August 12, 2007
Rev. Terry D. Campbell

The Living Prayer: God’s Character
Matthew 6:9

"’This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,’”

Who God is—is life’s key question. Everything—and I mean everything—hinges on God’s character—on who God IS! On the nature of God. Is God mean or kind, smart or confused, vengeful or merciful, relational or simply a force of energy? The kind of world we have to live in, our hopes and dreams are tied-up with the answer to this question.

The Lord’s prayer, beyond teaching us how to pray, is also an outline for how we are to live—our thoughts and attitudes that govern our actions as we go about each day. We will explore this for the next six weeks as we look closer at the Lord’s Prayer—the Living Prayer.

I. This prayer helps me build my relationship with God.

Think of the words used by Jesus:

Matthew 5:44-45-“’But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.’”

Romans 13:8-“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.”

God wants me to think of other people as valuable and treat them as such. Indeed, the quality of my relationship with God has a lot to do with my relationship with other people. I can’t deny or ignore that.

1 John 4:20-“If anyone says, ‘I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” This is why our mission trips and our Saturday morning SOS outreaches are praying this prayer—OUR Father!

I learned this last week that one family of parishioners would usually not have grandkids stay for a visit all together but one at a time so they could tailor-make their time toward that child’s interests and personality.

We must hold both of these in balance if we are to have a healthy relationship with God.

II. We must never forget that God is holy.

Leviticus 19:2-“’Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.’”

God is absolutely Holy. That means that in Him there is nothing that is wrong, sinful, or tainted. So, that means that in God’s holiness there is true purity, beauty, justice—totally Other than anything we have known or experienced.

Jews said that God’s personal name, meaning “I AM” is YHWH—unpronounceable because they believed that God’s name would be dishonored spoken by human mouths.

To pray that God’s “name” be “hallowed” is not to pray that God may become holy but that He may be treated as holy. How we choose to live will determine whether we do that or not.

Proverbs 9:10-“’The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.’” This means we give God wide-eyed awe and deep respect. We say with both mouth and heart-attitude—“God, You’re in charge! Always!”

1 Peter 1:15-“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;”

Ezekiel 36:23-“I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.” God will show Himself holy through us or in spite of us.

Matthew 5:48-“’Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’” It is why it is ridiculous to think one can come into God’s presence on one’s own merit or value. We must have the blood of Jesus or God’s holiness and justice will blow us away. John 1:12-“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

III. We must maintain a balanced understanding of God.

“Hallowed by Thy name”—May You be given the proper and full affirmation that You deserve. That doesn’t just mean with our prayers or our words, but with our life’s actions.

God is Absolutely Holy and Absolute Love. God is an awesome contradiction: Holy—justice/Love—mercy. If we distort our view of God’s holiness, we come up with the perversion of legalism—reducing our relationship with God to a list of do’s and don’ts. If we pervert God’s absolute love, we have a lawlessness that destroys order for living and substitutes “my will and no one else’s.”

The phrase “Our Father in heaven” indicates that God is not only majestic and holy, but also personal and loving. The first line of this model prayer is a statement of praise and a commitment to hallow, or honor, God’s holy name. We can honor God’s name by being careful to use it respectfully. If we use God’s name lightly, we aren’t remembering God’s holiness.

What will you do now?

I would summarize this with this two sentence phrase: God is in charge. But the God who is in charge, perfectly cares for me. Let’s make sure you have got this so repeat this phrase by phrase after me. (God is in charge.) (But the God who is in charge) (perfectly cares for me.) Again . . .

When we begin to understand and apply this, we not only can pray these words, but actually live them. Amen.