"Hallowed Be Your Name"

“And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”(Luke 11:2-4)

Each day, each of us should be spending time in prayer. It is our time alone with God. In an earlier message, I talked about what we pray for and how we are not to pray (Matthew 6:7, Ephesians 6:18). While it is good to pray for others, for intervention, for healing, and for guidance, we should also remember to pray as Christ taught us.

The Lord’s Prayer is special in that it encompasses all that is necessary. The opening of the prayer is a declaration. Often it is thought of as a hope that God’s name would be “held” as holy, when in fact, in our prayer, we should be declaring that God’s name is holy, which this prayer does. It is not just a matter of semantics; it is about worship and praise. We are praying to God for ourselves, not for others, so praying that others see His name as holy is unnecessary. We are declaring to God that His name, to us, is holy. We are praising His name.

We pray that God’s kingdom will come. I do not know about you, but I pray this in earnest. The second coming is a time to rejoice and be with the Lord. While there are things in this world I hope to see, I know when He calls me home, I will go with all haste. I heard a saying that I often use: “I have my train ticket, and I know where I am going; the trains just not ready to leave yet.”

Christ tells us to pray for our daily bread. I have looked at this from two perspectives. First, in Matthew 6, Christ reminds us, “ Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” So, we know God knows what we need before we need it. (vv 31-32)

Yet another part of me is reminded of what Christ said to the Israelites who asked what they must do to be doing God’s work. They spoke of the manna that “he” gave them from heaven. Jesus reminded them that it was not Moses, but God, who gave them the manna. Then He said, "For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

Our daily bread has been and is given to us every hour of every day as long as we have come to faith in Christ. This part of the prayer has been answered, and while Christ will never vacate those who reside in Him and He in them, perhaps this part of the prayer should be our acknowledgment and glorification of its answering.

I say this because, in the next line, we pray for the forgiveness of our sins, which we know, through the Scriptures, will be forgiven in our repentance; still, we acknowledge and glorify the one who forgives. We promise to reflect Christ as we forgive those who are indebted to us. In our devotion to God, we apply the grace and mercy given to us to those around us.

God does not lead us into temptation, but He, knowing our faith, does allow the enemy to test us in many ways, including temptation. Job and Peter evidence this. In Peter's case, Satan asked to sift Peter like wheat. But God prayed for Peter and his faith. God allowed both of them to be tested by the enemy, but used the results to mold them further into the image of Christ. God will never allow anything to occur that we cannot overcome in faith.

The Lord’s prayer was given to us by our Savior; it is a prayer of glorification, acknowledgment, and hope - just do not forget to pray it as we all should.

Grace and Peace.