If we are serious about growing in the gospel, we will want to learn and grow in prayer. The Lord’s Prayer helps us transform inside and out. It changes our priorities, goals, hopes, and passions as the Spirit of God shapes our hearts with Jesus’ words. The transformation starts right from the very beginning, addressing God intimately and lovingly as “Father” — and by bowing before his greatness and majesty.
We’ve already looked at the first part of this prayer Jesus taught his disciples: “Our Father in heaven.” Jesus also tells us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” “To hallow” means to “make holy” or to “set apart.” The grammatical form in Greek is tricky to translate into English, but the idea is that we are to pray, “God, let your name be set aside everywhere as holy.” We are not praying that his name is made holy—His name is already ‘holy’ in that it is separate from and exalted over every other name. But we pray with urgency: “Lord, let it be! Make your name be treated as holy everywhere! Here is my request, my prayer. I urge you to this: Cause people everywhere to hallow your name. Lord, glorify yourself! Cause me to hallow your name! Cause me to glorify you!”
Many commentators would say that the Lord’s Prayer lines up precisely parallel to the 10 Commandments; that the first of the commandments is about how we view and respond to God, and the rest of the commandments are how we live in light of that, responding to others and treating others. We’ll see that over the next several weeks. But listen to the first commandment in Exodus 20:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
“Hallowed be your name” is another way for us to pray, “God, let it be that I would have no other gods before you. You have the top place in my life. You are supreme, and you are above all else in my life. Father, make me set you apart because you’re my Father in heaven. Your name is mighty and sovereign—you are the Lord my God! You are Adonai, Lord over all; you are Attiyq Youm, the Ancient of Days; you are Elohim, the Creator.”
To pray “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” is to take up the call to be God’s sons and daughters who strive in the Spirit’s power to live our lives as Jesus did, seeking to please the Father in all we say and do.
To pray “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” is to recognize that God is our mighty Protector, Rescuer, and Hope, who has demonstrated this most perfectly in and through the death and resurrection of Jesus his Son.
To pray “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” is to recognize that God is both intimate with us and sovereign over us.
To pray “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” is to receive God’s perfect love shown to us in Jesus, to know his power, and to seek to live out his will so that he gets the glory.
Yes! May our great Father receive all the glory!
–Wade