Prayer continued

Matthew 6:9 "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

Jesus is teaching us to pray. He starts with an acknowledgment of the authority of God the Father.

Then He says "Hallowed be Your Name". Hallowed is an interesting word. In the Greek it is the word "hagiazo". On seven other occasions in the New Testament, the word "hagiazo" is translated "sanctify" in English versions of the bible (John 17:17, John 17:19, Ephesians 5:26, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Hebrews 9:13, Hebrews 13:12, & 1 Peter 3:15). I point this out because it gives us some insight as to the meaning of the word "Hallowed", not exactly a common word in English. "Hagiazo" means to "set apart". It is closely related to the word "hagios" which is the Greek word for holy. So when Jesus says, "Hallowed be Your name", He is saying holy, sacred, set apart be Your name Father God. Jesus is saying, may your name be honored above all other names. It is praise of the highest order.

When we pray, Jesus is teaching us that our prayers should not consist solely of the things that we want God to do for us. We are told in scripture to ask for things from God, and we will talk more about that later. But it is notable that before Jesus asks anything from God the Father, He first spends time praising Him in prayer. Do you do that? Do you ever have time in your prayer life where you are not asking anything from God but just simply are praising Him? You should.

Sometimes we treat God like He is our "Genie in a bottle" or our "Heavenly bell-hop". We come to Him with the list of things we want Him to do to make things better in the universe, without ever spending any time adoring and praising Him.

May I tell you from personal experience, that if you spend time praising God in your prayer life, when it does come time to ask for something from God..... it will change what you ask for, and it will change how you ask for it.