…Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Matthew 6:9
Reflecting on “The Lord’s Prayer” in Matthew 6, I found myself deeply engrossed on the opening thought, “Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be your name.”
Identification was my initial thought. Here I am approaching the creator of the universe, the sustainer of the universe, who has personally shown His interest in this little speck called Ted. He has identified Himself as my FATHER!
Considering the fact that I have not always acted like I should, I recalled my father saying, just before we left home, “Remember whose you are and where you live!” While I was not always obedient to that command, in most cases I would be abruptly reminded of his last instruction. I used it on my children as well.
I am constantly drawn back to that thought that I am a “child of God”. What a relationship! There was that moment when I in faith embraced Him, I was born into His family as He declared to Nicodemus in John 3 that then, and only than could I be made worthy of His identification. Apart from the “Born Again” experience, I could not be HIS child. While some make a profession, the evidence indicates otherwise.
Refreshingly, I was reminded that my home was Heaven. While I am just a traveler down here, my home address is there. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” (Ephesians 2:4-6)
I was a young teenager when, as I took the Lord’s name in vain a gentleman with whom I worked said: “To think that God has left you standing there and did not take your life!” I cannot ever remember doing that again, even though I was not born again at that time. “Hallowed be YOUR NAME”. Those words stuck with me from that day onward. The songwriter put it so beautifully—“The Name of Jesus is so sweet, I love its music to repeat. It makes my heart full and complete, the precious name of JESUS! Jesus, oh how sweet the name, JESUS every-day the same, JESUS let all saints proclaim, the precious name of JESUS.
ETCetera 