When Jesus teaches us to pray, He begins with these familiar words:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.” (Matt. 6:9)
In heaven raises an important question: Why does Jesus direct us to think of God in heaven?
It is obvious that our Lord Jesus is not denying God’s omnipresence. This is a precious doctrine! The universe cannot contain Him. Heaven itself cannot contain Him.
So why does Jesus tell us to think of God as “in heaven”?
Here are six reasons Jesus directs us to think of God in heaven when we pray:
1. To Recall His Deity
The God we pray to is our Father in Christ, but He is not like an earthly father. He is our Father in heaven.
Arthur Dent put it this way: “God as touching his essence is no more in heaven than in this inferior world, but he is said to be in heaven, because his glory and Majesty doth there most clearly shine out.”
When we pray, we must remember that God is not like us. His majesty and glory transcend all things.
And this has a practical implication: we need no image, statue, or painting to pray. God is spirit, and any attempt to visualize Him violates the Second Commandment. J.I. Packer warned even against mental images, saying, “Imagining God in our heads can be just as real a breach of the Second Commandment as imagining Him by the work of our hands.”
So when Jesus says, “Our Father in heaven,” He is not inviting us to picture God in our minds but to consider His heavenly majesty—to recall His deity.
Ecclesiastes 5:2 says, “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.”
That doesn’t mean pray less—it means pray with reverence. Though we may speak to God as our Father and Friend in Christ, we must not speak flippantly. He is God in heaven, and we are on earth.
2. To Recognize His Dominion
Psalm 115:3 says, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”
The fact that God is in heaven does not mean He is distant or disinterested. It means He reigns! The One above has full authority over all that is below. When we pray, we bring our weak and poorly worded petitions to the God of heaven, who is pleased to use them in accomplishing His eternal purposes.
Our Father is not away on a diplomatic trip. He is not sleeping. He is ruling. We think of Him in heaven to recognize His dominion.
3. To Remember Our Doorway
Heaven is high above us. How could we possibly have access to the throne room of God?
Only through Jesus Christ.
Christ is our doorway, our ladder, our Mediator. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus…” (Heb. 10:19).
We do not have God’s ear apart from Christ. Without Him, we are at enmity with God. But in Him, we have full access.
This means our entire prayer is offered in Jesus’ name—not just the last words tacked on to the end. To say “in Jesus’ name” flippantly is to take His name in vain. But to pray in Jesus’ name sincerely means to approach the Father through the righteousness, death, and resurrection of His Son.
And this access is available to all who will call upon Christ. Do you want to come before the throne of grace? Then repent and believe the gospel.
4. To Reprioritize Our Duties
There’s an old saying: “Don’t be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good.”
That’s poor theology. The Christians who have done the most earthly good are precisely those who have been most heavenly-minded. C.S. Lewis said, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”
When we pray to our Father in heaven, our priorities are realigned. We remember that what matters most is pleasing God, not men. Our duties on earth are most profitable when faithfully aligned with God’s revealed will.
To pray to our heavenly Father is to remember our true citizenship—and to get busy with the Lord’s business here on earth until He comes.
5. To Rest in Our Dependence
Prayer is not optional. Jesus commands it because we need it.
It is one of the chief means by which God sustains His people, provides for their needs, nourishes their souls, and advances His kingdom.
And since our Father is in heaven, we can rest in His sufficiency. He has all power, all authority, and an infinite storehouse of grace procured by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Thomas Manton wrote, “When you say, ‘Our Father which art in heaven,’ you profess your dependence upon Him who sits upon the throne, who doth whatsoever He pleaseth.”
6. To Rejoice in Our Delight
When I was younger, I only drank coffee with cream and sugar. But over time, I acquired the taste for black coffee. I came to delight in it. So much more important is our increasing taste of godliness. Heavenly-minded prayer cultivates a taste for heavenly things.
The Spirit gives the believer a new heart with new affections—affections that love the gospel, the means of grace, the Church, and the glory of Christ. Prayer cultivates those affections. And the more we pray, the more our spiritual taste buds adjust to delight in the things of God.
This doesn’t pull us out of the world—it prepares us to live in it rightly. It readies us for heaven and helps us to long for that eternal communion with our holy God.
It even deepens our joy in the Christian Sabbath—the Lord’s Day—because it is the closest foretaste of heaven we have on earth.
What About You?
Are you a heavenly-minded pray-er?
There is a sense in which we pray so little simply because we pray so little. We allow the cares and distractions of this world, and our own carnal inclinations, to cause us to pray less.
Will you pray, dear saint?
When we pray to Our Father in heaven, we are invited to lift our hearts from the dust of this world into the glorious presence of God Himself by the grace and work of Jesus Christ.
