Matthew 6:9

Matthew 6:9
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name,"

We dealt with "our Father" last time. His home is heaven, and heaven will be our home one day too. With this in mind, we remember that we shouldn't get too attached to anything on this earth. We're only here for a little while, but we'll be in heaven forever!

"Hallowed by your name." "Hallowed" means "holy." Though God is our Father, we must not forget that He is high and holy. We should never approach him with disrespect or with frivolity. He deserves our reverence and respect. When I was teaching school, I used to remind the students that they shouldn't use God's name unless they were speaking to Him or about Him. Even a seemingly simple oath such as "Oh, my God!" is most likely not speaking about the one true God or praying to Him. And so it's a good practice to not use God's name in any casual way at all. However, we definitely should use it when talking to others about wonderful grace and mercy and goodness and kindness to us. Likewise, we should use it often in prayer for ourselves and for so many in need!