.”  It may be a matter of habit, but I’d like to think it is something more.  “Father” speaks of a tender relationship between parent and child, mentor and trainee, man and boy.  The name means family, and it is written in blood.  I call him “Father” because I respect him and love him.

It’s amazing that Jehovah invites believers to call Him “Father.”  Paul spoke of this beautifully in Galatians 4:4-7:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Due to the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, God has adopted us as his children.  In those days, as it is now, adoption was as good as the real thing.  There is no difference to a father between a biological child and an adopted one.  Both are, in a very real sense, his own.  For this reason we cry, “Abba! Father!”  It is uncertain why Paul chose to use this mix of Aramaic and Greek.  Some have trivialized the phrase to mean something like “Daddy,” but a closer rendering is Phillips’s “Father, dear Father.”

I’ve noticed a trend in prayer to stray away from the traditional opening “our heavenly Father” and go with something else, such as “God.”  I would not say this is unscriptural, but I do not think it is best.  Here’s how Jesus taught us to pray:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (Mt. 6:9-13, emphasis added).

The gods of the pagans never sought after a relationship like this one.  In mythological tales, they rarely aided man.  Never did they call him “son.”  Only the true and living God seeks a father-child relationship with His creation.

Christians are remarkable for their God.  They call Him “Father.”