How Jesus taught us to pray- Lord’s prayer part 1

Therefore pray in this way: Our Father, who is in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name. (Matthew 6:9 MKJV)

This is how Jesus taught his followers to pray. It can be seen as an example prayer. Everyone can pray it. But sometimes if we say the same prayer over and over it becomes a meaningless string of words that come out of our mouths.

It is of vital importance that the example prayer must stay important to us. We should know what we say or ask for when we pray the example prayer. I mean, if the example that Jesus gave us becomes meaningless, then where can we learn from? In this post and those to follow I am going to talk about the example prayer that Jesus gave us.

Jesus addresses the Lord as “Father”. This was not the normal way of talking to God in the ancient times, as the Jews did not address the Lord as Father! But Jesus is the Son of God and out of that intimate relationship Jesus calls the Lord “Father”.

Christians today also believe that we are children of God. Christians also talk to God as the “Father”. The following may sound familiar: “in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost”. It is general knowledge of every Christian that God is also their Father.

But of course that makes Jesus our brother, our next of kin! That is perhaps why some Christians greet each other as brother and sister in Christ.

But God is still holy, “Hallowed be Your name” is the words that Jesus used to talk to God. Even though He is holy, he is still our Father in heaven. He is thus our holy father in heaven; we must still have respect for the Father as God the holy one or God the almighty one.

What can we learn from the first part of the “Lord’s prayer” prayer?

·         God is the father of Jesus.

·         God is the father of his followers.

·         Jesus is our next of kin.

·         But the Godhead is still holy!

We continue with the example prayer next time!