The Lord's Prayer 2 "hallowed By Thy Name" Series

Lord's Prayer 2 "Hallowed by Thy Name"

Last week we learned about prayer, and we will continue to learn about prayer. In fact, one of the first lessons that the Christians in the primitive church learned was about prayer, especially the prayer Jesus taught. Why is it so important to learn about prayer?

I would say, to us Christians, prayer is our life itself. Indeed I believe you can't separate your life from your prayer. What you are praying today reveals who you are. On the other hand, who you are will lead you to how you pray. Our prayer and life mutually affect each other.

That's why as Jesus taught about prayer, He began by a statement that we are different from Pagans. We are not pagans but children of God who call God our Father. Those pagans think prayer is a means to gain what they want. But, Jesus said, God knows what we need before we ask; that is to say, prayer is not designed to inform God what we need since He knows our needs.

We Christians don't pray to seek our own needs met since God knows our need, and He is more willing to give us than we ever ask Him. Then "if God knows our need, why do we need to pray with God? " you ask. The answer is the first phrase of the prayer Jesus taught: "Our Father in heaven." The object of our prayer is God the Father. Only those who can call God the Father, can pray to Him because prayer is fellowship with God, who we call Father.

Without such a relationship established, none is supposed to pray to God. For this reason, whoever wants to pray to God has to accept Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior.

On the other hand, this first phrase, "Our Father in Heaven," also tells us that as far as God is concerned, what we need most is our relationship with God, where we call God our Father. We often don't know what we should ask, but God knows that what we need most is our relationship with God. And He wants to give us most is also this Father and children relationship.

In this short phrase, "Our Father in Heaven," we learn another important truth. As you come to God, you don't come to Him as an individual but as a family member: You call God not my Father but our Father. As a prayer, you belong to God and to the family of God, which means we do have brothers who can also call God Father. Again, this tells us that we need other brothers and relationships as members of a family of God. In fact, when you become a child of God by accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, you give up independent and private life. You become a part of a family of God, where you share your life with other members of the family. In summary, last week I talked about the nature of prayer as fellowship with God as a member of a family of God.

Today, I want to talk about another answer for why we have to pray if God knows our needs. The answer lies in the following clause after "Our Father n heaven," "hallowed be your name."

I am going to use Pastor John Piper's excellent sermon to explain the points. (Note: All the following explanation is literally copied from John Piper' sermon, "Hallowed Be Thy Name: In All the Earth" https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/hallowed-be-thy-name-in-all-the-earth)

"Hallowed be your name" being the first petition, means the most important petition you may ask. This shows God's top priority is the hallowing of His name on all the earth; that is also to say, our first priority in praying should be to ask that our heavenly Father's name be hallowed. The prayer begins with God's name, not my name; that tells us our primary purpose in prayer is to glorify God's name. It tells us no mistakenly the focus of prayer is neither ourselves nor what we need or want. Instead, the focus of prayer is God Himself, who listens to our prayer. Our prior concern as prayers should be His name and Him being glorified

It is a request to God that he would see to it that His name be hallowed. The word "hallow" means to sanctify. So Jesus tells us to pray, "Let your name be sanctified." Sanctify can mean make holy or treat as holy. Therefore, when we pray, "hallowed be your name," we are asking God to see to it that His name be hallowed. So Jesus is teaching us to pray that God would cause His name to be treated as holy.

And our question becomes, what does it mean to treat God as holy? What are we asking God to do when we pray that He may cause His name to be treated as holy? Let's observe a few scripture verses to understand what it means.