Our Father In Heaven, Hallowed Be Your Name

Sojourn started a 4 week study on the Lord's Prayer last Sunday and the first two sermons have been amazing. I'm a week behind on the first, but must share. The Passage for each week is found in the Lord's prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13:

“Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who is in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

10 

‘Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

11 

‘Give us this day [a]our daily bread.

12 

‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 

‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from [b]evil."

Jesus is giving us an example of how we are to pray, not specifically what we are to pray. Before this passage, Jesus gives 2 warnings about prayer.
1. Do not make a public spectacle of prayer
2. Don't pray to just babble to God, or treat prayer as some magical incantation to try and manipulate God

The Foundation of Prayer
Adoption is the foundation of prayer. God is our Father and prayer is how we get to know Him better, developing intimacy with our Father. When Jesus said this back then, it was shocking to His audience that He was inviting them to call God Father, and He extends that invitation to us today.

Our confidence in prayer and desire to pray is based on adoption, not performance. God desires for us to relate to Him the way our kids relate to us. We can go to Him with anything because He is our Father. He knows what we need before we say it, so we are free to just talk to God. Have a conversation with Him. Don't try to bargain with God.

Prayer is all about relationship. We need to be poor in spirit to recognize how much we need God.
Prayerlessness points to our sinful need/delusion of being in control. When we pray we are acknowledging we are not in control and that we need God.

Priority in Prayer
Our primary purpose in prayer is adoring God. "Hallowed by Your Name" reminds us that we are to adore and revere God above all people and things. God is not just our number 1 priority, He is to be far above all of our priorities. We are to love and adore God so much that our love for all other things seems like hatred.
When we so desire things outside of God, our view of the world is skewed because our perspective and those things become hallowed instead of God. God is over all things and He alone is to be hallowed.

Which of these principles do you struggle with?

Let's grow in prayer together!