The Lord’s Prayer  (Part 1) ….                                    

Matthew 6:9-13

    This is probably one of the better known passages in the New Testament, and although it is commonly know as “The Lord’s Prayer”, it is in fact a pattern prayer that Jesus gave to His disciples. “You don’t need to beg and plead for God to hear you,” He said, “That is how those who don’t know God pray….. but you should say, ‘Our Father which is in Heaven’ .”

No-one at that time had ever called God “Our Father”. They all thought that God was far away and distant. Now, here was Jesus telling them to call Him “Our Father” ! This was not to be done glibly or in a familiar manner, and we are reminded immediately of this by His next statement.

“Hallowed be Your Name”, he said. This simply means that God’s Name is holy and above all else. People sometimes say they can’t believe in a God they can’t see. But if we could see God, He wouldn’t be God!

There are a couple of accounts in the Bible of people who did see God physically….there was the prophet Isaiah who saw the glory of God, and he fell down in worship before it, unable to look at the splendour and brilliance of it all. “Woe is me, for I am undone!” he cried out, “I am a man of unclean lips!” He felt his unworthiness and sinfulness as God appeared in the brilliant light of heaven before him (Isaiah 6:5).   The Apostle Paul also saw Him and it left him blind for three days (Acts 9:3-9).

We have to acknowledge that God is a Holy God before we can make our requests to Him….the point is, do we KNOW  this One who we are addressing? Can we truly call Him “Our Father” ?