The Phil Files

[Jesus said] “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.

For or yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.’”

“Hallowed be your name …”

O Great and Almighty God, please forgive me for not revering your great holiness — even your name is to be treated with respect and reverence. I am sure there are times that my prayers appear flippant and lacking in the respect you are do.

I know you know my heart. This is both re-assuring and also a fearful truth. I know at times I rush to my words without settling into your holy presence — I fail to take my shoes off like Moses, so caught up in my own story rather than being caught up into yours. But, dear LORD, the other side of that familiarity is from the deep desire of my heart to have that broken relationship of the Garden restored: I want to walk with you in the cool of the day! Like Teviah in Fiddler on the Roof, I want my words and walk to be full of communication with you.

So tonight, as I say this simple prayer I settle into a deep conviction that I need to be more powerfully touched by a deeper sense of your holiness and the grace of being invited into such a holy relationship that you have provided me by grace. Yes indeed, “yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever!” Thank you for allowing me to walk in that glory even when I do not understand or appreciate it as I should. I pledge, O Holy God my Abba Father, to revere you more.