Our text for today is Matthew 6:9
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…”
These words from Jesus instruct us about how to pray. Before you ask for anything, before you praise God, before you do anything else, we first acknowledge that God is our Father.
Since he is our father, he deserves the respect a father is due. From the Mountain of God, He told us that we must “Honor your father and your mother.” – Exodus 20:12
Some years ago, an older woman impressed me with a profound statement about honor.
Here is her story. As a child, she grew up with two sisters and her mother. Her mother openly showed favoritism toward her sisters and abused her. When her mother was old and needed one of her children to provide for her, you can guess which daughter took her in and cared for her. The answer is that it was the sweet daughter who had been herself neglected.
A friend who was familiar with her story asked her why, after the way her mother treated her, she took her mother in. Her answer was profound. She answered, “Because it is not about her. It is about me.”
We do not honor our parents because they deserve it. We do not neglect a mother or father because we were neglected. We honor because it is about us.
We are blessed to have a Heavenly Father who is worthy of our praise. But if we do not show honor toward Him, it is not because of anything God did, It is about us. It is about the kind of person we are.
Choosing whether to honor our Father in heaven shows what we are. It is about us.
Lonnie Davis