Day 2 | The Lord’s Prayer-1, Hallowed be Your Name

As Jesus began to teach His disciples how to pray He gave them a basic outline and routine.  Today, his example prayer is known as, “The Lord’s Prayer.”  However, many people use this specific prayer to actually violate Jesus’ command in the prior verse.  In Matthew 6:7 Jesus said, “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”

Thus, when well-intentioned people pray this prayer over and over again, they are in danger of sounding just the like the pagans who continually and mindlessly repeat their same prayers and mantras over and over again.  As a result, I believe the best way to view Jesus’ prayer is more like a “prayer workout” then a “word-for-word repetitive prayer.”  In other words, when we look closely at the Lord’s Prayer we can see five unique areas we can pray to God at any given time and with spontaneous words.

For example, Jesus starts the prayer by saying, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name,” thus we can see this as the “praise and worship” section of our prayer routine.  Meaning, we should always start our prayers by addressing God as our Father and by giving Him honor.  “Hallowed by your name,” means to “give honor to the name of God,” specifically that Yahweh (Hebrew for “Lord”) will be honored in our lives and in this world.

Thus, when you pray try to start with acknowledging God as your Father because He adopted you and brought you into His family.  And then honor His name by giving Him worship and praise.  In turn, a great way to apply this first step in prayer is to start your prayers like this, “Father, I love and adore your name, may you be glorified in my life today and upon this earth.”

Take some time right now to honor your heavenly Father with praise and worship!

1. In your prayer times acknowledge God as your Father.
2. Then honor His name with praise and worship.
3. Live your life with confidence that God is your Father!