By Ken West Jr.
When I was a young boy back in the 1960’s, I remember being taught the Lord’s Prayer by my mother and every night, I would get on my knees just before going to bed and pray that prayer, even feeling duty bound that I had to do this every night without fail. And who as a child (or possibly, even as an adult) did not know this prayer? I’m sure at some point, most prayed it, especially if you were raised “back-in-the-day” as I was. And most probably, it was the King James Version that went like this:
Matthew 6:9-13 – KJV – “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen”.
For years, I prayed this every single night without missing a beat. But as I got older, there came a time when I stopped praying this, or praying at all and for many years rejected any belief in God, becoming an Atheist by the time I was a teenager. However, when I turned to the Lord further years down the road, I learned the importance of prayer for developing our relationship with the Lord. As I grew in my faith and began to look at this seemingly simple prayer, it dawned on me just how profound it was. Jesus gave us a perfect model on how to pray. And while we do not have to pray it “exactly” word-for-word as it is, it is a blueprint on how to develop our relationship with the Lord and pray in a way that is pleasing to Him. So, I’d like to break down and examine the contents of this prayer to help us all learn. Starting with the first verse:
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name”
Now, some other translations, such as the New Living Translation may make it a little easier to understand by saying “Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.” Hallowed means to be holy, sacred or highly respected. What Jesus was looking to show here when we approach God the Father in prayer is to come before Him with worshipful respect and awe of His mighty name. This can be looked at as approaching God, first and foremost with a grateful heart understanding how holy and sacred His name is.
So often, when we go to pray, we immediately come before Him with our lists of wants and needs and there’s nothing wrong with that. God wants us to ask Him concerning our needs (Philippians 4:19). But many times, we do this repeatedly without thinking about first approaching Him by thanking Him just for who He is. Scripture puts it this way:
Psalms 95:2 – NKJV – Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
Do we come before Him first and foremost with a thankful heart? Do we thank Him for who He is? Do we first approach God recognizing His greatness and sovereignty with a grateful heart, or do we immediately come in blasting our wants, needs, problems and personal desires every time?
I will be the first one to tell you that I have personally been guilty of this. I’m not going to come off like some self-righteous person that has never done this. I have on numerous occasions! But I’ve learned and am still learning, how to start my prayer time with just worshipping and adoring Him. Even just taking the first few minutes just to spend time worshipping Him. Scripture is filled with exhortations to praise Him.
Psalms 145:3 – NKJV – Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable.
Psalms 63:3 – NKJV – Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You.
Hebrews 13:15 – NKJV – Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
This does not mean in approaching Him, we have to be “yelling and screaming” at the top of our lungs every time. You can if you want, but you can just as much approach him in a worshipful way in quiet confidence, knowing that He loves you. Yet it’s not in either loudness or quietness, but it’s the attitude of your heart. Either way, it would be good to give the first part of our devotional time to just honoring, worshipping and just showing Him the respect due His name. Do you know that we can “bless” the Lord by the words of our mouths?
Psalms 103:1-2 – NKJV – Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul and forget not all His benefits.
Other translations, like the NIV and the NLT say “Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul and forget not all his benefits—”
What would it be like if we started off our day in prayer just blessing and praising the name of the Lord, letting Him know how much we appreciate and love Him? This would be a sharp contrast to starting off daily with “Lord, this is what I want” or “Lord, this is what I need”. My personal conviction is that when we start our private time with Him praising, honoring and just thanking Him for who He is, this pleases His heart and also sets the spiritual tone for the rest of your prayer time in communion with Him. So, my encouragement to all, start your devotional time with honoring Him through worship and respecting His holy name.
God Bless!
