Hallowed Be Your Name - Luke 11:2-4 Devo

August 16th, 2020

Devotional

“The Lord’s Prayer - Hallowed be Your Name”

Luke 11: 2-4

Keep the sermon topic and Biblical text preaching all week by following Pastor Michelle on twitter @tinypastor and reading her sermon blog www.revmichelle.blogspot.com

Monday: “When You Pray” - Luke 11:2

  Pastor Max Lucado has the premise that the Lord’s Prayer should be seen as a house. A Home for your heart. A place to dwell and grow with God. This may seem like an odd way to think of prayer, but for a moment think about your home. Perhaps its the house your grew up in. Maybe it was your first home when you left your parents. Maybe its the house you are living in now. Think about a house that special to you. A house that you consider your home. There is truly a difference between a house - something that provides us shelter, but perhaps not safety and comfort, and a home - that place where we can be fully ourselves, fully alive. 

Just as we have a place that we consider to be our physical home, so do we have a spiritual home. St Theresa of Avila, a spiritual writer, describes this home as the interior castle. The place that is built upon the foundation of our spiritual lives and where we dwell with God. Where we can just be ourselves, filled by the Holy Spirit and fully alive in the presence of God. But a house doesn’t become a home overnight. And it needs to be tended to with extra care because it is home to your soul. This is especially important because we are not only invited to dwell with God in this spiritual home, but to dwell in God. What a radical thought expressed by the Apostle Paul when he says, “in God we live and move and have our being”. (Acts 17:28)

How does prayer help us to dwell in God?

Prayer: God, we thank you this day for the gift of prayer. For the gift you offered your first disciples in how to pray, and that same gift that has been handed down to us through the ages. May we not take prayer for grantit. Instead, may we find joy in spending time, simply being in your holy presence. Amen.

Tuesday: “Father” - Luke 11: 2

Do you know God with this level of familiarity? What amazes you about it? What concerns you? God is our home where we can find comfort, peace, refreshment, solitude, guidance. Maybe this idea of being that intimate with God excites you, energizes you, rejuvenates you. Maybe you need time to consider it because it is so new. You’ve only heard God discussed as a distant deity instead of a loving parent, a home. Maybe you don’t want to be that close to God because you are afraid that God won’t love you, won’t want you.

Christ our Lord and Savior invites us into this house of God by telling his disciples to pray saying, “Father”. For some of us the image of Father brings up problems. It drags up painful memories of our own Father’s who may have hurt us physically or emotionally. Or abandoned us. For others it is a beautiful reflection of our own Father’s love for us. But how many of us when we hear the words “Father” think first to the story Jesus tells of the prodigal son? The son who disowned his father, squandered his inheritance, and then returned thinking he would work for his father as a hired hand, only to find out that he celebrated, love, reinstated. We were once far from our Heavenly Father, separated by sin. But now we are welcomed into the Kingdom in loving arms. This is the Father we pray to. The one who loves us unconditional, with an eternal forgiveness. The one who reminds us that while we may want to stop being God’s child, disowning Him, he will never stop being our Father.

The word used in scripture is even more intimate. Abba. Our Daddy. The one that we run to as children when we have a scraped knee, a bruised heart, or have accomplished something wonderful during the day. A family relationship that we are welcomed in to through the blood of Jesus Christ. 

How do you address your prayers when you pray?

Prayer: Lord, we thank you for the invitation Jesus has issued to us to pray to you as Father. To pray with you out of a place of relationship and love. May we not be afraid to approach you in this way, but instead treasure it. Amen. 

Wednesday: “Hallowed” - Luke 11:2

Our God’s name is Hallowed. Holy. To be worshiped. Sacred. Revered. But this Holy God, creator and master of all, is still our loving Father. Who tells us that we don’t need to pray a certain way or have the exact words, but simply invites us to come. To come and sit with him. To be still and silent and listen for his loving voice. 

One of my favorite praise songs isn’t sung very often. Maybe because its not upbeat. Maybe because it just isn’t known very well. But its entitled ‘If I Could Just Sit With You Awhile’. “If I could just sit with you a while. If you could just hold me. Nothing could touch me though I’m wounded, though I die. If I could just sit you a while, I need you to hold me, moment by moment until forever passes by.” Friends, we have a holy, loving, Father who invites us to just come and sit with him in prayer. To cry. To be silent. To express our heart’s joy. To tell Him about our day. And to be loved.

How do we reflect God’s holiness and love in the world?

Prayer: Almighty God, forgive us for the times that we have failed to show your holiness to the world. Forgive us for the times we have acted in unloving ways. Let us go forth and share who you are to us in a way that touches hearts and changes lives, including our own. Amen. 

Thursday: “In Heaven” - Matthew 6: 9

Many of us have a difficult time with this concept of God as our daddy or father, not because of how we view our earthly father, but because of the next line in the prayer - who is in Heaven. We think of God as someone who is remotely out there instead of intimately with us. But we dismiss what that powerful statement is actually communicating. We have a Heavenly Parent who is. Not just who was. Not just who will be. But is, The God who is strong. Who is powerful. Who is compassionate. Who is loving. Who is more than we can ever imagine. The God who is. 

Our God is Lord of Heaven and Earth. Our Father rules the universe. Sometimes its easy to forget this, but our God in Heaven is not stated to make us think that distant but to remind us how ever present and ever close God really is. What God created. That God is the master of all. That God is higher than us.

When you reflect on God being the ruler of the universe, what comes to your mind?

Prayer: God of Grace, we are amazed by your majesty. Your ways are so much higher than our ways. As we pray this prayer, may we be brought to our knees anew in awe and wonder. Amen. 

Friday: “Pray” - Luke 11:2

  When is the last time you have ran to be with this God? When is the last time you just sat in God’s presence, listening for the voice of holy love instead of talking? When is the last time who praised our God who is the rock of our faith and the cornerstone of our spiritual home? And how can looking to God our Father, who is in heaven, and proclaiming that his name is hallowed effect your prayer life this week?

What does the Lord’s Prayer mean to you at this season in your life?

Prayer: God, sometimes we gloss over the words of this mighty prayer. We ask this week that you draw our attention to your words again and again, in a way that speaks to our hearts, we pray. Amen. 

Saturday: Preparing for the Word

You are invited to read and pray this week’s text and topic to prepare for worship: “The Lord’s Prayer - Your Kingdom Come” - Luke 11: 2-4