From
the grand entrance hall our Lord
leads us into the first of the three
great state rooms which lie at the
heart of this royal house.
Like
a great house, the Lord's Prayer is
built around three magnificent
central rooms. They are a passionate
concern for the honour of our
heavenly Father's name, the
extending of his kingdom and the
doing of his will. These three great
concerns lie at the heart of the
prayer and must surely be the
concerns of all those who are true
disciples
As
the text comes to us in the Greek,
each of these first three petitions
is short, God-centred, urgent and
complete, 'Hallow your name, Bring
in your kingdom, Cause your will to
be done . . .' The words reflect and
inspire an eagerness to see God's
sovereign rule completely and
finally established. They look
forward to the fulfilment of human
history but they also fire our
personal thinking and touch our
individual lives here and now.
Beginning in this chapter with just
the first of these petitions, when
we pray, 'Hallowed be thy name,' or,
'May your name be honoured,' what do
we mean? We know the line so well
and recite it so easily, and yet do
we really appreciate the weight and
significance of these simple words?
Three
questions may help to show the
richness of their meaning: Firstly .
. . Why should we want to see our
heavenly Father's name honoured?
Whose is the name we should long to
see held in awe? It is not the bare
word 'God' itself, used too easily
when people find that they have
forgotten something they needed, or
hit their thumb with a hammer! Nor
are we taught to honour a god of our
own picturing, such as 'the God of
love' or 'the great designer.'
Rather, we are taught to honour the
name of the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the king of the
universe whose character is revealed
in scripture. He is the great 'I am'
who is and always will be Lord and
redeemer.
i) . . . He brought us into
existence, loves and cares for us.
In biblical shorthand, our heavenly
Father is maker or creator of the
whole universe. Such an
understanding does not bind us to
any narrow or rigid human theory but
does affirm that our heavenly Father
is author of all and Lord of all.
Our seemingly godless world - with
all its exploitation and suffering -
is still in his hands. He is in
control of nations, governments and
societies. On a personal level, our
circumstances, our life, our future,
this next week, are all in his
hands. Whether we choose to
acknowledge it or not, he is the one
who has our very breath in his hand.
Should not then his name be honoured
and held in awe?
ii) . . . We are answerable to him.
As author and maker our heavenly
Father has every right to determine
how we, his creatures, should
behave. Through his chosen spokesmen
he has given us very full guidelines
for living. He has also warned us
that he will call us to account for
the life he has entrusted to us. The
Bible describes him as judge. Our
words and our deeds, both open and
secret, good and evil, are known to
him. We shall be called to account
for those evil things which we
deliberately do and also for that
steady rebellion which just ignores
him, chooses not to do his will and
so fails to honour him. The charge
laid before Belshazzar, the ancient
king of Babylon, on the night of his
death was simply this, 'The God in
whose hand is your breath, and all
your ways, you have failed to
honour.'
iii) . . . At great cost he made
possible our rescue. The Lord is the
creator, the judge and also,
wonderfully, our redeemer . . . our
heavenly Father cares about this
world, cares about each one of us,
enough to pay the price for our
rescue. He gave his Son so that
those who believe will not be swept
away in judgment and banished from
his heaven, but might each be made
acceptable before him, given a fresh
new start and made a child of God.
Here and now his redeemed people
have this vital relationship with
their heavenly Father; a
relationship that not even death can
snatch away; they have life
everlasting.
God is the creator, the judge
and the saviour. Should not his
wonderful name be held high,
honoured? In Stuart Hine's words:
Then sings my soul,
my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!
Of
course, if it can be proved that God
is in no sense author or creator,
then it follows that he has no right
to tell us how to live or to call us
to account for the style of life we
choose. It also follows that there
is no need of a rescuer or redeemer
to put us right with him. Hence the
great assault by godless men on the
concept of God as creator. However,
despite our unthinking or wilful
turning our back on God, our
heavenly Father remains on the
throne. He is creator, judge and
redeemer and it is fundamental to
our well-being that his name be held
high, honoured.
So to the
second question . . . What does it
mean to 'hallow' or 'honour' the
name of our heavenly Father?
If we do not have a high regard for
people who live or work in the same
place as ourselves, we simply take
no notice of them. If we are
considering our career or marriage,
or even just planning a holiday we
would not dream of consulting them.
We are just not interested in their
opinion, let alone their advice or
moral judgment. If we do not honour
someone, in this sense of holding
them in esteem, we do not have to
say anything or do anything, we
simply pass them by. We ignore them:
neighbour, teacher, husband, wife,
work colleague, or parent. We ignore
them because we regard their opinion
and their advice as irrelevant. In
practice, many of us behave just
like this towards God. We ignore
him, we fail to honour the God in
whose hand is our very breath.
On
the other hand, if we have a high
regard for someone, when we are
considering something, if we are
able to, we consult them. We will
say, 'Now I wonder what so-and-so
would think about this?' or, 'I
wonder what so-and-so would do in
this situation?' This is how we
honour them and this is how we
should honour our heavenly Father.
As we come to make great decisions,
we should ask, 'I wonder what the
Lord God has caused to be written
about this?' 'Is there some plain
teaching, some instruction, a
principle or a warning in the
scriptures that would apply to this
situation?' This is how to honour
him and hold high his name; it
involves love, respect and, above
all, a longing to please him in all
that we do and say.
Naturally enough, if we hold his
name in such esteem we will not
tread it underfoot in our everyday
conversation and habits of speech.
We will not use it cheaply as a
swear-word or expletive nor enjoy
hearing others doing so. Rather, it
will be natural to tell out the
greatness of God and to bring honour
to his name by our whole way of
speaking and living. How well the
proverb puts it, 'Give me neither
great wealth nor poverty, lest in
wealth I forget you, or in poverty I
am driven to steal and so bring
dishonour on your name.' We honour
or dishonour our heavenly Father not
only with our lips, by what we say,
but with our entire way of life.
The
old word was magnify, used in the
original Latin sense of showing
forth the magnificence of God. In
other words, 'Let his name be seen
and heard to be magnificent, as it
truly is.' So to honour his name, to
hallow it, means to hold it in such
awe that those around may both see
in our lives and hear from our lips
the greatness of our heavenly
Father.
Which leads
us to ask thirdly . . . How and
where should his name be honoured?
i) . . . Honoured in our world
'Let all the world in every corner
sing, "My God and King,"' wrote
George Herbert. This world's peace
ultimately depends on the extent to
which our heavenly Father's name is
honoured. Here is a call to pray
that his name may be honoured
throughout the whole world and in
particular by its statesmen and
leaders. Disciples of the Lord Jesus
are called to pray and work that his
name might be honoured in the
corridors of power. If world leaders
and peoples share a common
submission to our heavenly Father
there is a strong foundation for
peace and understanding. Pray that
God's name might indeed be hallowed
by the great leaders and nations of
this world.
ii) . . . Honoured in our own land.
The scriptures teach that it is
godly living or 'righteousness' that
exalts a nation. It is when our
Father's name is honoured that a
nation becomes truly great.
Historically, there is a very
striking link between Britain's
standing among the nations and our
national concern for the things of
God. Look for yourself and see the
link, historical evidence of the
fulfilment of the promise of God.
Why? Because, if you have
God-fearing men and women in
positions of authority and
leadership, there will be just laws
and fair dealing both nationally and
internationally. Study the history
of the founding of what is now the
United States of America and see
this same principle at work. When
our Father's name is honoured
individuals are valued, the weak are
protected, evil, violence and vice
are restrained and all that is good
is encouraged and supported. These
are God's purposes for those in
authority or government at every
level from parliament to our own
homes. Such world-changing thinking
lies at the heart of the Lord's
Prayer and it is brought most
sharply into focus as we pray, 'Your
will be done.'
iii) . . . Honoured in the church at
large.
What is the church? It is intended
to be God's own people, called out
to live for him. A people who will
honour him in the way they speak and
in the way they live. But the church
in Britain, although holding the
form of religion, seems chiefly
concerned with self-preservation and
ceremony and has largely forgotten
this radical call to live totally
for God, to seek first the honour of
his name. We need to pray that our
Father's name might be honoured in
his Church, nationally.
iv) . . . Honoured in our own local
churches.
Locally, we have a great museum very
close to the church. Our prayer and
determination is that the church
building, although it is far more
ancient than the museum, may not
become a 'museum of Christianity'.
We long that it might be the meeting
place of a vital community of people
who love God, and who live, speak
and care in such a way as to be a
strength, an encouragement and a
challenge to those around us; a
community of people who truly bring
honour to the name of our heavenly
Father.
And, finally, v) . . . Honoured in
our own lives.
If
we really pray the Lord's Prayer,
our prayers will affect the world,
our nation and our church, and they
will also profoundly affect our own
homes and lives. We shall begin to
pray, 'Lord God may your name be
honoured in my own home, in my own
working life, in the way I speak, in
the way I behave, in my
relationships with those around me.'
These are the areas in our own lives
on which we need to reflect as we
pray, 'Hallowed be your name.'
As
you consider this phrase in the
Lord's Prayer, reflect on the day
that lies ahead, the people you will
meet, those who you naturally like
and those who provoke you and whose
every word seems calculated to trip
you, annoy you or crush you with
criticism. 'Lord, you know how my
blood pressure rises - may your name
be honoured . . .'
Helmut Thielicke, the great German
pastor and preacher, tells of a
businessman who, moving from file to
file or interview to interview,
would pause just for a moment
between each task, take a deep
breath and say, 'Glory be to the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Amen,' and then press on. What was
he doing? He was really praying,
'May your name be honoured as I
tackle this, or as I see this
person.' We need to learn to follow
his example. Even as we sit down to
write a letter - 'May your name be
honoured,' 'Glory be to . . .'
We
are only at the first line! Yet if
you would in any way begin to plumb
the incredible depth of this prayer,
pause, consider and apply the words
to the world in which we live and
then cry from the heart, 'Hallowed
be your name.'
'Lord, teach us to pray, may indeed
our Father's great name be held high
and honoured in our world, in our
country, in our own lives and in the
lives of those we love.'
References
'The
judge of all the earth' - Genesis
18:23-25
'God in whose hand is our breath' -
Daniel 5:22&23
The Lord our Redeemer - Galatians
4:4&5, John 3:16 etc.
'Give me not great wealth or
poverty' - Proverbs 30:8&9
'O magnify the Lord with me' - Psalm
34:3
Righteousness and greatness -
Proverbs 14:34
Questions
1
What three great concerns are said
to be the three great 'state rooms'
of this prayer? Should they be the
chief concerns of each true
disciple?
2 Why should our heavenly Father's
name be held in awe and in the
highest honour?
3 How can we hold his name high?
4 Can you think of a situation where
someone has been ignored, treated as
if they were not there or did not
count?
5 Do we do this to Almighty God?
6 How natural and easy is it to
remember the Lord as we make our
daily decisions?
7 How does stealing bring dishonour
to the name of our heavenly Father?
Would cheating, tax evasion,
drunkenness or reckless driving do
the same?
ORDER
A COPY OF THE BOOK
'Lord, teach us to pray . . . the
Lord's Prayer explored and applied'
- Parva Press.
This
high quality paperback has the full,
original text, illustrations, Bible
references and a set of questions
for further thought and discussion.
The book, 130 pages, is proving to
be a very useful resource for group
discussion.
Copies may be obtained from local or
online bookshops ( ISBN
0-9537489-0-1, RRP £5.99 ), or
directly from the publishers, at the
special price of £5.00 inc p&p for
U.K. orders.
To order your copy of the book
through the publishers, use the
purchase facilities below. Payment
can be made with all major credit
and debit cards securely through
PayPal
Worldwide discount price £7.00 inc.
p&p - available only via PayPal.
Purchase the book online now or by
mail order
|
UK CUSTOMERS |
ONLINE
STORES |
INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS |
|
UK Customers wishing to
pay by mail order, via
postal order or cheque,
please
open and print off our
mail order form. |
 |
|
