Hallowed be your name.”
Two seeds of truth in these four words! The first is “hallowed”.
What does it mean to hallow?
Says Google…
“In the Bible, “hallowed” means to make holy, to set apart as sacred, or to treat with deep reverence. The most prominent example is in the Lord’s Prayer, where “Hallowed be your name” is a request that God’s name and character be recognized, honored, and revered throughout the world. This concept of hallowing extends to people, places, and things dedicated to God’s service.”
Jesus begins, after the address, where every prayer should begin, “Our Father in heaven”, to flesh out our awareness of who God is. God is holy. We are to approach Him as holy.
Our address to God as Father must never be dragged down to God as “ buddy”, reducing Him to our level by familiarity, or by treating Him as on our level by misunderstanding who He is.
We are to hold in awe, respect, and reverence His name, the title that designates Him to be all that He is. He is God in every attribute that reveals and exemplifies Him. To make Him holy is not to make Him something He is not already, but to honour Him in our own hearts because He is holy..
When Moses asked the Being in the burning bush to identify Himself, he received the enigmatic answer, “I am”. Jesus, the “I am”, in His revelation to John on the Isle of Patmos, explained…”I am the one who was, who is, and who is to come”, His way of saying “I am the eternal now.”
Just as God’s name implies every characteristic and attribute that sets Him apart and above us as God, so we speak to Him in the attitude of awe, reverence, and submission as creature to Creator.
How often, in attitude or in prayer, we drag the Father down to our level by informing or advising Him, or even demanding answers to our prayers in our time and in our way.
Even worse, an expression, an expletive, spawned in America, has crept into the vocabulary of many around the world. “O my God!” is thoughtlessly and carelessly used to express any emotion appropriate to the occasion…and even abbreviated to “OMG” because everyone knows what it means!
Instead, we are to approach Him as creature to Creator, remembering that He is God and we are creatures of dust. We are forever joined to Him by the spirit He put in us and the life we have from Him but we are also always subordinate to Him since He exercises all authority over us.
Despite human rebellion, God holds our destiny in His hands and He directs our paths. He has written our days in His book and He determines the path we are to walk. In the mystery of His sovereignty, we are free to choose and are accountable to Him.
When I pray, “Hallowed be your name,” I am choosing, not only to honour Him above all else but also to place myself under His authority unconditionally and without question.
So, I ask that His name be held in honour everywhere on earth as the one and only holy God but…it begins with me!