“Pray then like this:
‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.’” Matthew 6:9-13
Last Monday we began thinking through the Lord’s Prayer together. Most have taught that this…like so many of the other prayers in the Bible is a “a model prayer”, if you will, of God teaching His people how to pray and what to pray for. As we look at this prayer I hope we will go beyond the academic to how this prayer needs to be “our” prayer as well…a gift given to us by our heavenly Father especially on those days and in those occasions where it is hard or next to impossible to know what to say to God.
Today, we will consider what is referred to as the “first petition”, “hallowed be your name.” This is interesting in and of itself because, the petition is asking God to MAKE His own name holy…something we cannot do. The word translated “Hallow or sanctify” means “to make or to treat as holy”. Of course, the word “holy” in both OT and NT means “to separate, to set apart”… “to hold as sacred”…God is to hold Himself sacred and will…since we will not and cannot in a perfect way in this life. This is not a call for us to admire God’s name…we can admire an athlete, or a soldier…but when we say this we are saying that God’s name is above all other names…and His name will be hallowed by Him because we can’t do it on our own. As we focus here we take our focus off ourselves and our works and pray to God that He would do as He has said He must do. So when we pray this we are praying for God to cause His word to be believed, to cause His displeasure to be feared, to cause His commandments to be obeyed and to cause Himself to be glorified…and we will hallow God’s name when we trust Him, fear Him, obey Him and glorify Him which is a byproduct of God hallowing His own name.
What thoughts did the Lord Jesus intend for us to entertain in our hearts when He taught us to pray, “Hallowed be your name”? First, in the widest sense, we are to petition that God, “by His overruling providence, direct and dispose of all things to His own glory” (The Westminster Larger Catechism- Q&A #190). So we pray that God Himself will sanctify His name—that He cause it, by His providence and grace, to be known and adored through the preaching of His Law and Gospel. Second, we pray that His name might be sanctified and magnified in and by us. Puritan Thomas Manton once said, “By praying this, while acknowledging our weaknesses, we petition God, who is most holy and glorious, to enable us to acknowledge and honor Him as Holy.”
When realizing that God’s name is holy and that we all too often fall short of “treating His name as holy” (a name which we bear, by the way) Martin Luther would pray, “Oh, God, I have not regarded your name as hallowed, because I have not regarded you as holy. I live in the midst of a people that think nothing of using your name in an irreverent manner. God, I know that your kingdom and your will won’t be done on this earth as it is in heaven until or unless we begin to exalt the majesty of your name.” He prayed this because he knew his shortcomings and sins. He knew that every time he sinned in thought, word and deed that He was taking the Lord’s name in vain and he was weakening the witness and testimony and honor of the Lord. He knew that we must focus our attention on hallowing God’s name though God must do it Himself through us or by any means He sees fit.
Here in Matthew and in Luke it is a petition that we need to make daily to remind and teach us that our #1 priority in prayer is God’s honor…the honor of His name…to place God first in everything…and that He is holy and is deserving of our praise. How are we doing?
Thinking along this line it becomes obvious why this would be the first petition for it provides the only basis for all the other petitions that are yet to come. The glory of God is to be our chief end and great concern. Even Jesus would later say, “Father, glorify your name.” Then God in heaven proclaimed, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” Praise the name of the Lord who is Holy!
God Bless y’all today.
In His Grip,
Pastor Mike
