Lords Prayer
To consecrate, to make holy, sanctify, hallow, treat as holy. Describes the divine act of setting aside as sacred
Jesus teaches disciples to pray that God’s name should be hallowed (hagiazō; Matt 6:9)—i.e., held in reverence and honored.
both referring to the reality of God’s rule over all creation. The “kingdom of God” is the central theme of the gospel message (Mark 1:15). The kingdom of God is proclaimed (Luke 16:16); it “comes upon” people (Luke 11:20) and comes “near” (Luke 21:31); it involves not mere “talk,” but rather “power” (1 Cor 4:20). The kingdom of God can be given to people by God, but it can also be taken away by God (Matt 21:43). God’s sovereign kingdom is demonstrated as demons are cast out (Matt 12:28) and as the sick are healed (Luke 10:9). The kingdom belongs to those who have submitted to the rule of God, recognizing their spiritual poverty (Matt 5:3) and suffering persecution (Matt 5:10). The mystery of the kingdom is extensively discussed in Matt 13, where Jesus speaks of God’s rule as something that is good, expanding, treasured, and all encompassing.
θέλημα (thelēma). n. neut. will, desire. Refers to a person’s desired purpose or outcome
The verb aphiēmi and its various forms mean to leave (or to let go)
temptation, enticement to sin. Describes a trial or temptation, as well as the act of testing God.
is that Jesus intended it to be a pattern for the servant of his kingdom, just as he intended much of his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. It is not a magical formula.
The pattern of meaningful prayer is to begin by majoring on the person and nature of God and his kingdom interests, coming to personal requests and needs only secondarily.
The words Father and heaven together demonstrate the loving closeness and awesome transcendence of God to his child.
Why should we pray to God that he would sanctify his own name? Probably as a reminder to ourselves to live a life that advertises a holy God. Also, this kind of greeting was a form of blessing on the one addressed.
. We must come before God with an attitude of reverence for God’s perfection (in contrast to our imperfection), his wisdom (in contrast to our foolishness), his power (in contrast to our impotence), and his love (in contrast to our selfishness). God’s holiness is everything that sets him apart from us and all the rest of his creation. Addressing such a being should never be done casually or flippantly.
Our prayers are to be continual reminders to ourselves to “get with” the kingdom program. Sadly, too many believers live for the weekends and not for Christ’s kingdom.
Compare this with the lesson Israel had to learn during forty years of daily manna; any excess spoiled by the second day. They were always just one day away from starvation, and yet they ate well during all those decades.
The context is the relationship of a child to a father. This is “family forgiveness,” not forensic or judicial forgiveness. Jesus is not saying that our forgiving is a necessary means to earning God’s forgiveness. The Bible makes it clear that there is nothing we can do to merit God’s judicial forgiveness, but that it is given freely
When we fail to forgive, we reap the consequences of spiritual and moral defeat.
Receiving God’s forgiveness motivates forgiveness toward others.
Forgiveness is required to deal with guilt already incurred. Deliverance from temptation and evil is required to prevent our incurring future guilt
The kingdom servant’s petition for both forgiveness and deliverance is a prayer dealing with the power of sin (1 John 1:7–9); both look forward to the day when we will escape the presence of sin.
Prayer is not for the purpose of informing God. Rather, prayer expresses to him (and to ourselves) the fact of our impotence to meet our own needs. Biblical prayer is an act of faith, an expression of dependence on God. Meaningless repetition signifies dependence on oneself to manipulate or badger God into compliance.
We are not to be so taken up with ourselves that we rush into God’s presence and give him a shopping list of our needs. His name is to be hallowed: that is to say, we long for his name, or character, to have top place in the world and in people’s hearts. ‘Lord, may we make you our Number One.
