Matthew 6:9
“Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed by Your Name.”
In Matthew 6:1-4, Jesus instructs His disciples on the personal nature of prayer, the intimacy of prayer – special communication between God and us. Jesus teaches the type of prayer that God most cherishes; personal, intimate and humble.
In verse 9, our study for today, Jesus is teaching His disciples and all of us that collectively God is Our Father. Jesus wants us to know how much God cares for us…not LIKE a father, but He IS Our Father. This was new terminology for the disciples and can still be new to many of us today. God as My Father? Yes ! In a loving, kind and protective way. God loves us intimately and deeply.
I think of a little boy learning to ride a bike without training wheels for the first time with his dad. The little boy is pedaling away with his dad is right behind him talking in his ear, encouraging him the whole way, “Come on! You can do it! You’ve got it”. Or instructing him, “Keep your head up! Watch where you’re going!” Or loving him when his bike crashes, picking him up and carrying him inside. The whole time his dad is telling him that he’s doing great and going to be riding that bike on his own soon.
That’s how I see God with each of us-encouraging, instructing and carrying us. God does all this for each of us in the way that only a loving Father can. That is how Jesus was teaching us to see God, not as some far away God who created us and doesn’t care for about our daily lives.
Jesus was also teaching that Our Father sits on His throne in heaven, high above anyone else or any problem we may be facing. God watches the events of our lives and intervenes on our behalf. I believe that Jesus wants us to remember who God is and where He is, so we can refocus ourselves when we begin to pray; to begin from the perspective of Who were talking with and where He sits.
In the second half of the verse, Jesus reminds us of how our response to “Our Father in heaven” should be – holy and reverent. Jesus is teaching us to hold God’s name in the highest esteem because of God’s holiness.
So, I leave you with a couple points to ponder…
(1) Do you think of God as your Father in heaven?
