I love football. The opening of football training camps gets my juices going. I watch some of the greatest athletes in the world getting ready to play a highly skilled game. So what do they start with every summer at training camp?

Footwork and technique drills. Coaches demanding constant repetition of fundamental skills. The best teams are the ones that most consistently execute the most basic fundamental aspects of their craft.

Legendary Coach Vince Lombardi famously began each training camp by gathering wide-eyed rookies and grizzled veterans around him. He would begin by holding the pigskin in front of him and solemnly proclaiming an indisputable truth.

“Gentlemen, this is a football.”

From that rather rudimentary start he would detail the importance of understanding the fundamentals of the sport. I can learn something from that approach. When I first came to faith I was so excited to learn the fundamentals of faith. How do I study the Bible? How do I pray? How do I grow in my faith? But something seemed to happen as I accumulated some seasons under my belt.

I forgot the fundamentals.

I started looking for the latest trend in faith. Which trendy Christian leader should I emulate next? I defined myself by movements instead of by Jesus, the Cross, and His finished work. For me football training camp is another reminder that I desperately need the fundamentals of faith.

Fundamentals are best taught by those who have the gift of teaching and complete knowledge of the skills required. You hope you can find an expert to teach you. That is exactly what the disciples did when they came to Jesus and asked for His help on how to pray. They had watched Him pray. They knew how important prayer was to Jesus. Now they asked him to teach them how to pray. Here is Luke’s “play by play” of that moment.

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

He said to them, “When you pray, say:

“‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
    for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.” (Luke 11:1-4, NIV)

Over much of my fumbling, bumbling Christian journey I would skip straight to the “give us our daily bread and forgive us our sins” parts of that prayer. I managed to miss the most important fundamental of this insightful prayer contained in the opening words.

I get to relate to God as my Father! That privilege comes only from my relationship with Jesus. Noted preacher Haddon Robinson stated that in the entire Old Testament God is only called Father seven times and it was always in respect to the Nation Israel. There is never a recorded instance where any individual dared to address the Sovereign God as Father.

Now Jesus comes on the scene and Robinson writes about the amazing contrast.

“When you turn to the New Testament, however, 275 times or more we are told directly or indirectly that when we bow before the sovereign majesty of the universe the word that should come easily to our lips is Father.”

That is a fundamental game changer! I can come to the God of the Universe who knows my sin, my weakness, my failures and call Him Father! Are you kidding me?

I also tended to zoom by the next fundamental. 

Hallowed be your name. 

Prayer starts not with a shopping list of what I want God to do but instead with worship and recognition of who God is. We are coached by Jesus to remember how great God is and to recognize that His ways are not our ways. We are taught to remember that His holiness is perfect and His grace is our hope.

Hallowed be your name.

When I learn those fundamentals the rest of the offense falls into place. He is my Father who loves me and wants the best for me. If the answer is no that is an answer. That may mean my request will be answered later. It may be answered differently. It may not be answered at all. But through all of those responses I trust that He is holy, powerful, and present. Embrace that fundamental truth this week.

Today’s blog is an excerpt from Waking Up Slowly, a 21 day journey to grow closer to God and one another.