
Last week, we began our short study on the Lord’s Prayer by looking at the preface. This week we will consider what the first petition means when Jesus teaches us to pray, “Hallowed be your name.”
Before we consider the first petition in the Lord’s Prayer, it is important to point out that of the six petitions in this prayer, the first three are concerned with God’s glory and the last three are concerned with man’s need. The order of this is significant. As William Perkins once said, it shows us that “God’s glory is the absolute end of all things.” How frequently do we come into God’s throne room in prayer and immediately go straight to our needs? This first petition reminds us yet again that we are to remember who it is that we are approaching in prayer.
But how exactly do we hallow God’s name?
On the one hand, God’s name is already holy. So, when we pray “hallowed be your name,” it is not as if we are adding something to God or giving Him something that He doesn’t possess. Though God's name is already holy, it is not rightly recognized as such by the world.
What the believer is asking in this petition, is that God would receive the honor, reverence, worship, and praise, to which He is rightly entitled to and that He would remove all barriers that would prevent such worship. If true religion is found in our hearts, then our deepest desire will always be that God’s name will be hallowed and that He will receive the glory that is due to His name.
I can think of three ways that this petition can help us with our own prayers.
1. We hallow God’s name with our minds
We must rightly recognize that even as Christians, we don’t know how to hallow God’s name as we ought. But the good news is that, “He knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14). This should be encouraging to us. God knows our frame, He knows who we are, and He supplies us with all that we need, even when it comes to prayer.
Paul tells us that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us….” (Rom. 8:26). So, begin your prayer in a posture of humility, depending on the Spirit to help us in our weakness.
As we think about hallowing God’s name with our minds, we should also think about acknowledging God as He has revealed Himself to us in His Word. When we pray “hallowed be your name,” it is a wonderful opportunity to let your mind contemplate the names of God. Think about His titles, His attributes, His promises, and His mighty works in history and in your life. Let these thoughts form into words of thanksgiving and praise. Use the words of Scripture to offer praise unto God. This is how we begin our prayers by hallowing His name.
2. We hallow God’s name with our hearts
As we hallow God’s name, we should also consider the condition of our hearts. Are we trusting in Him as a loving Father? Are we trusting in Christ alone as our mediator, or are we trusting in our own works? Do we have any unconfessed sin in our life that would prevent us from hallowing His name? When we pray “hallowed be your name,” part of what we are praying for is that the various forms of sin in our lives would be prevented and removed.
3. We hallow God’s name with our lips
When we contemplate the Holiness of God and when our hearts are roused to take hold of Him, then we are ready to cry out to Him with our lips and give Him the praise that He is due. "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer" (Ps. 19:14)
Perhaps we could summarize the hallowing of God’s name by saying that we are to Fear the Lord. As we have been learning through our study in Proverbs on Sunday mornings, we have learned that there is a godly way and an ungodly way to fear the Lord. The ungodly have a slavish fear of the Lord. They fear God because of His judgment. They fear Him as cruel task master.
However, the godly fear the Lord in a different way. It is more akin to the way that a son fears a father. It is a reverential fear. The son desires to please his father at all cost. The same is true whenever we “hallow” God’s name. We desire to ascribe to Him the glory that He so deserves. The godly person thinks of God as their greatest good. This type of godly fear will grip our affections and it will manifest itself in our pursuit of holiness. Hallowing God’s name implies a change of heart, which expresses itself in a change of conduct. It is in this way, that through prayer, God conforms our hearts to His will.
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