Hi, this Joseph Mattera of Mattera Ministries International and welcome to God Today. I want to speak to you about one aspect of, what’s known as, The Lord’s Prayer. The prayer where Jesus taught us to pray. He said, “Our Father, who lives in Heaven.” I want to speak to you about the next portion of that, when He said, “Hallowed be your name.” Hallowed be Your name has to do with addressing God in worship, in adoration, in love, in respect, in honor.
Often times, we think worship is just a 45 minute segment on a Sunday morning where we go to church and sing songs with the worship team. What Jesus is teaching here, is not just how to recite a prayer, but He has given us guidelines on how to love. When He said, “Hallowed be Your name,” what He is talking about is living a life of adoration, a life of worship, a life of gratefulness and gratitude towards God.
You can either live a life full of complaining and bitterness, or you can live a life of Thanksgiving, a life of gratefulness, and a life of worship. Some of the greatest things you will ever read in your life, in the Bible, is the book of Psalms. That teaches us how to worship, how to sing to God, and rejoice in the Lord always. In spite of what is going on. It tells us even though the Earth is removed and the mountains are quaking, we can still go to God as our refuge and strength. He is an ever present help in a time of trouble. Not only that, one of the Hebrew root works for the word “worship” in the first testament is the word “work”. That means it is not just when we sings songs, and it is not just an attitude of gratefulness. It is when we obey God with the calling and the assignment we have in the workplace, not just the church place. Often times, we relegate God to the 2 hour church place segment in our life, on Sunday. The workplace is also an act of worship.
Whenever you obey God, whenever you use your natural gifts and talents, and you are doing what God has wired you to do, in a faithful way, in a consistent way unto God – that is an act of worship.
Today, we want you to understand you are worshipping God – not just on Sunday, but on Sunday – Saturday. If you are a professor and you are writing mathematical equations on a blackboard, and that is what God called you to do, you know what? While you are writing those mathematical equations for the sake of those students – that is an act of worship. If you are a plumber and you are using your creative abilities to conduct your plumbing business, you are in an act of worship. If you are a musician, if you are an educator, if you are a politician, even if you are in the pulpit. Whatever you are called to do, if you do what God has wired you to do, both in the natural, supernaturally natural, and letting God sanctify those natural gifts – that is an act of worship. I am excited to encourage you today. Don’t just look forward to Sunday, look forward to Monday. This is Joseph Mattera at God Today.