Our Father...

“In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name”

Matthew 6:9

In the next several posts I will be going over the model of Prayer that Jesus gave us. The Lord has been telling me that it is important for us to understand how to pray. The world has always been in need of prayer, but perhaps now more than ever before. The Lord’s prayer--also known as the Our Father or Pater Noster--contains seven petitions the first of them being the one shown above.

First of all, Jesus tells us to pray to Our Father. The word used for Father is the Aramaic term abba which roughly means “papa.” This was a term of endearment that children would use when referring to their father. It was not a formal term, but one of affection. Jesus tells us to think of God as Our Father. Jesus usually referred to God as My Father, but here He includes us making clear that we are to think of God as Our Father. This is because if we are His disciples, we have been reconciled to God by our faith in Him. It says in Romans 8:

“So, you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, ‘Abba, Father’. For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. “ Romans 8:15-17

This is a wonderful blessing that we can think of God as our Abba Father. It also means that we are all in the same family. We are Sons and Daughters of God. God has called us to reclaim what He originally intended for us when He created us in the Garden of Eden. By sending His Son to redeem us from our bondage to sin, He brought us back into perfect relationship to Him by our faith and trust in our Redeemer, The Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us to pray to Our Abba literally. What this means is that we can think of God on an intimate level. This is what He desires from us, to have this level of intimacy and trust in Him. He tells us to come to Him like it says in Hebrews 4:16: “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

The word that He uses for Hallowed is hagiazo in the Greek which means to regard as venerable (sacred) or to hallow. Our Father is Holy. When Moses approached the burning bush in Exodus 3:5 he was told to remove his sandals because the ground that he was standing on was holy. When we are in the presence of God we are on Holy Ground—in other words, even the ground we stand on is Holy because of the Presence of the Lord. When the High Priest, who had to go through several steps in order to consecrate himself before entering into the Holy of Holies—and then only once a year on the day of atonement, there was a very real concern that he would not return. They would tie a bell around his foot with a rope so that the other priests could potentially pull him out if he were struck dead. They could not even go into the Holy of Holies at all or else, they would be struck dead. When Moses went up on Mt. Sinai to receive the law from God, there was an overwhelming display of thunder and lightning, smoke and fire, and the sound of a trumpet on the top of the Mountain. This was a somber warning to the people that if they attempted to come up the mountain, they would be killed instantly. I do not think that they had to be persuaded! When Moses came back down the mountain, he had to wear a veil because his face shown with the glory of God. This is seen in Exodus 34:29. This frightened the people so much that Moses had to wear a veil over his face. God is Holy and it is well known by all as indicated in the Revelation that John received on the Isle of Patmos:

“Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:

‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!’

Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

‘You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.’” Revelation 4:6-11

What a scene that is. I can only imagine what these prophetic visions were like, but one common theme is that they were completely overwhelmed and fearing for their lives. John says in Revelation that when he saw just the Angel, he fell at his feet as though dead. This seems to be a common reaction among the prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and so on. God is Holy!

Anyway, the wonder of it all is that even though God is Holy or Hallowed. We are able to pray to him as if He is our papa. The beauty of this is that because God is Holy, we can be sure that anything that God says will be done. He has promised and He will never let us down. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:7-8:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

He promises that if we ask, we shall receive. He is faithful to provide for us and He delights in us. It goes on to say that if a man’s son asks for bread, who would give him a stone. If we would not do that, how much more will our Father in Heaven give good things to those that ask Him. God is a good father and He delights in us. He will deliver us. We need to remember who it is that we are praying to and what kind of a God He is. In the words of Mother Teresa:

“God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil.”