Jesus gave us the words of the Lord’s Prayer as an example of how to pray. This was in response to the disciples asking Him. “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” (Matthew 6:9-13 & Luke 11:1-4)
The priorities of God are different from those of man. Let’s look closer at the beginning words of the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Hallowed be thy Name’.
Jesus is not only stating the obvious, that God and His Name are Holy and set apart from all other names, but He is also making a petition, asking that the Lord’s Name be ‘hallowed’ – that it be regarded as ‘holy’ by men on earth.
Isaiah 6:3, “They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!”
God’s Kingdom will not come in its fullness wherever His Name is not regarded as Holy. The Kingdom of God will fill the earth in the near future and the Name of God will be set apart as Holy by all men when they bow to honor King Jesus Christ. (Phil. 2:9-11)
Television portrays our culture as accepting coarse language and allowing outright blasphemy of God’s Name as entertainment and ‘reality’.
But when we honor the Name of God, we are involving everything we do in our lives. Our mouths show quickly what is in our hearts. If we don’t view the Lord highly in our hearts, we will make it known by how we speak to and about Him.
Deuteronomy 5:11 prohibits us from taking the Lord’s Name in vain. This includes more than direct blasphemy. Many times we blaspheme His Name when we claim to follow God and then boldly disobey Him. We need to be aware of how our words match our deeds.
Jesus teaches us to ‘deny’ ourselves when we come before Him. This is the starting point of approaching God in prayer. We have to stop and consider the motives of our hearts. Why am I asking God for this? What is my purpose in seeking this answer?
If the purpose is not to glorify God first and above all, then we are missing His instruction to ‘Hallow’ the Name of God.
Addressing God as ‘Father’ is recognizing that God is our source. He is caring and loving, with no limits on what He can provide for His children. He is a compassionate, merciful and gracious Father who desires to give good gifts as well as the Holy Spirit to His children.
Abba is an Aramaic word that translates as “Daddy”. It signifies the close, intimate relationship of a father to his child, as well as childlike trust that the young child puts in his “daddy.”
Jesus addressed His Father as “Daddy”. Paul teaches the church that we can also. (Mark 14:36 & Romans 8:15)
Jesus says unless we become as little children, we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. (Matthew 18:13)
The Kingdom of God is righteousness or ‘right-living’, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17)
Little children depend upon their daddy to protect, provide and care for them. Only when little children grow up into teenagers and adult men and women, do they sometimes turn against their parents and disrespect them. Broken homes are the norm in America because of lack of respect for one another, which starts with a lack of respect for God in the life of the parent and the child.
When God restores His Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven, and every knee bows before Him, and every tongue confesses Him as Lord of lords and King of kings, then He will also restore the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. (Malachi 4:6)
The Greek word ‘hagiazo’, for the English word ‘hallowed’, means: ‘to make holy, consecrate, sanctify, purify’ and ‘to regard as special, to dedicate and separate’.
In Summary:
Jesus is teaching us to approach the Creator of the Universe with humility and respect, trusting Him, as our Heavenly Daddy, to provide for us, and to protect us, as He directs us into His Will for our individual life on a daily basis. His Will for our lives will always agree with His Written Word, the Bible.
To benefit from this love and care, we have to have a heart of a child, believing that God exists and that He will reward me with what is good and best for me, in His time and in His way, when I diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)
‘Hallowed be thy Name’ involves you demonstrating the attitude of a child with its daddy and separating yourself to obey His teachings, as you dedicate yourself to glorifying His Name in all that you say and do; while trusting Him to protect you from all evil while He provides for your welfare, as He directs your steps into His purpose for your life on a daily basis, in His time and in His way.