Summer Camp 2021 Monday Morning

Intro

The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition The Shorter Catechism

Q. 101. What do we pray for in the first petition?

A. In the first petition (which is, Hallowed be thy name) we pray, That God would enable us and others to glorify him in all that whereby he maketh himself known;y and that he would dispose all things to his own glory.

Psalm 67:1–3 ESV

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!

Revelation 4:11 ESV

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Before we get started-

What do you guys think of prayer?

What is it?

Why do it?

What types of things should we pray for?

Lets look at our first petition- Hallowed be thy name

Refocusing our Prayer

There is something immediately interesting about the first petition Jesus teaches us to pray: it’s not for ourselves. In fact, the entire first half of the Lord’s prayer doesn’t ask anything for ourselves.

Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke Matthew 6:9–13; Luke 11:1–4

in the first three petitions we ought to lose sight of ourselves, and seek the glory of God: not that it is separated from our salvation, but that the majesty of God ought to be greatly preferred by us to every other object of solicitude.

What is Calvin saying there?

Prayer is first and foremost a tool for us to see God glorified

God’s glory is not disconnected from our own salvation or wellbeing, but our salvation and wellbeing serve to glorify God

There are two basic pieces of this catechism response, so lets handle them one at a time.

That God would enable us and others to glorify him in all that whereby he maketh himself known.

Here the catechism makes it pretty clear that although we don’t have ourselves as the main beneficiaries of this prayer, we are still asking for something here.

We are asking that we will be enabled to glorify God; and not just ourselves, but others also.

The verse itself in Scripture asks that God’s name would be hallowed, but the catechism puts its own wording to it

What do we mean by hallowed? made holy, literally sanctified

Sanctified? That seems to pose more questions than it answers. What does it mean for a name to be made holy or sanctified, much less the name of God? What does it mean to glorify God?

Back to the very first catechism question - our primary purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy him.

How do we glorify God?

This gets into that other bit that is not at all in modern English-

in all that whereby he maketh himself known.

Scripture simply says “his name.”

First of all, what is a name? A: in ancient culture, it is how you know someone. It is an identity, not just a title.

in fact, this is so ingrained in culture that the original word for name can also mean reputation

our prayer is that God would be glorified in everything that he has revealed himself through, that his reputation would be spotless.

How has God revealed himself, or how do we know his reputation, his name?

Jesus Christ

The Scriptures

His Acts in the World (culminating in Jesus)

Here is where we go back to Calvin’s comment, because its important that we recognize that God receives glory because of his work in the world and in our lives. Even though our own wellbeing isn’t the main thrust of this petition, the fact that God has blessed us shows the world that he is good and his name (or reputation) is glorious.

Psalm 67:1–3 ESV

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!

The Psalmist asks for gracious blessing, but even here it isn’t a selfish ask. The blessing of God serves the purpose of showing the world how great he is.

So, how can God be glorified?

Through his word

Through our experience of him

Because these are ways in which he has revealed himself to us and to the world, these are the ways in which his glory shines into our world.

So we are asking that God would enable us to glorify him through sharing these things with others.

But thats not it, “and that he would dispose all things to his glory.”

simply, that he would work everything together to glorify himself

Here we are asking for God to be glorified, but in a different way. Here we are asking similar to John in Revelation or Paul in Romans

Revelation 4:11 ESV

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Romans 8:28 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

These verses recognize something similar here: the sovereignty of God. We know that God is sovereign and in control of all things, so in this prayer we also ask that he would work everything together so that his glory would shine most into the world for all to see.

Here we are praying

that God would enable us to display him to the world as he truly is, so that everyone will only ever speak or think of him with the utmost respect

That God would himself work together everything so that people would see him for who he is, and would worship him as such.