One of my favorite movies is Rudy. Have you seen it? It’s a movie based on the story of Daniel E. “Rudy” Ruettiger – a small, athletically-unremarkable kid with dyslexia from a blue-collar family in the Rust Belt. But Rudy had big dreams, dreams of one day playing football for Notre Dame. After the tragic death of his best friend in a steel mill accident, Rudy effectively cashes in his chips and decided that it’s now or never and moves to South Bend, where he attends a community college in an attempt to do well enough academically to transfer into Notre Dame.
In the movie, he submits his final application and goes to church to pray. A priest who has become something of a mentor notices him and sits down nearby. “You’ve taken your appeal to a higher court, I see,” he tells Rudy. Rudy asks him “Have I done everything I can? Can you help me?”
The priest replies, “In 32 years of religious study, I’ve come up with only two hard incontrovertible facts: there is a god, and I’m not him.”
As we study Jesus’ model prayer, the way He phrases the opening line is amazingly balanced. On one hand, He instructs His disciples to address the Holy, Infinite God of the Universe as “Father.” On the other hand, God is still in heaven. He is still Sovereign, He is still king. We are not peers, we are not buddies. Never has so intimate a term as “Daddy” demanded such respect.
So when we pray, “Our Father in heaven,” remember the words of Solomon:
Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.
Ecclesiastes 5:2
We can come to our Heavenly Father and know that He’s very happy we did, and that He listens intently to our prayers. But when we do come to Him in prayer and address God as “Daddy,” we need to remember that it took the Cross to make us worthy of that access.
As you begin your day today, pray. Go confidently to your Heavenly Father (Hebrews 10:19) – but don’t take it lightly. Prayer is very serious business.
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