I THINK I MUST HAVE BEEN in the fourth or fifth grade, and I’d come into the proud ownership of a brand new baseball. I mean, it was the real deal. The core was firm, the skin was tight, the threads were prominent and taut. It even had the word “Official” on it. It was a gem.
So I got up a game with the kids in my neighborhood. They brought their gloves and bats, and we laid out makeshift bases, chose up sides, and began to play.
Now, across the street from where we were playing there was a vacant lot, covered over with tall grass and weeds and heavy underbrush—just the sort of place a baseball might like to hide.
And sure enough, the moment came when someone hit the ball, and it went across the street into the thicket. My heart sank. We’d never find it there, I thought. “Did anybody see where it went?” I asked. The game stopped while we hunted for the ball. Soon the other boys got discouraged and went home, and I was left alone. It was then that I turned to prayer. I said, “God, if you will let me find my ball, I’ll…I’ll…” I couldn’t think of any way to leverage God into helping me find that ball. And then it came to me: “God,” I said, “if you will help me find my ball, I will never cuss again.”
And guess what. I spotted the ball. I ran over to the place, pushed back the weeds, and picked it up. I don’t remember whether or not I thanked the Lord. I’d like to think I did. And, as to whether I kept my end of the bargain, I’ll let you figure that out for yourself. Some things are best left unsaid.
And maybe the story would have been best left untold. I didn’t know it at the time, but I do now. God doesn’t make bargains, and I wouldn’t want to leave you with the impression that he does. But I told you the story because it reminds me that, for the greater part of my life, my prayers have been me-centered. I’m not proud of it, but it’s true. I viewed God as something of a cosmic bellhop, a celestial “go-fer,” whose main job, besides creating the universe and everything in it, of course, was to give us what we ask for in prayer.
But I know now—and you do, too, I’m sure—that such a notion of God is a mere fantasy. He’s nothing like that. If we want to know what God is like, we need to turn to the Scriptures, to verses like the passage we read just a moment ago from 1 Timothy. What does that passage tell us about God? It starts by saying that he “gives life to all things.” Do you believe that? There are many who don’t. There are many who don’t believe that life was given, much less given by God. They think it appeared spontaneously through some kind of chemical interaction. They think there was no plan or purpose behind the beginning of life, that it just happened for no rhyme or reason. And yet, here in 1 Timothy we find an expression of one of the central claims of the historic Christian faith: that God and God alone is the author of life.
And if that is true—and I need to tell you, I believe it is—then let me ask this: Does not God deserve to be acknowledged by those who have come to possess life because of his creative power? And not only acknowledged but honored? If we read on in the passage, the apostle Paul, who wrote it, charges us “to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach.” Which commandment, I wonder, is the apostle talking about? It could be any of them, really, but I’m going to suggest that, if it could be any of them, it could certainly be the third commandment, the one that says, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain” (Deut. 5:11; cf. Ex. 20:7).
And what that means is that we are to honor God as he has revealed himself in Scripture and as he has made himself known to us in Christ. And how is that? Well, look at 1 Timothy again. Chapter 6, verses 15 and 16. How is God described there? He is “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.” He “alone has immortality.” He alone “dwells in unapproachable light.” “No one has ever seen or can see” him. “To him [there is to] be honor and eternal dominion” ascribed.
This last part—the part that says “to him be honor and eternal dominion”—this is exactly what Jesus urged us to pray for in the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer. He said we are to pray, “Hallowed be thy name.” That is, we are to pray that God’s name—which is simply another way of referring to his person—will be given the honor that is due him. To be hallowed is to be seen as holy, and to be holy is to be separate. To hallow God’s name is to recognize that he is separate from us, that he is different from us. God is the Creator of all that is. He is very much involved with his creation, but he is not to be identified with his creation. There is not a little of God in all of us. There is no divine spark in the human breast. God is not one with nature. He is God, and we are not. He is exalted on high, “the blessed and only Sovereign.” That’s how our text puts it. And we are to pray that this will become known far and wide. And we are to pray for this first, before we pray for anything else. Do you see that?
The Lord’s Prayer, as we have it, has six petitions—that is, there are six things we are instructed to ask for. And if you look at the prayer carefully, what you’ll see is that the first three petitions are centered on God. We focus on his name, his kingdom, his will. All of that is first, and only after we have addressed ourselves to these things does Jesus encourage us to pray for our own needs. Those are all addressed in the last three petitions. But notice: they are last.
This is Jesus’ pattern for prayer. When his disciples asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray,” this is what he gave them. Begin with the Father, he said, then ask for what you need. And so, when we set out to pray, we begin with our focus on God, not on ourselves. We start by praying, “Hallowed be thy name.”
Now, let me say this: These words are not a description of God’s name. They are Jesus’ prescription of what it is we are to pray for. We are to pray that God’s name will be hallowed.
Why? Because that is just what is not happening in our world. God’s name is not held in reverence—which means that God himself is not esteemed. It would not be hard to make a case that, on the whole, the human race maintains a steady-state violation of the third commandment, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”
How can this be? How can people be off the mark so? I’ll give you four reasons. There are probably a dozen more. But let me give you just four. One is ignorance. When it comes to God, many people simply don’t “get it.” They don’t get him. He doesn’t figure in their lives, and they don’t see the point of God.
There are others who think of God, but they think of him in the wrong way. They’re a lot like I was when I was asking God to help me find my baseball and making silly promises that I was sure would entice him. I saw God as some sort of genie, who was supposed to be at my beck and call.
Others are contemptuous of God. They are resentful toward him. Maybe they thought at one time that his main purpose was to grant their wishes, and when he didn’t, they became disappointed or disillusioned and gave up on God. Maybe you know someone like that.
Of course, what is really at work in all these cases is self-preoccupation. People—so many of them—have themselves on their hands. That may be why Jesus makes the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer NOT about us but about God. The focus is thy name, thy kingdom, thy will.
Why is that important? Because God is important. He is the most important reality of your life and mine. Whatever the story of our lives, we need to know: We’re not the heroes of our story. God is. He is the main character. We are just “walk-ons.” The Lord’s Prayer shows us that by making first things first.
So, look at the Lord’s Prayer, which is Jesus’ model for how to pray, and ask yourself: What is it that Jesus is teaching you to do? He’s teaching you to pray, to be sure, but perhaps to pray like you’ve never prayed before. If we learn anything about prayer from the template the Lord has given us, it is that our first priority must be God’s priorities, that our agenda in prayer is to be God’s agenda—praying not for the things we want, at least not at first, but for the things he wants. And when it comes right down to it, our agenda in prayer—and in life—is to be shaped by his agenda. So, to start with, do this: condition yourself to want what God wants.
Then, make sure that, in your own heart, you are honoring God as holy. Hallow his name. Ascribe to him the glory due him. Lift his name on high, magnify him, and keep doing it until you love doing it.
When our kids were in high school, our church still owned the Wilson House over on Lake Park Drive. And in the summers, the students would gather there with their friends, and Ashton Gustafson would come and play the guitar and lead them in the praise songs of the day.
Like all the other parents, Jan and I would drive up to the Wilson House when it was about time for things to be over, and we would wait in the car ‘til our kids came out. On one particular night, they seemed delayed. Time went by, and they still hadn’t come out. The parents were getting restless—and some of them a little concerned. I volunteered to go in to see what the hold-up was.
What I saw when I went into the building was unforgettable. All the students were sitting on the floor, and Ashton was leading them in the songs--still. They didn’t see me, I don’t think, and I decided to slip out without being noticed. I went back outside, and I spoke to the parents. “Let’s wait a little longer,” I said. Someone asked what was going on. Were they still singing? And I said, “You could say they were singing, and you wouldn’t be wrong. They are singing, but they are doing so much more than singing. They are worshiping.” And there was a difference. I couldn’t explain it then, and I’m not sure I could now. But I could feel it. Those students were honoring God as holy. That’s what our Savior wants us to do.
And one more thing. And that is this. He wants us to pray fervently that God will cause his name to be honored in the hearts of others. Jesus is teaching us to pray that God will use his divine initiative to defend his cause among the people of this church, this community, this nation, and this world.
There’s an account in the book of 1 Kings where Elijah, the Lord’s prophet, has a showdown with the prophets of Baal, the so-called god of the land. The test was to see which god would send fire from heaven when his servants prayed. The prophets of Baal prayed, of course, and they prayed and prayed, but there was no fire. When Elijah prayed, however, the fire fell. And the prophets of Baal were put to shame.
Queen Jezebel, herself a worshiper of Baal, was upset by the events of that day, and she threatened to kill Elijah if she ever caught him. So the prophet of God ran. I think I would have, too. He ran until he could run no longer. Until he was exhausted. Until, all alone and far from home, he stopped to rest and fell asleep. And when he woke up, the Lord asked him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” And Elijah’s response is worth noting. He said to the Lord, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts” (1 Kings 19:10; see v. 14). Did you hear that? “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts.” That’s it. That’s what we need! We need the spiritual gumption to foster within ourselves an acute jealousy for the name of God. Not only do we need to regard his name as holy—or hallowed—ourselves, but we need to long for others to do the same, so much so that, when they don’t, when others do not hallow the name of our God, we, like Elijah, feel it in the depths of our being and we are grieved by it.
Can you picture yourself caring that much what other people think of God, how his name is treated, how he himself is portrayed? Can you see yourself being invested in this matter, so that it takes on a sense of gravity for you?
Jesus is asking you and me to change the way we pray. And, if we are willing to make this change, it’s not just our prayers that will be different. Our lives will be different. Surely, we can all agree that what we pray for reveals what is most important to us. If we are praying for God’s glory above our own perceived needs—and that’s what Jesus is teaching us to do when he counsels us to pray, “Hallowed be thy name”—if that’s what we’re doing when we pray, if we are sincerely putting God first, it’s going to have a noticeable effect on us. It’s going to expand our thinking, enrich our lives, and set us on a path to adventure like nothing we’ve ever imagined.
My friend, if you truly pray with the holiness of God’s name at heart, it will make you wiser. It will make you more loving. It will give you patience in times of trial, and it will equip you to be content with your life. I’m not saying there won’t be a place for making your requests known to God—there will be. It’s coming in the second half of the Lord’s Prayer—but even then, even when you are praying for yourself, what you ask for will be focused on what you need to serve him. And the passion of your life—and your highest reward—will be to see him magnified. And you will be the happiest you have ever been. Can you picture it?
