God – Our Father

You have the privilege today to pour out your heart, in prayer to God, our Father. You have the privilege to tell our Father the joys and struggles you face today at work.

Because you have placed your faith in Jesus, you have the privilege to stand in God’s presence today wearing his robe, his ring and his shoes as one of his heirs (Rom 8:15-17). When you stand in faith expectantly before God, our Father, you can fearlessly face any work situation with overflowing hope.

Our Father loves you with a tender affection. He sees the secret places. He knows what you need before you ask. He acts on your behalf with heavenly and kingly power. Our Father is not the “I need” who needs you to maintain the order in your workplace. Our Father is the “I am” who requires nothing of you and who can lift your burdens and extinguish your fears. 

Our Father in heaven is able to do immeasurably more than all you ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within you (Eph 3:20). While his presence is surrounded by a mysterious, attractive, aura of majesty and might; he is also the Father of mercies who comforts you in all your troubles so that you might comfort those in any trouble with the comfort you have received from him (2 Cor 1:3-4). 

You don’t need to shrink, grovel, or be unexpectant in your prayers. You don’t need to play it safe and refuse to take risks in his service. For God will not forsake you in that crucial moment. Our Father defines your identity. 

When God calls you his child, you can wholeheartedly believe him against all inner and outer accusations to the contrary. You don’t need to skulk around in the back pew. Come forward boldly with confidence to receive your inheritance. 

Abba Father = Spiritual Growth 

When you say “our Father” in prayer, you are reminding yourself of your inability to save yourself, and of how Christ has transformed your life from being dead in your transgression and sin to a new creation. 

When you cry “Abba Father” you are standing in complete transparency before the one who sets the standards and penetrates your secret motives. 

To know the Father, is to know the vinedresser who prunes your life back into a balance of inner poise and outward expression of peace and joy. To know the Father is to know the one who disciplines his children so that you may grow in maturity and share in his holiness (Heb 12:10). 

When you cry out “Abba Father” your Father sets you free to be yourself. 

Abba Father = Trust and Obedience

Jesus, who knew his Father as Abba, who quietly trusted and obeyed in Gethsemane and on the cross, invites you into a relationship of obedience and trust with his Father. 

When you cry “Abba Father” after Jesus, you are not coming like a child does to demand things from your father. Instead, you are coming home to the security of the Father’s love and to the place where you are enabled for a new and costly obedience. You are coming to God who gave you everything, including himself. In turn God asks you for your unwavering trust and complete obedience. 

Jesus proved through his life that our Father is bountiful in his provision, reliable in his promises and utterly faithful in his love. Therefore, you can walk with obedience, dependent upon the love and power of our Father with boldness, hope and expectation. 

Our Father and your work 

God has not given us methods and techniques or a six-step formula to apply to the situations we face at work. Instead God has given those of us who believe in Jesus the privilege to cry out “Abba Father”. 

Through living in the world, through scripture and through prayer the Holy Spirit empowers you with God’s truth and God’s love in a way that is uniquely relevant to your workplace. This enables you to work creatively in obedience with our Father in your workplace. 

Obedience to God, our Father, sets you free from being a servant to the needs of those that press around you and the insatiable demands of your work. When you surrender to the claims of God in your life, your life is no longer dominated by the claims of the people you work with, or your customers. 

To pray “Our Father” is to have your relationships transformed (Mat 6:14-15); your attitude towards money and possessions changed (Matt 6:19-24); and to be delivered from all fear and anxiety (Matt 6:25-34). 

When you come to our Father in prayer your will becomes aligned to our Father’s will, your perspective on your work changes and the atmosphere changes – and you can calmly and bravely rise and proceed.