"We must, moreover, observe that God is our Father “in heaven”…The Jews of Jesus’ day were inclined, on the whole, to conceive of God as so exalted that personal relationships with him could scarcely be imagined. He was so transcendent that the richness of personality was frequently lost to view. By contrast, much modern evangelicalism tends to portray him as exclusively personal and warm. Somehow his sovereignty and exalted transcendence disappear. If you enter certain American churches you will hear the enthusiastic singing of some such ditty (I can scarcely grace it with “chorus) as “He’s a great big wonderful God.” Regrettably, I never fail to think of a great big wonderful teddy bear. Such “choruses” are not quite heretical, not quite blasphemous. I sometimes wish they were, for then they could be readily condemned for specific evil. They are something much worse than isolated blasphemy and heresy. They constitute part of a pattern of irreverence, shallow theology, and experience-dominated religious criteria, which has eviscerated a terribly high proportion of evangelical strength in the Western world.”
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount by D.A. Carson, comments on the Lord ’s Prayer.