Prayer as Worship
The last few years have been tough. I don’t need to give examples. Everyone here knows the trials, suffering, pain, and loss you have experienced. You know the challenges you have faced. You know the range of emotions you have gone through, from moments of joy to sadness, anger, fear, anxiety, and frustration. We don’t know what the new year holds. As you face this year, are you excited, full of expectations and hope? Are you afraid, anxious, and worried? Know this, the Lord our God is in control. He has brought us through these last few years, and no matter what the new year brings, He is still in control. He is faithful. He will be with us.
Therefore, it is appropriate that we begin this year again with 40 Days of Prayer. The aim is to fix our eyes on Jesus; remember who He is, what He has done, and what He has called us to do. There is power in prayer and in praying together. Prayer is the primary work of God’s people. So, let us make an intentional effort this year to make prayer our primary work, not just during the 40 Days of Prayer but every day throughout the year. Let us see these 40 Days as a time of training and practice. This year’s prayer emphasis focuses on the Lord’s Prayer, and today we begin with the first prayer, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name.
1. Our Father — Prayer Is a Testimony to God’s Authority
When we pray “our Father” our prayer is a testimony to God’s power and authority. We acknowledge his place in the world and in our lives. We recognize that God is the One who created the universe, “who made the world and everything in it. He is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands … in him we live and move and have our being … We are his offspring” (Acts 17:24,28).
As our father, He is not like earthly, human fathers. His fatherhood is radically different than any fatherhood we know on earth. God announced himself as the Father of his people and called Israel his son. “Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me” (Ex 4:22-23).
In Jesus Christ, God revealed himself as our personal, loving, and powerful Father. God is called Father because we have come to know Jesus as the Son. “All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Mt 11:27). In Jesus we “receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir” (Gal 4:5-7). Again in Romans Paul says, “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ …” (Ro 8:15-17).
So, when we pray, “Our Father,” we are not only saying that God created us but also declaring that, in Jesus Christ, God has saved us. We know God and know Him as Father only because He has been revealed to us by Jesus Christ. From our knowledge of God as Father, we know also that He is our Creator, the Lord of the universe. There is no other like Him. He is the only true, living God. He is the only One who is capable of hearing and answering our prayers. Therefore, we approach God’s throne with confidence and hope, the hope of the eternal inheritance we will receive as children of God.
We pray “Our Father” not “my Father” because we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all children of God, members of the body of Christ. We pray together. We pray for one another. We pray with the global church, and with all God’s children around the world. We follow God’s example as his dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loves us and gave himself up for us (Eph. 5:1-2). Because we love God, we love one another, even our enemies, and we pray for others, even for our enemies. “Our Father” calls us upward, to love and worship God, and our love for God finds its outward expression in our self-giving, sacrificial love, and service to others.
2. In Heaven — Prayer Is a Testimony to God’s Sovereignty
When we pray, our Father who is in heaven, our prayers are a testimony to God’s sovereignty. He is the Creator of all. He has no beginning and no end. He has always existed and will exist forever. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, and sovereign over all the earth. He is radically different. He is not limited or bound by time and space. He is our Father and our King who rules the whole cosmos.
Here is a warning against the contemporary domestication of God. Too many people today try to create God in their own image. They try to put God in a box, a god that will meet their expectations, and serve their needs. But this God who is in heaven doesn't live here in our country and is not housed within our sanctuaries. God the Father rules from heaven. He is the God who moves the sun and the stars. Our fates and lives are not determined by the stars or luck. He holds our lives, He holds all, in his hands. His sovereign rule controls and oversees our lives. And because He is the sovereign Lord, the one true God, He is the only One able to answer our prayers. Because He is our Father in heaven, we can boldly pray for such extraordinary gifts as bread for the world, the end of poverty and injustice, for peace among the nations, healed marriages, cured cancer, and rain in the midst of a drought. We are confident and bold to pray for such gifts because we pray to our Father in heaven, the One who rules as sovereign Lord of the universe and who holds it all in his hand.
Within His infinite power lies His infinite love for us. This love is so great that He sent His only begotten Son to die for our salvation. Jesus restored our fellowship with God the Father, and now we pray to this loving God. We trust that because He loves us, He also hears us. He cares about every detail of our lives. He desires an intimate, personal relationship with us. Because God the Father and the Son reign forever in heaven above and on earth beneath, because the Lord reigns in our lives, we live our lives under the providence of a loving, faithful, active God. God the Father has a watchful eye. He feeds the birds of the air. He clothes the flowers and grass of the field with splendor (Mt 6:26-30). God also has an open hand. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Mt 7:7-8). Our Father rules in heaven, but He also reigns and lives in our hearts and lives.
3. Hallowed Be Your Name — To Pray Is To Worship
“Hallowed be your Name.” What Name? It is the Name God gave to Moses. God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ … This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation” (Ex 3:13-15). This is the Name that God gave to Jesus, “the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:9-11). The Holy Trinity is the one, true, living God. He is the great I AM. His Name means I exist. His Name signifies God’s sheer transcendence. He is like no other, and there is no one like Him. “Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Ex 15:11) But his Name also speaks of his immanence. He is near and available to those who call out to Him. Those who seek Him will find Him. God is God, with or without us.
Hallowed be your Name — The word hallow means to make holy, to sanctify, set apart, or honor. When we pray let your Name be made holy it does not imply that God’s Name is not holy. His Name is already holy, regardless of whether we acknowledge it or not. This is a petition that his Name may be treated as holy by all human beings. We are asking for something that already exists eternally, fully, and completely. We can neither increase or diminish his holiness. This God, who knows the beginning and end of all creation, radiates holiness. He is matchless in perfection. He is able to do abundantly more than we can imagine. His holiness surrounds us daily. His holy mercy greets us in the morning. His holy providence guides us as we work, study, and do our daily tasks. His holy love pierces through our fears as we lay down to sleep.
How do we, as God’s children hallow, make holy, his Name in our lives? As his children, we have been sanctified, made holy in Christ. We sanctify his Name by living holy, kingdom lives. With this prayer, we ask that God be glorified by our lives and that He makes us live in such a way that all we say and do may glorify his Name. In praying the Lord’s prayer we have been sanctified, set apart, and made holy by God. He commissions us to live our lives in such a way that our lives will show, will proclaim to all the world that the holy God reigns. Have you noticed how the Lord’s Prayer has the same vertical and horizontal dimensions as the Ten Commandments and the Great Commandment of Love? The first part is upward, directed at God, loving and worshipping God. The second part is directed horizontally at our neighbors. We hallow God’s Name when we love Him with our whole being. We hallow his Name when we love our fellow human beings as we love ourselves. The fitting response to the holiness of God is our making holy God's name in all that we do and say, in loving God and others. And as we adore and glorify the holy God in worship, we are in turn sanctified, made holy in everyday life. As we praise God, we are transformed into God's image.
Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your Name — With this prayer we focus and set our minds on God. We put Him first. We give first priority to God’s glory, God’s concerns, God’s will, and God’s kingdom. Our needs take second place. We deny ourselves, and become self-forgetful. Thus, prayer is an act of worship. Prayer is our invitation to have fellowship with God Himself. It begins with praise. We honor His name and His power. Our spoken words to a loving heavenly Father are a testimony to His authority and divinity. We worship our Father when we acknowledge His rightful place as Lord of the universe and as Lord of our lives. We express our faith, confidence, and trust in a sovereign God when we make our requests known. And we know that He will answer our prayers according to his will, according to what will serve his glory the best. To pray is to worship.
As we enter this year let us make an intentional and concerted effort, all of us, as brothers and sisters in Christ, as God’s children, to make prayer our primary work. Let us step into this prayer experience with the anticipation that we will encounter the living God and we will fix our eyes upon Him. Let’s pray with faith-filled expectancy that the Spirit of God will do great things in, among, and through us to the glory of Jesus Christ. “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you” (Jer 29:12).