“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Matthew 6:9
Let’s spend a few days breaking down the Lord’s Prayer. If you’ve never chunked it down, it’s important to recognize the simple power, beauty, and perfect usefulness of these brilliant words.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Jesus begins the prayer by acknowledging that the Father is ours, not just His. The Father is the Father and father of all of us. We are all humans made in His image, meaning we have intellect, feelings, beliefs, life: qualities He has. Men and women, we all have one common Father, who created us through His Son, Jesus, and who accepts His Son, Jesus’, self-sacrifice on our behalf for the sins we have done.
The Father is in heaven. In a mystery we don’t understand, the Father is spirit, alive and real, but in a form in a place that’s just as real as the terra firma we know. Heaven is a spiritual residence, a place He made for His residence and that of His family: us. We don’t know where heaven is. Many of us don’t even believe that it is. But, if we accept our living God the Father as real, then the place where He resides is just as real. One day, we’ll find out exactly how real it is.
His name is special. God the Father has the ultimate respect, the ultimate street cred, the ultimate bona fides. His very name is in our breath, flowing in and out of our lungs to keep us alive. His name describes Him, defines Him, embodies Him, and is a way for us to recognize Him. Call Him Father, Elohim, Adonai, El Shaddai, Yahweh, Jehovah, or the great I AM. Call Him whatever you wish as long as you do so in reverence and love because His name is special.
Said together, these 8 words sum up what every one of us, as His children, should think first about Him. Later in the New Testament, Jesus refers to the Father as “Abba”, meaning “Daddy.” That’s part of who He is, too. The 8 words of this article tell us that God the Father is our Father, our spiritual but physical parent, and the first and very real person of the Holy Trinity, formal Father and personal Daddy. You won’t find “trinity” in your Bible, but you will find, from the very beginning, God in multiple persons being known by the people He created. You will find His person in the great Shema, where devout believers still proclaim, “The LORD is One.” You will find Him in your heart when you need Him, and you will find Him at the start of this beautiful prayer that His Son, Jesus, taught us. The Father is His Father, after all, and yours and mine, too.
For more reading: Matthew 6:9
Heavenly Father, hallowed be Your wonderful name. All my praise and thanks to You today.
Practical Proverbs 