In Matthew 6:10, Jesus teaches his disciples how they should pray. When addressing God in prayer, Jesus emphasizes relating to God, not just as our Father, but as our heavenly Father. God as our “heavenly” Father is a theme that Jesus begins early in his sermon on the mount and continues to develop through out. In Matthew 5:44-45 Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven”; in 6:1, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven”; in 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”; in 6:32, “For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all”; and in 7:11, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Jesus wants us to understand and relate to God as our heavenly Father.

Understanding and relating to God the Father as “heavenly” is important because of the implications it has. The term “heavenly” is more than just an adjective ascribed to give us the whereabouts of God. Jesus doesn’t emphasize God as “heavenly” to give us his street address; there is something greater going on here. Jesus is describing our Father as the boss of the Universe. Everything exists  or ceases to exist at his command. Therefore, God is the only One with both the right and the power to issue commands and demand perfect obedience to them. But he does not do this as a strict school Master, but as a kind and benevolent Father. His commands are not over bearing and impossible to follow, they are lovingly crafted with our benefit in mind.