When Christ taught the early disciples about prayer He began by identifying God as our Heavenly Daddy. He used the word we transliterate as, ‘abba.' We often translate the word, ‘Father’ but should we translate the word,’Daddy?' Father in our culture is a formal, stiff, and distant title, where Daddy describes more of a relational definition. I called my father ‘daddy’ and meant love and respect when I used the title. God does not want us to see Him as formal or distant. God desires a love relationship with each of us. That love relationship begins and should be evident in our prayer life. My vision of prayer is a child climbing up into his/her daddy’s lap for a special time of intimacy and sharing. God is our Heavenly Daddy and when we pray, we climb up into His lap spending precious intimate time with Him. I am overwhelmed when I think that God is beyond everything, who created the entire universe, the One who had no beginning and will have no end desires an intimate relationship with me. He desires an intimate relationship with all of us. The next time you bow in prayer think of God as your Heavenly Daddy who sees spending time with you as the most important thing He does.
This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name" (Matthew 6:9 NIV).
Written by Jim Carpenter
