The Praise Of The Prayer

Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. (Matthew 6:9, CSB) It shouldn’t surprise us that when the Lord Jesus teaches His disciples to pray, He begins with praise to the Father. The psalmist declares in Psalm 100:4, Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. Also in Psalm 150:6 the psalmist says, Let everything that breathes praise the Lord. If all creation praises God for who He is and what He has done, it stands to reason that man, the crown of creation according to Psalm 8, should exalt the name of the Lord!

Observations

As we examine this phrase of the disciple’s prayer, I want you to notice several things. First, notice that the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to address God as Father. This implies a loving relationship between a parent and a child: a close, intimate, caring relationship. Second, He is not just anyone’s Father, He is our Father. We belong to Him if we have been born from above (John 3:16) and as a result, we have the right to be called children of God (John 1:12). If you have turned from sin and put your faith in Jesus, you have that same privilege. You can come into the Father’s presence and say, “Our Father.” Third, notice the phrase, “your name be honored as holy.”We should desire that the Father’s name be honored as holy. As the Psalmist proclaimed in Psalm 97:9, For you, Lord, are the Most High over the whole earth; you are exalted above all the gods. As we come into the Father’s presence, we would do well to remember who He is and what He’s done.

Application

Here is how I would pray through this section of the disciple’s model prayer. Picture Calvary and thank God that you can call Him “Father” by virtue of the blood of Jesus.