Art Journals, Faith and Prayer

 

I created this page in my faith art journal. The next sermon series at College United Methodist Church is on the Lord's Prayer and this is the first installment. It sounds like a soap opera, right? (Installment) The sermon title was "Hallowed Be" which of course made me start musing about just how little I know about a prayer that I have repeated often through most of my life. I remember vividly saying these words on the night that a tornado struck very close to the mobile home we were living in at the time.  My nine months pregnant body was covering my sleeping three year old. The storm passed us unscathed.

 

Not all storms pass us unscathed though. We know that. Yet how is the Lord's Prayer a beacon of hope, a promise, and an avenue for worship.

 

Prayer isn't always about asking for strength and for guidance in times of trouble. It is about conversations with God.  It is one of the most powerful methods for deepening your spiritual connection with God and honestly, with the world also. (more about that in another post)

 

Hallowed Be....

 

Holy be Thy name

 

I was also just reading some other thoughts about the Hallowed Be part of the prayer, in which the author, Nathan Eubanks expounds that the Hallowed Be Thy Name part of the prayer is part of three petitions. (All essentially meaning the same thing)

 

Hallowed be Thy Name (Let your name be sanctified)

Your Kingdom Come (Let Your Kingdom Come)

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Let Your will be done on earth as in heaven.)

 

How is this different than the basic placement as part of the prayers introduction?  It places the Hallowed Be Thy Name...with the second part of the prayer rather than the first.

 

Essentially, as introduction it reads as follows:

 

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallow be Thy name (introduction)

 

As part of the three petitions it reads as follows,

 

Our Father, Who art in heaven (introduction)

 

Hallow be thy name (petition 1)

Thy Kingdom Come (petition 2)

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven (petition 3)

 

****Original work: What Does Hallowed Be Thy Name Mean

 

As a petition, the Hallowed Be Thy Name part of the prayer is calling out for God's name to be made known as holy to all in the world.

 

I'm not a Lord's Prayer expert and I certainly don't speak Greek or any other foreign language fluently. But I do like to muse and ponder and think about things. I think I'm going to like this new series.

 

I challenge you to look at your prayer life, how are your conversations with God going?

 

Hugs to each of you, as the storms of life come your way I pray that you will come through unscathed and if not I pray that God provides you with the strength to endure.