Hallowed Be Your Name

 

I Lift My Voice Unto Your Name

The very first instruction is to pay homage to God and honour Him for who He is. We need to worship Him for who He is, period.

Thankfully, He is the God He is, full of life, with no darkness overshadowing His light. A perfect specimen of eternity. There is no blemish in Him whatsoever, nothing flawed in His character. He always makes the right decisions, even if at times we, as fallen sinners, find some things difficult to reconcile.

The Lord Himself taught us this principle when the disciples asked Him how they should pray. Before provision, before forgiveness, before protection, He directed their attention to God:

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name."  

Matthew 6:9

The very first instruction is not about us. It is about Him. His name, His honour, His glory. How different that is from our natural inclination. We rush into God's presence with our lists, our concerns, our needs, and our plans. Yet Christ starts somewhere entirely different. He starts with worship.

Remember, when we learn this lesson for ourselves, and it absolutely resonates, not partially but completely, it will leave us in good standing with our God. For now, our summations are outside His perfect will. The only time we will ever align with His will is once saved, born again. This is where it starts. Outside of that reality, it is impossible to please Him.

You may think you please Him through charitable deeds, but when you examine it closely, you will often find that you are doing it to be recognised by others. Our lives are filled with smoke screens. That is why I find Solomon's summation and conclusion at the end of Ecclesiastes so fascinating:

"The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil." Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

As long as you are trying to evade this reality in your life, eternity will not end well for you.

Romans 1 takes this discussion even further. Paul traces mankind's decline and identifies the root problem. It was not merely that men sinned. It was that they refused to honour God as God.

"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." Romans 1:21

The judgment that follows begins there. A refusal to acknowledge God for who He is. A refusal to honour Him. A refusal to give thanks. God eventually gives them over to their own desires and imaginations. It is a sobering passage of Scripture because it reveals what happens when mankind refuses to do the very thing Christ taught us from the outset: to honour God.

If you apply yourself to the Word, He will apply Himself to you. More specifically, your faith in Him will produce evidence in your life.

Of this I am completely persuaded.

There are many contributing factors to this reality, including God's intervention in saving faith. If you believe, for one minute, that you are better than the unbeliever because you chose to bend the knee to God, and somewhere along your journey you were "born again" and believe it was all your doing, then I fear for you. Without God's intervention, even in that account, nothing would have changed in your life.

The nagging question is what triggers that in a person's life. These are some of the unseen mysteries that we are privy to. To start speaking on God's behalf with any authority is dangerous.

Remember Miriam?

Recount the time when God called you by name. I remember wrestling for days to understand who God was and what He had done for me. But I have seen it in the lives of others. Jukes, a very good friend of mine, resisted the call so furiously that he arrived at a meeting, refused to get out of his car, turned around to drive away, and had an accident. I think that was the first car accident he had in his life. No, you explain that for me, coincidence or God tightening the screws to bring you to a place of understanding?

Now back to the starting point of our daily routine. When I rise, the very first words out of my mouth should be:

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:9-10

And then we work out the rest of the day.

This is my encouragement to you, whilst reaffirming this truth in my own life.

Signing off,

Tyrone