“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” Matthew 6:9b
When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, he spoke to them the words of the Lord’s Prayer. Rather than beginning the prayer by asking something from God, the prayer is begun by giving something to God…an acknowledgement that His name is to be hallowed. Beyond his person, even his name is to be treated with reverence and awesome respect. Consider the word picture of our Father in Revelation 4:
“At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne… From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back…Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ ...”
This is our Father in heaven. Even his name is to be hallowed…reverenced…treated as holy. Pause, even for the briefest moments when you pray and hallow the name of God.
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