"THE PRAYER OF RECOGNITION"

Text: “Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name …” (Matthew 6:9b) [ESV]

The very fact you pray is an acknowledgement that God exists and that you need Him.  Prayer demonstrates that you value God for who He is – the one true God, the One totally set apart from. man, other than man, and more than man. He is God, the first and the last. Jehovah – Lord – the self-existent One (Genesis 2:4); Exodus 3:13-15; 6:3). There is no God besides Him (Isaiah 44:6).

When you come to God in prayer, you are coming to One greater and mightier than yourself, One whose memorial name to all generations is… “I AM”.

To worship God is to bow before Him, acknowledge His worth, and give Him the honor and reverence due His holy name. When we worship God, we rightly acknowledge God’s worth, who He is, what He has done, and what He is able to do!

When you think about it, for prayer to begin and end with worship of the One who is in heaven – above all the earth, above all that is – is only logical. The Lord who has “established His throne in the heavens” and whose “sovereignty rules over all” (Psalm 103:19) is able to do “according to His will in the host of heave and among the inhabitants of earth” (Daniel 4:35). Worship correctly prepares us for all that follows in prayer.

Hallow is the word translated from the Greek hagiazo, which comes from hagios – which is

to make holy, to set apart, to make a person or thing the opposite of common. To hallow God’s name is to reverence it by believing He is who His Word says He is, and that He will always be and always do what He says!

God’s name represents who He is.  It reveals His character and attributes. The psalmists wrote, “You have magnified Your word according to all Your name” (Psalm 138:2). “According to” could be translated “together with.”  In other words, God’s Word stands because God’s name stands! One commentator writes, “The name of the Lord denotes not merely a title, but includes all that by which He makes Himself known and all that He shows Himself to be.”

One of the Ten Commandments says, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain …” (Exodus 20:7). Vain means “empty, worthless – hollow” rather that “hallowed”.

We take God’s name in vain when we disbelieve, deny, or distort the truth about God. The opposite of taking the Lord’s name in vain is hallowing it! As said earlier, His name testifies to His character. If you hallow His name, then you acknowledge and respect who He is and act accordingly. When you and I refuse to believe God is who He says He is and do what He ways He will do, then we demean and defame Him!

In other words, we “hollow” our Father’s name instead of “hallowing” it.

That’s something to think about, isn’t it?  Many who would never think of taking the Lord’s name in vain by cursing or by speaking it in a casual way, still desecrate His name when they doubt, deny, or defame His character!  OUCH!!!

Some Excerpts from, “Lord Teach Me To Pray in 28 Days” by Kay Arthur

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What does your family/last name mean?  Where did it come from? (Country or origin?)
2. What do people mean when they say, “He has a good name or He has a bad name”?  Have you ever intentionally slandered someone’s name?
3. How have you personally taken the Lord’s name in vain?  
4. Why does prayer begin with worship? How does the act of worship demonstrate that you value God for who He is?
5. Why should we “hallow” Him? (Reminder: To “hallow” God’s name is to reverence it by believing He is who His Word says He is, and that He will always be and always do what He says.)
6. Which of the names of God represents a need in your life right now?  What are you trusting Him for?