An Eternal Obsession

An Eternal Obsession

Read: Matthew 6:9-13

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”

Matthew 6:9

“We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God.”

—A. W. Tozer

IN WORD Occasionally in the Old Testament, God is referred to as Father, but He is never addressed in prayer as Father. Jesus’ intimate opening to prayer may have stunned His listeners. They might not have been surprised to hear Him say “My Father,” since He clearly had some special relationship with the Almighty. But to instruct His disciples to address God this way? That level of familiarity made God out to be accessible and affectionate—not easy concepts for those of us steeped in formal religion.

As soon as Jesus tells us of the intimacy with God that is available to us, He stresses the utter transcendence and “otherness” of God—His holiness. “Hallowed be your name,” He says. In two brief phrases, He has captured the essence of our relationship with God. It is at once intimate and unfathomable; familiar yet mysterious. Though we may know Him deeply, we will never know Him fully.

We often take this opening to the Lord’s Prayer to be a prelude, similar to the salutation of a letter. But this particular salutation is actually the substance of our faith. It is full of mystery and intrigue. We’re waiting to get to the good part of the prayer—the part about us—but this opening line is the good part. It contains the truths that will preoccupy us for eternity in His presence. It captures both the closeness of God and His unreachable distance. We will explore such mysteries forever, always growing in intimate knowledge of Him, but never exhausting the exhilaration of new discovery.

IN DEED This verse is too often considered the opening formality of the prayer that Jesus taught, and we are prone to skim over formalities. We cannot afford to skim over this. It will be our eternal obsession, the truth that fills the depths of our souls. Meditate on its riches. The greatest commandment—to love our transcendent Father with all of our being—begins here.