"Our Father"Sample

When we want to learn how to do something, we might grab our iPhone and say, “Hey Siri . . .”

Or maybe we watch a video on YouTube. After a few minutes, we have learned a new skill.

Jesus’ disciples watched people praying in public, saw John the Baptist teach his followers to pray, observed Jesus’ prayer habits, and wanted to know what Jesus himself would say. So they asked him. “Lord, teach us to pray."

Today, we call this teaching from Jesus the Lord’s Prayer.

It comes up in two different accounts of Jesus’ life - from Matthew and from Luke.

In Matthew, Jesus teaches his followers how to pray amid a massive teaching that turned their understanding of life upside down (you can read more about that in the reading plan called "Mountaintop Teaching"). In Luke, a disciple directly asked Jesus how to pray.

Today, we’ll look at the way Jesus instructs us to begin praying:

"Our Father in heaven."

These four words remind us who we are - sons and daughters of the Father. We pray to the God who created everything by his Spirit, sent his Son Jesus to rescue us, and reigns from heaven as our Father, in control of everything.

“Hallowed be your name” sounds funny to us. A modern word for “hallowed” is “holy.” To pray “holy be your name” acknowledges that we are setting apart God’s name because we know how different we are from him. We are his creation. Our sin shows us what makes us different from him. His name is holy because he is our perfect Creator, Savior, Protector, Father God.

TO THINK ABOUT

How do you begin conversation with God?

Do you talk to Jesus? Do you talk to the Holy Spirit? Do you talk to our Father?

Why is it important to set something apart as holy?

How might the phrase “holy be your name” change how you view God?