The Lord’s Prayer:Introduction (Matthew 6:9)
My dad used to tuck me into bed saying the Lord’s Prayer. We used to chant it each Sunday morning at the church we attended. Never in this time did I have a clue what Jesus was teaching in this prayer. I just repeated it as if it were a spell. We spoke yesterday about the fact that in these very scriptures Jesus is warning us not to do this sort of thing, “do not keep on babbling like pagans“.
He lays out the foundations for what our prayer life should be and it is quite the opposite of the way that we naturally pray. When we are new in our walks, we spend most of our prayer time asking God for stuff that we want. He can be quite amazing in what He will give us just by asking, but He expects us to grow past this early phase. As you grow, you might be living a life doing the will of the Father and make this your focus. This might seem holy and righteous, but this too is wrong. I battle this temptation a lot because I feel that I am absolutely doing the work that God is calling me to do, but because there is always more to do than I have time to complete, I am tempted to make the work my focus and not God! Jesus clearly shows us that the key to the Kingdom life that He calls us to is the opposite of these natural tendencies.
Today we’ll break down the first portion…
“Our Father in Heaven,” Our focus should be on God. As Father, He gives us life and takes care of us. Because He is in Heaven, He is capable of doing anything in this natural world that He created.
“Hallowed by your Name,” In the Jewish culture, a name represented the person’s nature. Hallowed means Holy. We are to be in AWE of who God is. His very nature is much higher and incredible then ours.
Most people pray for things they want. Jesus is teaching that our focus needs to be on worshipping who God is first and foremost. Our life should be focused on our Creator. This is the purpose for which He made us and the way in which we are most fulfilled, happy and alive. As we grow into our Calling and Kingdom responsibilities, these things will be important as we’ll see tomorrow, but they are secondary to our worship of our Father. The single most important thing He created us for is to live this life with Him, in awe of everything that He is done for us and in this world. Everything else is secondary.
Come back tomorrow as we continue and invite a friend to join in.