different and better

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your Name.

This is the opening statement of the Lord’s Prayer, and it is a prayer for perspective.  When we allow this words to shape our conversation with God we are reminded of several things right at the outset of our praying.  We are given the perspective we need to pray fully and effectively.

1. We are reminded that this is not a solo journey. Notice that the first word of the prayer is a plural pronoun.  It doesn’t say, “My Father;”  it says, “Our Father.”  This indicates to us that when we pray though it is a personal conversation, it is not a conversation in isolation.  We are joining in with all of our brothers and sisters in the faith that have conversed with God down through the ages.  And we are joining with the community of Christ-followers alive in the world today.  The Christian faith is a communal faith, and this prayer resets our perspective on this reality every time we say these words.
2. We reminded that we are children of the one we address in prayer. He is our Father.  We are not just talking with some distant deity that we do not know; we are talking to our Father.  This suggests an intimacy and a closeness.  This is not a religious ritual or official ceremony; this is a conversation with family.  This reality often brings to mind the words of Paul in Romans 8, “And by him (God’s Spirit) we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”  This family connection shapes our perspective in prayer and gives us freedom to talk openly and authentically about what we are experiencing and feeling.  No need to impress God in prayer; we can just talk to him like a child talks to her daddy.
3. We are reminded that our Father is God. The prayer says he is in heaven.  This is a great balancing point to the intimacy and closeness of God as our Father.  Though we have intimacy with him, we must never forget that he is God.  He is over everything.  He sits in the place of supreme authority over all that is.  We must remember that he is our Father because this brings freedom in our praying.  But we must recognize that he is God in heaven so that we can have the faith to bring our needs and requests to him.  Knowing that he is in heaven inspires us to imagine the possibilities.  There is nothing that is too difficult for God.  There is nothing that is beyond his capacity to accomplish.  So when we pray for the world to be transformed (your kingdom come, your will be done) we believe it can be accomplished because the one we pray to is God in heaven.
4. We are reminded that God is worthy of worship. “Hallowed be your Name.”  This is a statement of reverence that ascribes worth and respect and worship to this God in heaven who has drawn close to us and become our Father.  When you stop to thing of big and powerful and majestic God is, and then realize that he has made a way for us to become his children, you cannot help but worship God with your praise and thanksgiving.  This gives us perspective on our lives…He is God and we are not.  When we say the words of this prayer, we are putting God in his rightful place and acknowledging the reality of who he is.

Praying the Lord’s Prayer offers us perspective.  It reminds us of who God is…our Father.  It reminds us of where he is…in heaven, over all things.  It reminds of who we are…God’s children, a part of God’s family.  And it reminds us of the focus of life…Giving God the worship he deserves.

May you pray this prayer today and may it help to shape your perspective for this day and for all the days of your life.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your Name.
May your kingdom come, and your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;
for yours are the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.  Amen.

Prayer is the struggle of my life.  Maybe not what you expect to hear from a pastor, but true nonetheless.  I am a task-oriented person.  I like to check things off my list and I like to see what I have accomplished.  But you cannot check a relationship off your list and prayer is a relationship.  It is not a task and you cannot see what you’ve accomplished, at least not in the immediate moments after you conclude your praying.

Being task-oriented contributes to my struggle with prayer, but it also my busyness.  I try to cram too much into my day.  Perhaps because I want to check more and more things off my list, but probably because I get involved in too many things.  And then there is just laziness…not seeing the relationship of prayer as a value that deserves top priority in my life, so I do not invest the time and energy to do it.

Over the last year I have found a renewed commitment to prayer.  It’s still a struggle.  There are some days when I don’t pray as much as I should…there are some days when I don’t pray at all.  Yet, I am growing in this area of my journey.  One of the practices that has helped me is praying the Lord’s Prayer on a regular basis, at least once a day.  When I am really engaged in this relationship of prayer, I will pray the Lord’s Prayer 3-4 times a day.  More than a ritual task that I am checking off my list, this prayer has become a framework for an ongoing conversation.  This ancient prayer is helping me talk to God, and the conversation is shaping me spiritually.  In the upcoming days, I hope to share some of the insights that I have been gaining as I have prayed this prayer for the ages.

But for today, let me encourage you to take a few quiet moments to pray this prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your Name.
May your kingdom come, and your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;
for yours are the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.  Amen.