Musings on the Lord’s Prayer Part I

Staring up at the beautiful bookmark displayed as the Sunday School teacher challenged our second grade class, I resolved to earn the colorful treasure by the following Sunday. I’d ask my mother to help me as soon as I got home.

I couldn’t read many of the words without help, but I memorized each word carefully. How I loved to look at that marvelous bookmark, earned by determination more than intellect or understanding.

I’ve grown up around the application of those profoundly powerful, yet simple words. I suspect I’ll keep maturing as I study the prayer, and interact with people this side of Heaven, but here are a few musings collected thus far. (Although the Lord’s Prayer can be found in other Gospels, I’m using the verses found in Matthew 6:9 and 10 for this post.

Our Father Who art in heaven

Though Jesus desired the opening words to bring a sense of security and being loved to his followers, the sad truth is that for many lost souls today, picturing God as our Father brings fear, anger, and mistrust. Because their earthly father fell short of what they needed him to be, there’s no reference point to see God as anything but cruel or uncaring. Their earthly father may not have been present in their lives at all.

One boy I met on Huntington Beach laughed bitterly at the mention of a father in heaven saying, “Oh yeah, I know about fathers I can’t see already; I never met my old man either. He don’t want me and I sure don’t need him.”

His implication clear, my heart ached for the young man so strung out on drugs that the mere mention of God as a father unleashed a fury of foul language. I longed for him to know the Father Who art in Heaven, but Whose heart dwelt with His children on earth. The lad desperately needed God’s peace.

Still others experienced a life devoid of love in a home headed by a pastor. More than once I heard, “Don’t talk to me about Father God. I can probably quote more Bible verses than you can. Did you live your whole life with a pastor beating those verses into your head before you could eat one bite of dinner?” When I had to admit I’d not shared his childhood experience, he said, “Yeah, well, I sure don’t want nothing to do with Heaven if I’m gonna find my father there.”

My own father came from what we call a dysfunctional family today. In his human imperfection, he sometimes did things that hurt my feelings; but Dad represented our heavenly Father well during his lifetime. Dad had been raised in a home sometimes devoid of a father-image and at other times a step-father’s cruelty drove him away.

Where had my father learned to be the kind of daddy three little girls needed? Certainly not from example. Our Father in Heaven saw Daddy’s heart; he desired to provide a peaceful, caring home for his family. Dad made a choice that his children wouldn’t experience childhood as he had. Our Heavenly Father honored Daddy’s choice, helping him in ways only a father would understand.

Hallowed be your name

The ancient understanding of the word, hallowed is holy or revered, when referring to Almighty God.

Wanting to see how modern dictionaries defined holy, of course I Goggled it, being a modern kind of senior citizen. This is what the Urban Dictionary has for holy: “To be holy is to be pure—innocent in all you say and do, having no hidden motives, wronging no one. It is to be as openhearted as a little child.”

What picture does this definition conjure up in your mind? While God is those things, I can’t help but think of someone about eighteen months old. If you’ve ever had a little one epitomizing the Terrible Two’s, you’ll know why my image didn’t get older than a toddler, right?

The picture of innocence can distract us from the weight and power of the Holy God. Jesus, meek and mild, grew up. Remember Jesus overturned the tables of the money-changers for real, not just in the movies where his righteous indignation displayed colorfully on the big screen.

I appreciate the words of one Jewish Believer in Jesus who said, “You see Jesus as a soft little Teddy Bear. You’re wrong; Jesus is a Grizzly!” The point being simply that God’s hallowed name is the ultimate in strength, not weakness.
Your kingdom come

How different this world would be if God’s kingdom reigned on this planet. It will, one day when Jesus returns, but it’s nowhere close to the Righteous God’s kingdom right now. The militant Islamists are working overtime to see that their kingdom gets established on this earth; but in the end, Jesus will overcome their deadly ways to rid the world of all who worship the living God.

In His prayer, Jesus is urging us to ask for help to see that God’s kingdom reigns in our hearts. Then, we’ll be a part of the Kingdom of God that rules the earth one day, not the part that gets burned up like the chaff.

Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

This part of the Lord’s Prayer came alive for me nearly thirty years ago when I read Angels On Assignment. Included in this amazing memoir of Boise’s Pastor Roland Buck, is the account of his supernatural visit to Heaven.

At one point, God took Pastor Buck into the Archives, a room where countless numbers of shelves held three-ring binder-type notebooks. Row after row, Pastor Buck passed the labeled volumes, stopping periodically to see names such as “Abraham,” written on the notebooks. Then, God pulled out one that bore Buck’s name.

Opening the volume, Pastor Buck read some of what had been written, until he noticed some blank spaces between the lines of text. The loving environment created by God’s presence allowed him to ask about the spaces.

God told the pastor those blanks represented things God had wanted Buck to do, but that the man hadn’t sought God. When the event didn’t happen, the text disappeared. To help Pastor Buck believe that he had really been to the Archives, God gave him a paper with 120 things that would happen before Pastor Buck returned to make Heaven his home.

Though some of the items on the list far exceeded anything a country pastor from Idaho would’ve ever expected in his life and ministry, each and every one of the items did happen, immediately followed by his death. I think a burst aneurysm had been the official cause of his unexpected death.

The take-away message for me drew me back to this part of the Lord’s Prayer. God already knows about whatever it is that I’m living right now. When I need to know what to do or where to go from here, God has already recorded His will for my life in my own notebook in Heaven’s archives. If I’ll ask God, seeking to fulfill what has already been written in Heaven, when it’s my turn to read those pages, the text will still be there.

It’s my earnest desire that there be no more blank spaces in my notebook. From that point on, I’ve prayed, “Your will be done for me, Lord, on earth as You have already written it in Heaven.”

I’ll finish sharing my musings on the Lord’s Prayer in the next post, but I’d be interested in hearing any thoughts or experiences from your own life. Every touch of God in the life of another brings great joy and blessing.