Right in the middle of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount, He teaches about prayer. I don’t know about you, but I look at the world around me and my heart aches with how much we desperately need Jesus.
So much pain.
So much anger.
So much disunity.
And what I’m really feeling is the answer to bring healing, love and unity, is going to require the people of God to spend more time on their knees in prayer. It’s here we’ll find our hearts changed, becoming aligned more with His, and increasingly prepared to go out into the world and help bring the change it so critically needs.
Over this week we’ll be looking at each section of The Lord’s prayer as an opportunity for personal reflection, with hopes to bring further intimacy in our own time of prayer.
Jesus said, “This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed by Your name.” (ref. Matthew 6:9)
I love this model of prayer that Jesus gave to the first disciples. A simple outline of prayer that is still relevant to us today - not held to what to pray but how to pray.
Jesus taught us to approach God as our Father. His deity didn’t, and doesn’t, eliminate Him from being a personal God. A loving God that we can claim as our own. Our Father, who reigns supreme in Heaven, is an intimate God who hears our prayers as we approach Him.
Hallowed be Your name. God’s name is a reflection of Himself. Like His name, He is Hallowed. Holy. Separated from all others. And to be revered in all ways that encompass His position, His character, and His name.
It’s so easy to enter into prayer and get right to what we’re requesting or needing Him to do for us…but are we taking the time to praise God for Who He is and what He’s done for us?
I wonder how our heart’s perspective and position would change if we entered into our time of prayer in awe of the intimacy we have with our Father. I wonder how praise of His Holiness would shift our minds to reflect on the privilege we have to not only have our voice be heard by Him, but the privilege of hearing His voice in times of intimacy with Him in prayer as well. His majesty and power and glory call us to revere Him like no other, and to embody the purity of heart that He calls us to.
Let’s take time to praise our Father for Who He is, for the privilege it is to talk with Him, and to thank Him for all that He has done for us.
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