If the Apostles’ Creed is the heart of our faith, then prayer is the heartbeat of our faith; it is the life itself.

This week we look at the first two words of The Lord’s Prayer “Our Father.” These two words give us the substructure—the very foundation—of prayer.

When Christ teaches us to pray “Our Father…” he is inviting us to join into the eternally ongoing relationship between him and his Father. We have no native right to climb up into God’s lap and call him papa. That right belongs to Jesus alone. The gift of prayer is that Jesus invites us to piggyback our prayers onto his (which is why we often end our prayers “…in Jesus’ name. Amen.”).

The third century church father Cyprian of Carthage explains that when we pray the Lord’s Prayer:  

[We are] imploring God in his own words, sending up to his ears the prayer of Christ… When we make our prayer let the Father recognize the words of his own Son.”

Prayer is not us initiating a conversation with God. It is not about us trying to get God’s attention. Prayer is God’s own work in and through us. Prayer is us joining in the conversation that God already is between Father, Son, and Spirit.

Eugene Peterson memorably puts it like this:

Prayer is not something we think up to get God’s attention. Prayer is answering speech. The first word is God’s word.

When we see this, it alleviates all the anxiety that can often accompany prayer. God is a good and attentive Father who is already leaning forward in his seat with his ear already cupped toward us. Prayer is letting the very life of God take shape in us. It is allowing God’s Breath (his life-giving Spirit) to fill our lungs, loosening up our tight chests as we take it down deep into the core of our being, and then exhaling the life of God for the sake of the world.

In prayer God’s Breath becomes our Breath.

Here are some of the resources I relied on:

* Rowan Williams’ book Being Christian has one of the clearest and best chapters on prayer I’ve ever read. You can also find his lecture on prayer that I mentioned here.

* I drew heavily on the work of Robert Jenson. If you’re looking for a place to start in with Jenson’s theology (especially on prayer) I recommend his book A Large Catechism.

* Near the end of the teaching I was relying completely on Chris Green’s work. I always recommend his little book Surprised by God, but if you want to hear some of his thoughts on prayer, start with this podcast interview he did on God’s sovereignty and our freedom.

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