The Lord's Prayer

This devotional was written by Lisa Titchener. Lisa is the Youth Worker at St Mary's. She’s married to Rich and they have two daughters, Aoife and Niamh.

Matthew 6:9-13

'"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."

Hallowed be your Name

The Lord's Prayer is carefully crafted. Every line contains something Jesus thinks we need reminding of regularly.

Yesterday we looked at the opening words: 'Our Father'. Jesus almost always referred to God as Father and by giving us these words he is inviting us to share in their beautifully intimate relationship.

Hot on the heels of the opening line comes the second: 'Hallowed by your name'. Hallowed - not a word in our regular vocab - meaning holy, sacred, honoured, pure, sanctified, revered, blessed, awesome, unique, one of a kind, set apart from all others. Like much of our faith we have to hold together two seeming opposites. To hold in perfect tension and union God the holy of holies, creator of the universe with God the Father who recklessly and extravagantly loves his children. The God of Genesis 1 and of John 3:16.

Holding these two images together creates a more accurate and comprehensive picture of who God is and why he is so worthy of our worship and love.

The God of the universe, motivated by the love of the perfect Father, took sweaty human form and humbled himself even further by allowing himself to be arrested, falsely accused and ultimately die for us, his unworthy children.

It's utterly mind blowing!

When we pray the opening lines of this prayer Jesus is inviting us to orient ourselves to God our Father but not at the expense of the reverence he deserves. Or, flipped the other way, to not revere God in such a manner that we become afraid of approaching him like a small child approaches a devoted, loving parent.

You might want to take a couple of minutes now to chew over the opening two lines of this prayer, maybe say them aloud a few times.

Our Father... Hallowed be your name.


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