Seeking God's Glory - learning from others

 – from Andrew Kuyvenhoven, Comfort and Joy, pages 277-278

“We must learn to construct our prayers – all our prayers – after the model that Jesus taught. And his paradigm says that the first concern of the followers of Jesus is the glory of our Father’s name. ‘What would you like best?’ asks the Lord. ‘What shall I give you first? What would give you the greatest joy?’ And we are supposed to answer, ‘Help us to really know you, to bless, worship, and praise you… Help us to direct all our living… so that your name will never be blasphemed because of us but always honored and praised.” We say, in other words, ‘Hallowed be your name.’

The Lord does not mean, of course, that we must begin all of our prayers by repeating the words he taught us. Of course not. But he says that we must learn to make his honor the first concern in our lives: when we want to thank for health or pray in sickness, the big thing is that credit and glory go to our heavenly Father. When we’re looking for a job or considering an appointment, accepting a call or taking an assignment – the big thing is the glory of God’s name. When there’s a death in the family or a newborn baby, Jesus says, then you must be anxious that the Father’s name be hallowed. For selfish and sinful people this new desire and prayer is an unnatural, even painful thing. But conversion never comes without pain. And the best evidence of conversion is a rearranged life in which God has the first place.

To hallow a name is to make it holy. The name we make holy is the Father name, for that is the name God used to reveal himself through Jesus. And that’s how we should address him in prayer.

                When we ask that his name be made holy, we don’t mean that his name is not holy yet (for threefold holy is the Lord); we pray, rather, that his holiness receive recognition. We are working for name recognition. We want God to be known, honored, and praised for what he is.

                This is a prayer for missions and evangelism, a petition ‘that all nations might believe and obey him,’ thus rendering honor to ‘the only wise God’ (Rom. 16:26-27).

                The prayer does not name those who should sanctify or glorify the name. The first three petitions read, literally translated, ‘Let be sanctified your name, let come your kingdom, let be done your will.’ The prayer assumes that God the Father will cause this to happen in the world and through us, without being dependent on us. When God answers this prayer, people who now dishonor and ignore the name are going to get hurt.”

(I was wondering if I should keep that last line in, and obviously I did. What a harsh way to say it. I think we should all ponder deeply the harsh clash between the realm where God and his name are honored above all and the realm that wants to see God banished, blasphemed, or ignored. We see clearly throughout the Bible and history that when the two realms clash and God acts decisively, the results can be very dramatic. Even those who hallow God's name understand the pain of death to self for the greater glory of living for God.)