“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” (New International Version)

“Our Father in heaven: may your holy name be honoured…” (Good News Bible)

Greg Nixon writes:

“Our” and “Father”. Two short words that could be said in less than a second, or instead pondered for many minutes. There is an amazing context to “Our” that can take you from thinking of your family, to those facing trouble or persecution, to those whom we’d love to follow Jesus, or to those where we realise the need to patch things up, get in touch, encourage or support. This is a very connecting, relational prayer.

After consciously pressing into God-as-my-Father in the last couple of years, I’ll generally pray to my “Father” in public. But on my own it’s “Dad”. I find this freeing, familiar, and less formal – making it easier to be real about my thoughts, issues and hopes. My Dad knows me: He has created me and watches me grow, He knows how I choose, how I speak, how I go – He knows the way I’ll turn, what I care about, what worries me, what makes me sing. So, I’m turning to the One who knows my depths and my shallows, and who consciously adopted me as His own – that’s my Dad.

Liz Nixon writes:

When I pray the first line, I’m reminded of how much God has done in me and my heart to secure in me the knowledge that I am His beloved daughter. And it’s not just head knowledge – He’s rooted it deeply in my heart and it’s transformed the way I view Him and the way I live each day. Remembering that naturally leads me into praising and worshipping Him for His kindness in adopting me into His family. I’ve also recently started praying to Him as “Abba” – it’s a much more intimate term and in the Hebrew language and Jewish culture, is what a young child calls their Dad - it's effectively saying "Daddy". For me, it’s about stepping away from my independent streak and saying to myself and to God that He fills that role of strength, security, provision, protection and love in my life. Starting my prayers with “Abba” or Father reminds me whose I am and who I am and it’s this that then defines each day.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” (New International Version)

“Our Father in heaven: may your holy name be honoured…” (Good News Bible)

This week’s thoughts are from the Watts family - parents Jen and Rick with children Abbie and Nathan.

Jen says:

The Lord’s prayer is so familiar to us that it’s easy to overlook how radical it is and how rich a mine of information about God, our relationship with God and how to talk to him. Although Jesus modelled this prayer to his disciples, it was for their benefit and not for his. Jesus did not need to pray in this way; we do. It is a model for the structure of a prayer, not something that we need to recite by rote.

In just one line: our father in heaven, your name is holy; there is so much to delve into.

This sets the tone for the rest of our prayers.

By starting his prayer this way, Jesus shows us exactly how to access God and what tone to use. He reminds us of our relationship to God – we are his children. He is our father; therefore, we can come to him like a child. Children speak from the heart and share absolutely everything on their mind.

He’s also reminding us who God is. Yes, he is our father, but he’s reminding us that he is also a holy and awe-inspiring God. He is the only one with the power to change any situation.

When we focus first on who God is and our relationship with him, the rest flows naturally.

Abbie says:

There’s no point in praying if you don’t believe that God has the power to grant our prayers.

Nathan says:

You don’t need to use fancy words to speak to God, you just need to pray. It’s not about him giving you everything you want; people sometimes forget to thank God for what he has already given us.

Rick says:

Sometimes when we are sitting down to a family dinner, one of our kids turns to Jen and says "Pudding?" I normally reply back with something like "I think what you meant to say was - Lovely Mummy who gave me life and does everything for me, would it be possible to have some pudding please?".

I think this is similar to how we need to approach God, we need to respect him and all that he has done for us before we can enter into further conversation with him.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” (New International Version)

“Our Father in heaven: may your holy name be honoured…” (Good News Bible)

This week’s thoughts are from students at Severn Vineyard.

Today, Eoin Rollins writes:

When I pray the Lord’s Prayer, my mind turns to the first verse, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name”.

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of family, I miss my 3 younger brothers and have realised just how important my family is to me. Then I also remember that I am part of a much larger community or family, brought together by Our Father.

I am reminded of this whenever I pray, that no matter haw far apart we are, separated by distance or by arguments, there is something that ties us all together, the love of God. The Father is always there for us, showering us all in His love.

I feel that this prayer further elaborates on this, that while God remains in heaven, we can see and feel and worship his presence here on Earth. ‘Hallowed’ is derived from the word holy, the holiness of His name and His acts. I see the work of God everyday, in his creation, his children and this amazing world that He made.

Whenever I pray the Lord’s Prayer, I am reminded of the love God has for all of us, and the holiness of his Name and creation.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” (New International Version)

“Our Father in heaven: may your holy name be honoured…” (Good News Bible)

This week’s thoughts are from the Green family - parents Dan and Karen, with children Jasmine (15), Layla (13) and Noah (10). 

Dan Green writes:

‘Oh my gosh Dad, that is so predictable. I must have heard a hundred talks about that already!’

‘Can someone please go and get the sour cream from the fridge?’

‘Why do we call God our father anyway, it’s such a cliché.’

‘Noah, can you please stop kicking me under the table!’

It turns out that writing a reflection as a family isn’t always straightforward, and is definitely not a linear process. Instead, our conversations are full of interruptions, seemingly random contributions, somebody occasionally bursting into song… and every now and then an absolute gem of an insight from somebody who is looking at things from a completely different angle to me!

As we discussed today’s verse over our chicken fajita wraps, the question that we got most fixated on was why Jesus instructs us to pray to God the Father, rather than directly to himself (as Jesus) or to the Holy Spirit. We batted back and forth various possibilities that we could think of: that it would have seemed weird and egotistical for Jesus to invite people to pray to him (especially as they hadn’t yet realised who he was), and that he hadn’t yet explained that he would send the Holy Spirit (that would come later, before he ascended to heaven).

My mind drifted to reasons why some people can find it difficult relating to God as father, and I couldn’t help thinking that if Jesus is the best picture of God that we have (the image of the invisible God, as Colossians 1 puts it) then wouldn’t it make sense if we addressed our prayers to him?

It was Jasmine who cut through my wandering thoughts, and offered a different perspective. It was so good that I asked her to write it down and Whatsapp it to me! Here it is:

‘Why do we use this prayer as our template, and why do we follow Jesus’ example in addressing God as father? I think in the end it all comes down to how we think of Jesus, and what we know about his relationship with God. Why do we trust a teacher with what they teach us? It is because we know that they have had experiences and lessons that help them to know what’s right or what’s best. Therefore, when we are told things by people wiser in a subject than we are, we believe them and copy them. It’s the same with the Lord’s prayer: we can use these words ‘our father in heaven, hallowed be your name’ because those are the words of someone who has had the experiences and knowledge needed to declare those things accurate and right.’

So there it was. I could have spent all evening chewing over the pros and cons of different approaches and different language, but Jasmine had reminded me of the value of simple faith and that there’s a place for saying that we’ll follow Jesus, copy Jesus, take Jesus’ words at face value…. just because we trust him and trust that he knows best.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” (New International Version)

“Our Father in heaven: may your holy name be honoured…” (Good News Bible)

Laura Kerr writes:

Our Father! Isn’t it amazing that we get to call the creator of all things our Father.

As the three of us delved deeper into exploring this, we found ourselves discussing the tension there is between knowing Him as our Father and acknowledging His holiness. Andrew noted that it’s like we can relate to Him on two very different ends of a scale. At one end, He’s the timeless creator, all knowing, holy, omnipresent God. But on the other end He is the Father in the story of the prodigal son, hitching up His cloak to run towards us and who we can run to.

This tension can be confusing as we try to work out how to relate to Him. But what we liked about the framing of the Lord's Prayer is that the declaration of ‘Father’ comes first. It reminded me of a talk from The Gold course (shameless plug there) that included the phrase “He’s a Father that happens to be creator/healer/Lord of all.” It feels like there is the same kind of ordering here. By praying in this way we are starting from a place of declaring this Father-child relationship. It is after we have reminded ourselves of this secure identity that we can begin to explore His characteristics.

Joanna also pointed out the relevance of it being Our Father. In the same way that in the Old Testament, God declare his relationship as the Father of Israel, Jesus teaches us this prayer in which we as a community can declare this filial relationship with Him. It emphasises the fact that we are part of a family.

So what will I take away from this? Well, I feel challenged to start each of my prayers by first reminding and affirming my identity as His child. For it is from the security of knowing His Fatherly love that I can begin to pray His names (El Shaddai - God Almighty, Jehovah Raah - Shepherd, Jehovah Rapha - Healer, Jehovah Jireh - Provider) and characteristics over the situations around me.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” (New International Version)

“Our Father in heaven: may your holy name be honoured…” (Good News Bible)

Bern Leckie writes:

What does it mean for God to be our Father? I grew up without a father, so people sometimes reassured me that it was nice to have a heavenly Father. I didn’t always know what to make of this, but I’ve been glad to look to and rely on God as a role model when learning how to be a father myself.

Our son Noah likes the idea of an extra father, but he worked out something even more exciting for him. Jesus must be his brother and, as an only child, this is something he has often wanted!

My wife Helen loves that this family relationship we have with God is not because of what we do, like servants or dutiful religious people, but because of who we are. And I love that it is God’s choice to include us like this. Prayer, as Jesus leads us, starts with a reminder of family relationship, as well as pointing us upwards, to heaven, holiness and honour.

I spent a day with this on my mind last week while some practical work, home schooling and technical bits were doing their best to annoy me and keep my mind grounded in rubbishness.

I kept coming back to “may your holy name be honoured” and taking it as reassurance. God wants us in his family. So if his name is glorious and hallowed, shouldn’t ours be too? Is that a choice we can make by honouring God and putting him first, that everything that matters today can be defined by him?

I’m not sure that anything does matter more than recognising God as Father and enjoying his presence. That is something I want to do more often at stressful moments during Lent.