Our Father!

For Thursday, January 26, 2023:

Matthew 6:9 NIV, Jesus speaking: “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’”

Jesus is teaching about prayer. He has told everyone to get right to the point and to cut the fat out of our prayers. We can’t inform God of anything he doesn’t already know, but our Father indeed desires a relationship with his children, so pray and pray often. Wanting to make this clear, Jesus left us with an example of what a prayer should include. We call it “The Lord’s Prayer!”

I don’t believe it was ever intended that we should ‘word-for-word’ memorize Jesus’ example, but there’s nothing wrong with repeating his words either. But Jesus left it with us as a model. ‘Include these things when you pray,’ or ‘Therefore you should pray like this.’ In other words, Jesus meant for us to not pray ‘this,’ but rather to pray LIKE this!

We pray to our Father in heaven, in Jesus’ name. Jesus is the one who granted us direct access to the throne of God. Jesus bypassed the Priests and Pharisees, who weren’t getting the job done right. “Hallowed be your name,” means holy, sanctified, and at the very least honored.

My mother pretended there were light bulbs in heaven that lit up when someone was praying. Some never lit up, and some only once a day. Mom said hers would be flashing all the time! She often prayed short little prayers!

So let your light shine, this time into heaven!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship