“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, …”
Matthew 6:9
We strive to teach our children to pray, we try to be faithful in our prayer life and we encourage others to do the same. The Lord’s Prayer, found in Matthew 6 is one that many of us probably learned as children and have spoken its words often. We may be so familiar with it, that we speak the words without even thinking about their meaning.
In this prayer, Jesus was teaching His disciples, and us, how to approach God and communicate with Him. In earlier verses in chapter 6, Jesus warns not to pray to be noticed by others or not to keep “babbling on”. Instead He said to begin our prayers by praising God. We are to call on God by acknowledging that He is our Heavenly Father and His name is holy. His name is to be revered and sanctified. Our first words to God should be to praise His greatness!
Throughout the Old and New Testaments we can find scripture that praise God.
In Exodus 15:11 “Majestic in holiness, awesome in glory and working wonders” are used to describe our Lord. The Psalmist also calls His name majestic and says that God resides in praise. (Psalm 8:1 & 22:3) In Revelation 7:11-12 we see the angels worshipping and praising God forever and ever. Jesus even told the Pharisees that if they shushed the praise of the people, the rocks would cry out! (Luke 19:40)
Our God is holy and awesome and He is deserving of all our praise!
When we approach our Lord in prayer, praise should be the first words out of our mouth. We cannot be in His presence without worshipping Him.