THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE
We associate one name with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln: John Wilkes Booth. Most people have forgotten Booth had co-conspirators, but one American family can’t forget. The descendants of Dr. Samuel Mudd are still attempting to clear their family name.
After Booth shot the president, he jumped from the balcony to the stage and broke his leg. He escaped and made it to Dr. Mudd’s farm in Maryland. Dr. Mudd set his leg and allowed Booth to rest. When Mudd learned of the assassination the next day, he alerted the authorities. Unfortunately, Dr. Mudd became a suspect. He was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison. President Andrew Johnson later pardoned him, but a question lingered—was Dr. Mudd innocent?
Samuel Mudd’s descendants believe his name (and theirs) has never been cleared. In fact, our language now has a phrase for someone who is unpopular or questionable: “His name is mud (Mudd).”
Our names are important to us. Without question, one name above all others deserves honor: the name of God. Jesus taught us to honor the name of God when we pray.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
Matthew 6:9b
hallowed be your name, ...
Psalm 96:1-3
1 Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. 3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
Some forms of prayer are easier than others. For example, most of us find it easy to ask for our own needs to be met or to pray for the safety of our kids, but not everyone feels as confident when it comes to offering praise. A church member sheepishly confided to me that praise was the most difficult part of prayer for her. I’m sure she was relieved when I agreed! Unfortunately, praise doesn’t always come easy.
In the Model Prayer, Jesus directs us to place praise at the beginning of our time with God. Jesus could have said much more about the subject, but He chose only one core value of praise: honoring the name of God. These words serve as a model for all future praise.
When Jesus taught us to praise, He did so by exalting God whose name is honored as holy. We are not praying God’s name will be made holy. Instead, our prayers are to acknowledge His name is already holy.
Once we recognize what praise is and begin to practice it, praising God begins to flow more freely. Psalm 96 is a good example of a declaration of praise that exalts God’s name. We exalt His name in three ways.
1. Sing a new song. In the opening verses, we see the exuberance of the psalmist as he praised the Lord. What do I mean by exuberance? The psalmist urged us to “Sing to the LORD a new song.” This is a call for “all the earth” to praise.
2. Praise His name. Praising God entails more than singing. We also “praise his name.” The word “praise” is related to the Hebrew word for kneeling, and not surprisingly, it can be translated as bless, salute, or adore. We also read in the Bible that God blesses His people, which imply bestowing His favor and benefits. We, in turn, bless God because of His greatness, power, and love. We praise and honor His name.
3. Proclaim His salvation. One of the great things God does is reach down and brings us back into a right relationship with Him. He saves us! We honor Him as we declare “his marvelous deeds among all peoples.”
Psalm 96:4-6
4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. 6 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
It doesn’t take many news shows, violent images of terrorism, or stories about injustice to feel discouraged. Discouragement can lead to a sense of being overwhelmed by the problems surrounding all of us. Fortunately, God has given us a way to remain hopeful despite the bad news everywhere. The path to a healthier soul is praise. Praising God not only honors Him, it lifts our spirits too. When we focus on the One who is greater than all, we gain the right perspective and we lose our discouragement.
- Praise the greatness of God. The psalmist knew God is greater than any of the false gods since they are mere idols, so he focused his praise on the greatness of God. People made these other gods, “but the LORD made the heavens.” How can there be any comparison between the two?
- Praise the beauty of God. “Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.” In the same way, he reminds us to seek the God who is surrounded by such beauty. Splendor is a Hebrew word embodying the concept of someone’s grand appearance. Translated “majesty,” “glory,” or even “honor,” at various places in the Old Testament, the word always describes something of great value. The psalmist was offering an invitation for us to look at God because He is filled with splendor and beauty. In a world of ugliness and broken things, God is splendid.
We pray to the God who is full of majesty, strength, and beauty. He is welcome relief for our weariness. The world is brutal; God is beautiful. The nations are merciless; God is majestic in His mercy. People are full of petty self-interest; God is full of splendor! Seeing God for who He is leads us to praise because no one else is like Him!
If we saw God as small, weak, or unpredictable, our prayers would also be weak. In fact, we probably wouldn’t pray at all. Why would we if God was neither great nor glorious? Fortunately, the psalmist directs us to think much differently about God when we pray. He is powerful and majestic; God is worthy of our honor.
Psalm 96:7-9
7 Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. 9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.
How do we respond to the greatness of God? We “ascribe”—we give—to Him the glory and strength His name deserves. We can’t make His name any more glorious or powerful, but we openly acknowledge He is full of glory and strength. He is worthy of worship. He is draped in holy splendor. His greatness should cause us to humble ourselves before Him. “Tremble before him, all the earth.”
As we acknowledge God’s glory, we also bring an offering as a way to honor Him. Consider these ways we are to bring an offering:
- An offering of praise. “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name” (Heb. 13:15).
- An offering of our possessions. “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops” (Prov. 3:9).
- An offering of our lives. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Rom. 12:1).
- An offering of our prayers. We tend to start our prayers with our needs, our concerns, and ourselves. The model Jesus gave us begins with the request that God’s name be honored, but the prayer for God to be honored doesn’t end there; we are to honor God’s name with every single request we make after that!
Even today visitors can see the original steps of the temple mount in Jerusalem, the last steps one used before entering the temple courts. These steps are deliberately irregular in size. The steps continue in a haphazard method to the top. They most likely were engineered to keep a person from rushing thoughtlessly into the presence of God. Staggered steps slowed the pace of a worshiper entering the temple courts, giving him time to reflect on the privilege of entering into God’s presence. In the same way, Jesus’ Model Prayer calls us to focus on God in praise as we begin to honor Him.
LIVE IT OUT
Praise elevates our own awareness of God as few other activities can do. For this reason—and because God deserves it—we should excel in the prayer of praise. Choose one of the following activities:
- Offer praise. Every day this week let a specific praise to God be your first words of the day.
- List attributes. Make a list of every attribute of God you can think of. Take time this week to praise God using the entire list.
- Evaluate your requests. Write out your prayer requests and evaluate them on whether they are focused on God’s honor or simply on what you want. As needed, adjust the way you pray so you are seeking to honor Him.
How will you seek to honor God with your prayers? One name above all others deserves honor: the name of Jesus Christ. Honor Him through prayer and by sharing Him with others this week.
Hope to see you on Sunday!
In His Love,
David & Susan
Teacher Notes:
Teacher Notes:
Introduction: Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth, wrote a book many years ago titled It’s My Turn. In that book, she told the story of her first encounter with Billy. She was a student at Wheaton College, and he had just transferred to Wheaton from the Florida Bible Institute. During a chapel service, Billy was called on to lead in prayer. Though he and Ruth had not yet been formally introduced, she was impressed by the earnestness and reverence of his prayer. She thought, “He knows who he’s talking to.” The Lord Jesus also knew who He was addressing when He prayed. Thus, He taught His disciples to begin their prayers with the words, “Hallowed be Thy name.” Certainly, we should carry our needs and requests to Him (Philippians 4:6), but at the same time we must remember that He is more than just a friend. He is the God of the universe, and He is worthy of our worship and our reverence.
It is very natural for us to call out to God when we need something. And God certainly invites us to come to Him with our requests and prayers. But do we ever consider what God wants? The first request of Jesus’ Model Prayer is a petition for God’s name to be honored as holy. We are to bring our requests to God and seek an answer that brings honor and glory to Him.
I. Prayer begins with a desire to honor God.
Matthew 6:9b hallowed be your name, ...
Psalm 96:1-3
Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise His name; proclaim His salvation day after day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.
How does acknowledging God’s name as holy make a difference when we pray?
What are some challenges you face in trying to keep your praying God-centered and God-honoring rather than self-focused?
There’s a Chinese proverb that states that a thousand miles begins with a single step. But in what direction do you take that first step? It matters how you begin.
Does it matter how you begin a prayer?
· Yes, it does.
· The first steps we take in prayer will affect the rest of our prayer.
· In His Model Prayer, Jesus taught us to begin our prayers with Hallowed be your name.
· This is the most important part of all our prayers.
· And it may also be the hardest part of the Model Prayer to understand.
What does it mean to hallow something?
· Hallowed comes from the same word from which we get holy. To hallow something means to make it holy or set it apart as holy. To hallow God’s name, then, means to set God’s name apart as holy.
How can I make God’s name any holier than it already is?
· “There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God” (1 Sam. 2:2).
· Hallowed be your name, is not a prayer that God’s name would be more holy, but that His name would be recognized and treated as holy.
That’s why this request is the very first request in the Model Prayer.
Everything else we ask in prayer should have as its foundation this thought: Is what I am asking for something that glorifies and honors God?
Think about it…
1. We pray, “Hallowed be your name,” before we pray, “Give us today our daily bread (or other things we need).” God’s name will not be honored and hallowed if we misuse the things He gives us. Why should God give us the things we ask for if we’re only going to use them in a way that does not honor Him? “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (Jas. 4:3).
2. We pray, “Hallowed be your name,” before we pray, “Forgive us our debts.” Am I asking for forgiveness simply because I don’t like feeling guilty? Or am I asking for forgiveness because I want to turn from doing what I know displeases Him? Even when we pray for forgiveness, we should be basing that request on a desire that God’s unique character and holiness would be obvious – and that it would be obvious in our lives!
· God’s honor and glory come first. God first, me second. If I make this request first, all my other requests will receive the answer I desire because I am asking for things that will honor Him.
[Matthew 6:9b] When we begin our prayer, Jesus instructed us to honor our Father. In this portion
of His Model Prayer, Jesus showed us how to acknowledge God as Father when we begin to talk
with Him. How we approach our Father makes more of a difference than we may realize at first. It’s tempting to start by telling God everything we need. When we do, our view of Him diminishes to the point we lose sight of the honor He deserves, and our view of ourselves inflates so that we nurture a bloated perspective of our needs and ourselves. Jesus taught us to approach God with a reverent awareness of His holy name. When we focus our attention on God’s name in prayer, we’re drawn to what His name means to us. When we reflect on the meaning of His holy name, the truth about His character, authority, wisdom, and power become more vivid to us. When we meditate on the holiness of His name, we’re moved to honor Him. We begin to grasp how He’s set apart from all His creation. The name of the Lord reminds us that He’s completely different from us. He’s altogether set apart. In other words, He’s holy.
[Psalm 96:1] This psalm offers us some keen insights into how to honor the Lord as holy when we pray. Applying each insight can render a noticeable difference in our prayer lives. Verse 1 prompts us to sit up and take notice of the Lord’s great name by praising Him. We are challenged to express the honor He deserves by singing to Him. God’s people sing a new song. It’s new in that it’s stirred by the fresh work He’s done in our lives. Our new song underscores His gracious ways among us and the incredible changes He has made in us. Along with His people, His creation—all the earth—has been directed to join in the new song of praise. The evidence of His remarkable work around the world and throughout the universe fuels our praise to Him.
[Verses 2-3] As we sing to the Lord, we’re directed to focus our complete attention solely on His wonderful name. When we fix our eyes on Him alone, the features of His perfect power, wisdom, and authority become sharper and clearer to us. When He comes into view in that way, we praise His name with renewed minds and sincere hearts. While we bless His name by singing to God, we also praise Him by talking openly and freely about Him. His salvation provides us with the words to our song and the content of our conversations. When we make His salvation through Christ a part of our daily discourse, we bless His name. Because God has saved us, glorifying Him always remains our primary passion. To glorify God implies that we cast the light on Him and call attention to the weight His name carries in our lives and in the world. When we declare His glory to others, we eagerly put the light on Him so they will turn to Him. We want to proclaim His name to every people group and every nation in the world.
II. God’s spender and majesty call us to honor Him.
Psalm 96:4-6
For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and glory are in His sanctuary.
How can thinking about the nature and character of God affect your praying and help you to pray with a God-focus?
Our lesson says that praising God can lift us out of feelings of discouragement.
· It doesn’t take many news shows, or stories of injustice to feel discouraged. Discouragement can lead to being overwhelmed by the problems surrounding us. But God has given us a way to remain hopeful despite the bad news everywhere. The path to a healthier soul is praise. Praising God not only honors Him, it lifts our spirits too. When we focus on the One who is greater than all, we gain the right perspective and we lose our discouragement.
Remember the prayer of our childhood: God is good, God is great.
· This is the point here; the Lord is superior to anything and anyone; there is none like Him and never will be. The Lord makes Himself known in splendor, power, strength, and glorious beauty that are unmatched and unparalleled.
Lastly, let’s look at how we are to respond to the greatness of God.
III. Honor God through our acts of worship.
Psalm 96:7-9
Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth.
What are you offering to God as your worship to Him, as a way of giving Him the glory due His name?
What does it mean to ascribe to the Lord?
· We “ascribe”—we give—to Him the glory and strength His name deserves.
· We can’t make His name any more glorious or powerful, but we openly acknowledge He is full of glory and strength. He is worthy of worship. He is draped in holy splendor.
· We respond to His greatness by humbling ourselves before Him. “Tremble before Him, all the earth.”
How can our prayers be offerings that honor God?
· An offering of praise.
· An offering of our possessions.
· An offering of our lives.
· An offering of our prayers.
We tend to start our prayers with our needs, our concerns, and ourselves. The model Jesus gave us begins with the request that God’s name be honored, but the prayer for God to be honored doesn’t end there; we are to honor God’s name with every single request we make after that!
Everything in our lives is to be an offering that honors the Lord.
[Verse 7] We honor the Lord by offering everything in our lives to Him. When we pray, honoring Him takes center stage. Ascribing involves placing the credit where it belongs. Thus, the psalmist instructed us to give God the credit for who He is and what He is doing in our lives and in our world. God’s people respond to His outstanding work by attributing the glory to Him for His achievement. We applaud Him by giving Him the credit He deserves. Of course, that’s what Jesus taught us as well. In His instruction on prayer, He showed us how to recognize God’s name as holy when we pray. For disciples, therefore, honoring His name as holy becomes our highest priority as we begin in our prayer time. Notice that the challenge to honor the Lord has been given to families instead of nations, tribes, or individuals. The picture painted by the term families brings to mind the unique relationships associated with being sons and daughters, fathers and mothers. We don’t come before His presence as individuals among a crowd of strangers who happen to be with us when we worship. We never want to engage in prayer with a selfish attitude that causes us to lose sight of others while we talk incessantly about our personal issues. Family members share life with each other. When we pray, we honor the Lord as spiritual siblings in Jesus Christ who value the intimate kinship we have with other believers.
[Verse 8] The psalmist repeated the challenge to give God the credit He deserves by glorifying His altogether peerless name. To honor the name of the Lord as holy, the psalmist instructed us to bring an offering to the Lord. Of course, God intends for us to offer something that honors His holy name. When we think about an acceptable offering, we find help in Romans 12:1-2. When we present ourselves as living sacrifices to God, we present Him the offering He deserves. When God’s people worshiped Him at the temple, they passed through the gate and then made their way into the temple courts. Entering His court served as an initial step in approaching Him in worship. For believers today, entering His court implies honoring His name as holy as we begin to pray.
[Verse 9] Like God’s people generations ago, we have been directed to keep the holy name of the Lord in mind when we pray. Accordingly, we present everything in our lives as a tribute of praise to His holy name. Even when we begin to talk with God about what we need, we do not lose sight of the honor that’s due His holy name. Honoring His name as holy has a way of refining the list of needs we bring to God in prayer. It also influences the way we see ourselves in His presence. Instead of treating God like He owes us something, we find ourselves trembling at the reality that we have come into the presence of Almighty God. At the same time, we enjoy the privilege of knowing God intimately as our Father.
LIVE IT OUT
In general, prayer is the act or practice of addressing God. People typically pray because they need something and believe God is able to intervene to provide for the need. The biblical perspective on prayer is much different. In prayer, we come into the presence of the Lord God of heaven and earth. We celebrate and honor Him for who He is. While we are invited to make our requests and petitions known to Him, they are not to be self-focused but God-honoring and God-centered. Our prayers are to be driven by a desire to honor Him, to bring to Him the glory He is due.
Psalm 9:10, "Those who know thy name put their trust in thee." The better we know the name of God, the more we will trust Him. And the more we trust Him, the more risks we will take for the sake of His glory. And the more risks we are willing to take for the sake of His glory, the bolder we will be in our witness, the less dependent we will be on material comforts, and the more readily we will volunteer for active duty on the frontier of life.
Conclusion: Here is the question regarding prayer. Is your concern in prayer how it makes you feel or how it might make God feel?
The real question is, does God even feel as though we’ve talked to Him?
When you keep that perspective, it will revolutionize your prayer life!
