Where We Start
“Father, hallowed be Your name.”
Father. When Jesus teaches us to pray, He begins with Father. He doesn’t start with Your Excellency or Your Majesty or Supreme Leader - He begins with Father, and He teaches us to start there.
When we pray, Jesus teaches us that we get to start with relationship. We get to start with belonging. We start with love.
We start with family.
God sent His son to teach us, and His son teaches us to start with Father. If we miss that, we miss the whole point. The Father wants to be our Father first.
Before anything else, we start with Father. And our Father starts with love. Good Fathers lead with love - always. I’m not saying your good dads can’t get mad - but good fathers always allow love to win out over other emotions. Our God is like that because our God is perfect.
Our God leads with love.
He’s our Dad. He’s the one we run to for safety, for assurance, for freedom. And He’s not a lazy Dad. He initiates. He’s always making the first move so that you don’t have to.
He’s always ready to receive you. He just wants to love you. He’s delighted in you. He’s excited about you. You are important to Him. He’s made a plan for you. You never catch Him by surprise because He’s always ready for you, and…
He always wants you.
It’s that simple. He always wants you. He’s invited you into His family, and therefore, you are His. You’re His responsibility. And He loves that responsibility. He loves to be accountable for you.
But you must accept it. If you keep running, it makes His job harder. He’ll come after you - no matter where you go. He’ll never give up on you, and He’ll bring you back - like any good dad. But don’t make it harder. Don’t run.
I run.
I ignore Him. I avoid Him. I get bogged down by sin and mess and confusion, and it seems easier to run than to talk to Him. But it’s never worth it. It never fixes it. He’s the only one.
My Dad, my Father, our Father, is the only one who makes it better. He’s the only one who can. And we are invited to start with Father - to start with Him being our Dad, to start with a protective Dad. Even if I run, even if I mess up, even if my life looks messier than I want.
I get to start with Dad.
And so do you. You get to start with Dad, too. And it’s really the best. Our Dad who is filled with goodness and light and adventure and joy and protectiveness and compassion and jealous love and excitement for your life - that’s the one we start with.
So - start with Him today. He lets us start with Father, why don’t you start with Daughter? Why don’t you start from that place of belonging and acceptance and delight?
Father,
Thank You for starting with family. Thank You for being Dad first. Thank You for starting with love.
Thank You for looking out for me - for being an awesome Dad. Thank You for being a safe place for me to land. Thank You for allowing me to run to You and for welcoming me back with open arms.
God, we love You. Please help us run to You before we run anywhere else.