Matthew 6:9

“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name ~ Matthew 6:9

 

Many books have been written on prayer, and in fact I am reading one in these days myself. The forms of prayer are as  various as one person from the next. Some people are labelled as “good prayers,” people we want to copy, while others say they cannot pray at all. Forms of prayer were frequent among the Jews as well, and every public preacher gave one to his disciples. Some were very lengthy and wordy. The idea was for the disciple to have this prayer for the immediate, but also to meditate upon later. The prayer Jesus gave His disciples was not a wordy prayer, in fact, it is quite simple. It is a prayer that does not lead to vanity in its wording, but it does get right to the point of what is necessary to say. After many years away from faith in my own life, the church I attended said this prayer. After so many years of not hearing these words, I was in awe of a prayer I had taken for granted. I came away from that service with new appreciation for what we call the “Lord’s Prayer.” We don’t always appreciate the value of this prayer, and often we discard it because it is simple. It is however, a perfect prayer, and that we have been given this prayer by God himself grants us even greater satisfaction, or it should. We start with the words “Our Father,” leading us into the fellowship we have with each other, as we do not say “My Father.” We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and we pray for each other as we pray for ourself. And we pray to our Father who is our intimate loving heavenly parent. We call upon a Divine God, a hallowed God, who is above all in power, wisdom, justice, mercy, and love. He is the King in my heart, is he the King in your heart too? Let Your will be done, Our Father, for hallowed be Thy name. Amen.

Pastor Julia