Hallowed Be Thy Name...prayer 4

True prayer is more of an alignment. We pray to align ourselves with God’s will.

God’s name will be hallowed, no matter what you or I do. It is in the plan and prefect will of God that ultimately, God’s name will be seen by all as glorious, exalted, supreme and Holy.

Why then does Jesus teach us to pray that God’s name be hallowed, when in fact God’s name shall be Hallowed, now and forever?

God wants to lead us to want, crave, desire and even require His will, for in doing so, we are brought into alignment with reality.

The Lord’s prayer is in a similar pattern to the Ten Commandments, in that it begins with a statement of sheer Grace,

“I am the Lord Thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage…”

In both cases we begin with a statement of the Grace of God. What grace to be able to know God as Father and to petition heaven!

Then the Lord’s prayer is divided into two ‘tables’ of requests, just as the Ten Commandments are composed of two tables of Laws. The first table of each concerns our relationship to God, the second have to do with our human needs, or human relationships.

These are the Lord’s concerns and we are taught to pray for them first, to come into sympathy with each request, to let these desires become our deepest aspirations, and to fervently long for them.

There is no question, that God’s name shall be hallowed, that His Kingdom shall come, and that His will shall be completely accomplished on earth as it is in heaven.

The real question is , who wants this? Who longs for it, who has set their life in alignment with these things and what has the practice of praying for them done in the soul of the prayers? Praying in this manner is the very essence of “seeking things which are above” us.

We pray that God will be known as Holy first of all, in our own lives. We want to know the Holy One, to be able to fear and worship and adore God as God. Knowing God is eternal life.

The “knowledge of the Holy is understanding” according to the ninth chapter of Proverbs. We are petitioning God for that understanding of the Holy. We are asking God to show us what it means that He alone is Holy, and all that is Holy derives from Him who is above.

The name of God in scripture refers to the entire person. It is all that the person is and does and stands for. In praying “Hallowed be thy name” we are praying about the very name of God, that we would see it in the things which are Holy, such as in scripture, and in the Son of God. We want to know how to “sanctify the LORD God in our hearts”, even after forty plus years as a Christian I still want to know the name of God and to live for Him.

Furthermore we are praying that God would be known in this fallen world, and that He would be seen as Holy. What a profane and blasphemous world we live in. All that is Holy is being subjected to desecration in this toxic generation. People have no idea the thin ice they tread across as they blaspheme, and profane holy things such as sex, marriage, children, life, and the name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We grieve over it and pray that men would be gripped by a holy awareness of God. In olden times there have been revivals of the Spirit of God, visitations which shook whole communities of people, revealing the sense of God, and of Holiness. I have no doubt all of this came in response to the prayers of the Saints.

People who had otherwise given God no thought whatsoever, and who lived profane ,self seeking lives, have been suddenly awakened to the reality of the living God, and of Jesus Christ, and been driven to their knees and even faces in awful repentance, under the influence of the Spirit of God.

Imagine Young people so awakened to God’s reality, that they stumbled out of dancehalls, and out into the streets looking for a church service, so that they could get right with God!

This is something of what we are praying for when we beseech God to “Hallow His name”.

This is really very much like the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me”. This commandment in essence contains all of the rest of the commandments. Even so “Hallowed be thy name” is really the essence of all prayer.

This particular prayer is a petition for the knowledge of God himself. It is also prayer for a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ whom God has sent. It is to remember who God is, what He has revealed himself to be, and that he will be real to us. We hallow the name of God when we know and trust in him in all trials and against all sin and temptation.

We are praying for our own dedication and consecration to God, by praying this prayer. We are praying that God would be seen in the church, that his name would be glorified in the way we live our lives.

“Hallow” means to separate. Hallowing God’s name means we separate and exalt God above our own corrupt opinions, thoughts and desires. We want God to “sanctify us through the Truth” that we truly reflect and model the nature of God. This is something to pray seriously for.

I started a study of Gods many names, and got side struck with Alpha and Omega, and just had to share. Forgive me if it is to far off of your subject. Even so LORD your will not my own.

John 6:29

Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” Revelation 1:8

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.” (Rev. 21:6-7)

The Book of Revelation ends as it began, by telling us that eternal life is provided without cost to those who walk by faith in Him alone, believing that the work is done, that the Lord is the beginning and the end of their quest for eternity. These are the overcomers.

John 16:33:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Of all the New Testament writers, John used the word most often, saying that those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God are overcomers.

I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. (1 John 2:14)

Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:3-4)

In Rev. 2-3 the word is used in each of the seven letters to churches to describe those who resist or reject the religious sin for which the church is being criticized and/or remain true to the gospel.

Overcomers In Ephesus

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. (Rev. 2:4-5,7)

Overcomers In Smyrna

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. (Rev. 2:10)

Overcomers In Pergamum

Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it. (Rev. 2:14-17)

Overcomers In Thyatira

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): Only hold on to what you have until I come. To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations. (Rev. 2:20-26)

Overcomers In Sardis

Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. (Rev. 3:2-5)

Overcomers In Philadelphia

I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. (Rev. 3:8,10-12)

Overcomers In Laodicea

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne. (Rev. 3:15-16-20-21).

These seven letters give us seven examples to show that we overcome by faith alone.

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