Make Your Name Holy!

Throw Back Thursday

In 2012, I put my first writings on a blog @ trulifeworks.weebly.com. Pastorgregonline started in 2019. I’ve been compiling these older writings and thought I would share some. Most of them were a longer format, but still had good content. I hope you enjoy today’s.

Early Bird Devotional. July 14th, 2012

Lord Teach us to Pray- Part 7

9 Pray then like this:  “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Matt. 6:9 ESV Bold added

I must confess, until now, I really haven’t quite understood why Jesus put the phrase “hallowed be thy name” in the Lord’s prayer. In this study, at least for me, I believe I am beginning to understand and appreciate it now more than ever. I hope it encourages you as it has me.

You see, I agreed with the statement. The word “hallowed” means “holy” which means “to set apart or to make sacred”. So to me it sounded like Jesus was just stating a fact…an incredibly important fact about God’s character. The chasm between God’s holiness and my own life did not help me connect to it any easier. God’s holy and I’m not, got it, what’s next.

With that disconnect, I like many people have then concentrated on the different expressions of the names of God. This has been very helpful for mediation and appreciation of who God is and how He interacts with our lives. In the next lesson I will share about these names, but somehow, I still felt I was missing the point that Jesus was trying to make.

Then, in my studies, I saw that Jesus was not just stating a fact, rather, He was giving us an example of entreating God (a prayer). Let me rephrase the prayer in my own way. “Our Father, who is in heaven, make your name HOLY (in our lives, in my life).” So now I am engaged, it has moved from a factual statement to a request. How is God going to make His name Holy to me? Or you? Or to the world that has not met Jesus? 

Back to our definition of “hallowed”, it means “to make sacred or set apart”. Notice the part I missed, “to make or to set apart“. In practice, I have seen the word as a noun or an adjective. God is holy or we serve a holy God. But Jesus, used a verb – an aorist imperative. Hallowed is a verb. Maybe you always understood it that way, but I had missed it. Even though, it’s not a command, it is an imperative request that expects and anticipates action. We are to make Him holy in our lives. How? We are asking for His help.

How is my heavenly Father a sacred part of my life? Can I honestly say that going to church for a few hours a week accomplishes this? For something to be set apart in a sacred way, it must include sacrifice. I choose to do this, so I will not participate in that. This would include all of our hobbies, addictions, and usage of our time. Just one illustration….sports.

Let’s choose NASCAR although it could be football, baseball or bowling. Those who are NASCAR enthusiast are incredibly loyal fans. They normally don’t like formula car races. They have favorite drivers or teams that they are devoted to following, and they are just as passionate about who they “don’t” like. They spend money on magazines, stickers, hats, and t-shirts. They spend emotional energy thinking about the upcoming race and have heated arguments on who the best drivers are. They watch interviews and buy tickets for the race or plan a party at their home to watch. Some are so sure of the outcome, they place bets in which some win and some loose. I’m not against NASCAR, but I hope you can see that these enthusiast have made a sacred place for these events in their life. 

Sadly, think of how pathetic our presentation of the church is for these enthusiast. Come and sit for a couple of hours and listen to a man talk. Somebody like me, tells them to make God holy, and we wonder why they have a problem connecting. The excitement of this type of church experience just doesn’t compute, at least not on the surface. For me, I love meeting with our church family and really miss it when I am not there…my week is never complete when I fail to connect with my brothers and sisters in Christ. But that is another story. You see to make God’s name holy in my life there will have to be some sacrifices. There has to be the realization that I will need help from Him to make that happen.

This is actually a very easy step. I ask God to make His name more important to me than ALL or ANY other thing in my life. If you feel resistance in your mind right now, there is a good chance that there is an area that is more important than His name. For example the doctor tells you that a certain food is not good for your health and you must stop eating it. You reply, but I love it so much, I don’t think I can stop. You have “set apart”, “made hallowed” that food in your life. But when you recognize that your health ( opportunity to live a fulfilled life with purpose and others) is most important, you can resist eating that particular food. You are able to sacrifice not eating that food so that you can live longer.

There is an incredible blessing that God gives AFTER you have made Him holy in your life. With that decision made, NOW you can honor His name in ANY activity, not just going to church. Back to NASCAR. You can still enjoy a hotly contested race, but when someone uses the name of your heavenly Father or Jesus name in vain, your joy in the event goes down. When you pass a merchandise display and want to buy another hat which happens to have an alcoholic sponsor, you pass. If you have to make excuses… His name is no longer “set apart”.

Let me give another example. Melody and I were in the Mall food court sharing a meal together. She and I have similar taste buds and we love to eat together…Jesus enjoyed meals also. I was facing in the direction of a restaurant that had a tv behind the counter facing the food court. I have watched several sports programs in the past. But today someone had left it on a syfy channel. Men are visually driven and I continued to look away from the tv. However, one scene showed a vampire type action in which a man tore the flesh of a woman’s neck and blood flowed forth. (Sorry for being graphic). Melody was facing me so she did not see it…but the food court was filled with families with little children. I scanned the crowd to see if anyone was looking…most were not. But my heart was grieved, WHY? The shedding of innocent blood, real or not, is offensive to my heavenly father. I went to the restaurant and asked them to change the station. Not because I did not like the show, Not because it showed blood. But I knew somehow making His name Holy included my daughter seeing me ask that the channel be changed.

So lets summarize, 

1. The phrase is a prayer, an entreaty asking God to help make his name Holy in my life. It is not an adjective.
   
2. I submit and acknowledge that I want to see His name “set apart” in every area of my life.
   
3. I expect that there will be sacrifices that I have to make in order to see His name as sacred.
   
4. When God reveals how He expects of me to make his name Holy, my direct obedience is all that He requires.
   

Just one other thought…Things that are worshiped usually have an extravagant or extreme audacious characteristic about it. That is part of what makes it special. So…what is there about your relationship with God that makes it extremely audacious or extravagant? Father make your name HOLY in my life.

I hope this helped you as it did for me. Lord make your name Holy in all of our lives.

Blessings Love y’all