tell HIM what you feel about HIM…

we happen to be in a series here on bill’s front porch looking at the way JESUS taught us to pray and we are spending some time looking at the prayer that JESUS gave HIS disciples and gave to us.   it is the LORD’s prayer.  and we are continuing looking at the phrase, hallowed be YOUr name. 

JESUS began the LORD’s prayer found in matthew 6.9 (niv) with, this then is how you should pray, “our FATHER in heaven, hallowed be YOUr name.”

please note: if you want peace then what does it really mean when we honor GOD’s name.  how does that bring peace into my life?

honoring GOD’s name means i acknowledge that GOD is greater than my biggest problem.

just think of the biggest problem that you’re facing in your life right now.  GOD is bigger.  HE is greater, much greater.

JESUS teaches us when we pray, HE says, “when you pray first of all start out and call GOD your FATHER.  realize that that’s the relationship that you have with HIM.”  then right after that you say, “GOD, i want YOUr name, who YOU are to be honored in my life and in this world.” 

that’s not how we usually pray.  often times when we go in we’ve got our list.  “here it is GOD.  i need this, this, this and this…  see you later, GOD.”  and i’m out of there. 

do you ever pray like that?

now understand, GOD listens to every one of our prayers but we’d have a lot more peace in our lives if we prayed the way JESUS encourages us to pray. 

sometimes in our prayers, we tend to focus only on our problems.  but JESUS here is reminding us, that “I want you to talk to ME about your problems but before you do that just take a minute to realize that GOD is your FATHER, that HE loves you no matter what problems you have in your life and HE’s never going to stop loving you.

and also realize that GOD is greater than any problem you’re going to talk to HIM about right now, if you take just those few seconds to do that, the stress level will dramatically decrease in your life.”  it’s a lot better relationally to talk to GOD that way, to begin by actually talking to HIM, telling HIM what you feel about HIM. 

just a thought from the front porch…