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.

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.

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