We are driving across America. Plenty of time to think and pray. I am thinking through the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6. It is really the Disciple's Prayer, as I think Stott put it. Jesus says to pray in this way - I don't think He meant it to be a recipe, or a mantra, or just something to rattle off without thinking about it. Jesus wants us to connect with Him, the Father and the Holy Spirit. But this prayer is addressed to the Father. Our Father - the Father of all who have become His children by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
We address as Father the One who gives life and eternal life. We recognize our relationship of dependence upon Him. And we are to 'hallow' or reverence His name. We are to treat His name as holy, because it is. The Greek word is hagiazo, to make holy, to consecrate, to sanctify. His name is sacred and we are treat it as such. That immediately eliminates many things that are a part of our daily verbal arsenal doesn't it?
This prayer, or really this way of praying, that regards God's name as holy, that seeks His rule and pleasure over our own, is really a dangerous one. Because if I pray this way things will change in my heart and life. I will want to fall in line totally with God, to be pleasing to Him. That is my prayer as His disciple today. My desires and actions and aspirations are in His hands and I am looking to Him expectantly and dependently. May He be glorified in me.
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Interesting that not only is His name Holy, but His identity is Holy. His essence His nature is Holy. He could have easily told Moses to tell the people that "Holy" sent him to lead God's people from Egypt. As His name is, so He is!
ReplyDeleteBryan