The Gospel and Prayer

Prayer may be the most basic Christian activity. Our prayers form us as we grow in relationship with God—both alone and with our church family. While most Christians would agree that prayer is fundamental to our growth as disciples, many of us still wonder, But how should we pray?

Well, we aren’t the only ones. The good news for us is that Jesus gave us direct instruction on how we should pray, and his instructions begin with the gospel.

Jesus says, “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven …’” (Matthew 6:9 ESV). Jesus instructs us to begin by addressing God in our most primary relationship to him as Christians, and with a title at the center of who he is—Father. 

And that raises a question for us: What does it mean that God is our Father?

God is our Father by way of our belief in his Son, Jesus Christ. The Father sent the Son he loves for all eternity to become human, in order to save us. Long before we were created, the Father loved the Son (John 17:25), and he sent him so that we might have eternal life in him (John 20:31). Jesus lived the life we could never live. He died the death that we deserved and came back to life. And to everyone who believes in him, God “gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Now, in Jesus Christ, we cry out to God as our Father (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6), and we delight in the immeasurable riches of his love toward us through the gospel.

In addressing God as “our Father,” we also acknowledge that we are a part of his family. He isn’t just my Father. He is our Father. Everyone who believes in Jesus is a brother or sister, and that shapes the way we pray. We don’t just pray for ourselves, but we also pray for the other members of our gospel family. In fact, in the rest of Jesus’ prayer in Matthew 6, each request is on behalf of “us,” not just “me.” We ought always to pray with and for one another.

When we take Jesus’ instructions about prayer seriously and pray to God as our Father, we are stating our faith in the gospel, through which we have become children of God. We remember our hope in Jesus Christ the Son and boldly approach God not as some distant deity, but as our loving Father. We delight that he now pours out his life and love on us in Christ, and we share in that love along with his whole gospel family.