Jesus's Prayer Request

Among other things, Jesus taught His disciples how to pray. He suggested several prayer requests -- God's kingdom would come, His will would be done, that God would supply our needs including forgiveness and deliverance from evil. We know this stuff. Much of the unbelieving world knows this stuff. But what is commonly missed is Jesus's first request.

Jesus began with the address -- "Our Father who is in heaven" (Matt 6:9). Good. We know who He's talking to. It's God the Father. It's not another god. And it's God our Father. There is a relationship. But the next line we often miss because we take it as a descriptive. "Hallowed be Your name." Most of us would say, "Jesus was saying that the Father's name was holy." Not quite. "Hallowed" is a verb meaning "to make holy." The phrase is a request that God would make His name holy. He said, "Hallowed be Your name" and not "Hallowed is Your name." It is a request that God would make His name holy and that we would seek to regard His entire character (the meaning of "name" in this context) as holy.

This is not merely a request among many. This singular request is the beginning, the only reasonable start for all other requests -- indeed, for all of our relationship with God. Scripture repeatedly tells us that God is holy. In fact, He is "holy, holy, holy" (Isa 6:3; Rev 4:8). It is a thrice repetition of His holiness, elevating it to the highest value, and it is repeated in both Old and New Testaments, elevating it to all time. That reality brought a prophet to repentance and signaled the culmination of all things at the end of time. His holiness is the beginning and end of all things. So the start of prayer in Jesus's example is "Father, make Your name holy."

In this light, the rest of the prayer is not random requests, but more of a "how to" list. In what ways will God make His name holy? By bringing His kingdom. By having His will done. By providing our needs of food and forgiveness and deliverance. In that you can see, then, that "Make Your name holy" is also inadequate. He already is holy. Thus, He is "hallowed" -- made holy -- not by becoming holy, but by declaring and demonstrating He is holy. He is "hallowed" -- set apart -- in who He is and what He does and we are imploring Him to do that. "Make Your name -- all that You are -- set apart ... set apart in our hearts, our minds, our hopes and directions, our needs and Your meeting of them, our goals and desires."

It was Jesus's first request when He taught His disciples to pray. It's a big request. And it ought to be ours. Thankfully we have a big God who can make it happen.