The Heidelberg Catechism (46) (Explained for Children)

Our Catechism now speaks about the address in the Lord’s Prayer.

Question 120: Why hath God commanded us to address God thus: “Our Father”?

Answer: That immediately, in the very beginning of our prayer, He might excite in us a childlike reverence for and confidence in God, which are the foundation of our prayer, namely, that God is become our Father in Christ, and will much less deny us what we ask of Him in true faith than our parents will refuse us earthly things.

The prayer begins with “Our Father” as Christ Himself commanded. Why did He command this? The instructor says that God is my Father, not only my Father but also the Father of all His children. How can God be the Father of sinful men? Have not all men become children of the devil? Then the devil is our father. Yet, it is true that such persons can become children of God. The Lord Jesus accomplishes this work, for is He not the Savior, the Redeemer? He delivers from the power of sin and of the devil.

Why does the prayer begin with the words, “Our Father”? The Lord desires that in the heart there be a childlike reverence already at the beginning of the prayer. What is reverence? The dictionary speaks of it as fear mingled with respect and esteem. Perhaps you think that having fear means to be afraid; for example, a person can fear a large dog barking at him, but that is not the meaning here. Another word is added by which we are better able to understand what is meant. It is the word childlike—“a childlike reverence.”

If a child reverences his father, he is not afraid of him but rather has respect for him. If you love your father, you cannot be without him. This is also true of someone who fears the Lord, for he has a childlike reverence in his heart. He has deep reverence and respect for a holy and great God. He loves Him and cannot do without Him, for the Lord has the most importance place in his heart. That is childlike reverence.

The instructor says that we should not only have reverence for the Lord, but we should also have confidence in Him just as a child has confidence in his father and seeks his help. If you have to travel alone through a dark forest, you might be hesitant. However, if your father is with you, you will not be afraid. You have trust in him, for he will not leave you alone. Likewise the Lord desires that we trust in Him. Thus the Lord desires to excite childlike reverence and confidence at the beginning of the prayer.

You probably think that we do not have this reverence and confidence of ourselves. Did we not become children of the devil? That is true, but the Lord can make the devil’s children to be children of God! We must pray for this. In doing so, the Lord becomes your Father, and then He gives a childlike reverence and confidence in the heart.

Most earthly fathers provide well for their children’s needs. The Lord says that if earthly fathers provide so well for their children, shall not the heavenly Father provide as well for His children? He will provide better for His children than earthly fathers do for theirs. If His children are in need of something, they will certainly receive it of their Father. Earthly fathers sometimes cannot give their children what they need, but the heavenly Father always can.

There are some earthly fathers who fail to provide well for their children. On the contrary, the heavenly Father is a good Father, and if His children pray unto Him with a true, believing heart, He shall give them what they need. Do they always receive what they desire? No, for sometimes they ask for the wrong things. It is a blessing that the heavenly Father knows what is necessary and beneficial for His children.

Question 121: Why is here added, “which art in heaven”?

Answer: Test we should form any earthly conceptions of God’s heavenly majesty, and that we may expect from His almighty power all things necessary for soul and body.

God dwells in heaven where His throne is. Therefore He is called the heavenly Majesty. One is called Majesty when he is the predominant and the very greatest. In the Netherlands there is only one who is so-called, and that is the queen. She is addressed as Your Majesty, but she is an earthly majesty. The Lord is the heavenly Majesty, the Most High in heaven and upon earth.

Because He is the heavenly Majesty, we should not have an earthly conception of Him. Everything which is earthly is sinful. What then are earthly conceptions? Those are views of God as man—weak and unrighteous. No, He is mighty, the Almighty God, and there is never any unrighteousness in Him. God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. This means that when God does something, we may not understand why He does so, and we often have wrong, earthly thoughts about it. The reason for these thoughts is that all people have become foolish through sin. God is wise and therefore He is called Wisdom.

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