![THE LORD’S PRAYER: Pray like Jesus taught us to.](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp2o61lm2AI_nssUsshS-F5r16QxLtQ2wliRQbySVkIGsWPtIaymnJLrCaB3lK3EKahHIzdfeTFxJbmyYB7hyWeaxQas0uxpuxxXz6EjQgguO-PeMC-Q_5QNupasIgYV5NhEYPJuawiDdA/s640/LordsPrayer.jpg)
Matthew 6.9, Luke 11.2.
In
Part of our presumption comes from a way-too-common Christian misbelief that our prayers aren’t really about asking God to do anything. Because, the attitude is,
(As if this even works with worship music. Just look at
Thanks to this mindset, Christians imagine “Hallowed be thy name” is just another reminder to think of God’s name as holy.
We really do botch the meaning of what Jesus is trying to teach us in this prayer, don’t we? It’s why Christians can recite the Lord’s Prayer the world over, sometimes every single day, and still not behave any more like Jesus than before.
So to remind you: Holiness means something’s not like anyone or anything else, because it’s distinctly used for divine purposes.
Now. Does recognizing the Lord’s Prayer is about actually asking God for stuff, and that it’s not merely about changing our own attitudes, mean our attitudes don’t need to change? Of course not. If we want God to make his name holy, part of that means we need to make his name holy too. Stop treating God as if he’s just anyone else. He’s not.
And no, I absolutely do not mean we should treat him more formally, more solemnly, with more ritual and ceremony and gravitas and all that crap we do to suck up to people in authority. God’s uniqueness is reflected by two things about him: He’s almighty, of course. And, more importantly, more relevantly to us,
So don’t put him on the same level!
When God sanctifies his name.
The L
Ezekiel 36.16-23 KWL - 16 The L
ORD ’s word to me, to proclaim, is, - 17 “Son of Adam, when Israel’s house dwelt on its land, their ways and deeds were unclean,
- like filth is unclean. Such were their ways to my face.
- 18 I poured wrath on them, on the blood they poured out on the land with their unclean idolatry.
- 19 I scattered them by the gentiles scattering them in many lands, according to their ways and deeds.
- 20 They went to the gentiles—and wherever they went, they wounded my holy name,
- by telling them these are the L
ORD ’s people leaving his land. - 21 I care about my holy name, which those of Israel’s house wound among the gentiles they go to.
- 22So tell Israel’s house: ‘So says my master the L
ORD ’: Look, Israel’s house, - I do this because of you, for my holy name which you wound to the gentiles you went to.
- 23 I sanctify my great name, wounded among the gentiles, which you wound in their midst.
- The gentiles know I’m the L
ORD ,” declares my master the LORD , “when I’m sacred to you in their eyes.”
Israel hadn’t followed the L
So what do you figure it does to the L
The people of the United States like to imagine
In the context of Ezekiel, praying “Sanctify your name” carries a whole lot more weight on it than passively expecting God to make his name famous. Apparently we have to live like we’re actually his kids, and show through our ways and deeds we actually do follow Jesus. Being all talk isn’t gonna cut it with him.
God’s holy. He doesn’t act like pagan gods, which aren’t far different from the people who invented ’em. He’s actually good. He keeps his promises, cares for his kids, and stands out from everyone else by the way he follows through on what he says. (Not what we imagine he says; not what we wish he said, and psyche ourselves into thinking he said; what he actually says.) He expects his followers to truly follow, and be holy like he is.
When we’re not,
So if we’re gonna ask God to sanctify his name, it means we have to sanctify it too. We gotta be holy, and not be the embarrassment to our Lord we so often are. He expects better of us. Let’s do better.
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