1 “Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”
2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.”
The LORD’s Prayer Luke 11: 1-4 NKJV
7min read
As I am praying the Lord’s Prayer one day, I stop for a moment and seek guidance from the Holy Spirit. What does it mean when we pray, ‘Hallowed be thy Name?’ And the Holy Spirit speaks, ‘Holy is your Name.’ God’s Holiness is something I have not quite grasped until this season in my life. I understand that God is love, it is preached about over and over again. I understand that God is our protector, this was the foundation of what drew me to seek God more fervently. I understand that He is goodness, we can look all around us and see His goodness and beauty in all of His creation. But His Holiness is something that I have stumbled with, over and over again. Why would God call Himself Holy? Why would Jesus guide us to pray and profess His name as Holy? I step back for a moment, why not love? Why not faithfulness? Why not purity? And then I was lead to read Isaiah 6.
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Isaiah 6: 1-5 NIV
‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts.’ The angels even praise His name and in their awe and wonder of Him, they profess Him as Holy in His presence. I can only imagine them trying to grasp the magnitude of His Holiness. Everywhere they turn, they see for themselves the wonders and works of His Mighty Right Hand. They see different facet of who He is and they are constantly awestruck by Him, bowing down in worship because what else can they do to honour such a worthy God as Him. Isaiah himself appears to be perplexed by His splendour and majesty, that he cannot grasp how unclean he is in the presence of a King so worthy as the God we serve. There is no man that stands up against Him or equates to His standard of Holiness. I know in my life I have see the hand of God move in ways I cannot understand, in ways that don’t measure up to the simplest of my thinking.
It takes me back for a moment, because being in the presence of a God as Holy as He, the God that we serve, what can measures up to His Holiness? How can we understand this for ourselves? And as I try to grasp some further understanding, I look at the definition of what ‘Holy’ actually means. Set Apart. Seperate. Divine. Sacred. Pure. Worthy of all praise. I have prayed the LORD’s prayer, and spoken these words over and over and over again. Yet it has never penetrated my heart with a sense of understanding, that He is Holy. And as I am pondering on this beautiful revelation, I cannot remove this idea from my thinking: look at all creation that was formed from the command of His voice, look at the promises that have come to pass in His Word. All creation will bow down and worship Him, glorifying His name. He is Holy, set apart, not like you and I, where we are easily swayed by our day to day. He is a promise keeper. He is without sin. He is steady. A solid rock. A firm foundation. God has opened my heart to His Holiness and it gives me a greater understanding of why I can then in turn trust Him, do you believe it for yourself?
5He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved.
6You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
7But at your rebuke the waters fled,
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
8 they flowed over the mountains,
they went down into the valleys,
to the place you assigned for them.
9You set a boundary they cannot cross;
never again will they cover the earth.”
Psalm 104: 1-9 NIV
When I look back at my marriage, I did not know that I could trust a perfect, all knowing, sinless, Holy God. And as a result, I desired to control. It came from a place where I was holding onto pain, grief and offence, causing me to be burdened and bound. I had a desire to control my husband instead of loving him. I had a desire to control my daughter instead of teaching her. But now in this season of my life, I have started to understand that the control was there as my own means of protecting myself. I was sheltering myself by putting boundaries in place to control how close I would allow people in, but it was crushing me. We are not designed to be carrying a burden such as this. God desires to give us freedom. And along my faith journey, God has opened my heart to understand that when I trust Him, I can in turn trust my husband. And the more I trust God, the more my faith is built on a solid rock…and His name is Jesus. One who is perfect in all His ways. One who keeps His promises. He is without sin, so I can trust and receive all good things that come from Him. He never changes, He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
My husband and I have been through such heartache in our marriage, stemming from a place of destructive behaviours. I trust him not because I always want to, not because it feels right, but because I know I can trust a Holy God, who keeps His promises. I trust that He will be the guiding steps on the path that will lead my daughter. I do not need to fear, because I can choose to trust that she is in the palm of God’s hand, who chose her for a time such as this.
Find His Rest. Be still and know that He is God and desire to be holy as He is holy, walking the path of righteousness set before you. God see’s you, so stand firm, knowing that He will work out all things for the benefit of those who love Him.
Nadia x
All for His Glory.