After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
This verse opens what is commonly called the Lord's Prayer — a model for prayer that Jesus, a Jewish teacher whom Christians believe is the Son of God, gave his disciples when they asked him to teach them how to pray. The disciples had watched Jesus pray and wanted to understand his way of doing it. Before giving this prayer, Jesus warned against two pitfalls: praying loudly in public to appear spiritual, and filling prayer with empty repetition as if God is persuaded by word count. Then he offers this — brief, direct, and beginning not with any request but with who God is. 'Our Father in heaven' establishes a relationship that is intimate, familial, and shared with other believers. 'Hallowed be your name' is an older phrase meaning 'may your name be honored, held sacred, and treated as holy.' It places God's identity and worth before anything else is brought to him.
Our Father, before I bring you my list — help me remember who you are. You are holy, you are near, and you are good. May I come to you not just as someone who needs things, but as someone who loves you and wants your name to be known. Amen.
Most of us, if we are honest, arrive at prayer with a list. There are things to fix, people to worry about, problems that have not resolved even after years of asking. There is nothing wrong with bringing those things — Jesus gets to requests and forgiveness and daily needs a few verses later. But notice what he puts first: before the needs, before the 'give us,' before even asking for bread — he teaches us to stop and name who God is. *Our Father.* Not 'my Father' — ours, shared with every other stumbling believer. And then: *hallowed.* Holy. Set apart. Worth everything. It is as if before you say anything else, you need to remember what you are actually doing and who you are actually talking to. What would it do to your prayer life if you spent even sixty seconds at the start just sitting with who God is — not what you need from him, just *him*? Not because he requires flattery, but because you need the recalibration. Walking into prayer as though God is a vending machine is a fundamentally different experience than walking in as someone approaching their Father. The name you use shapes the prayer you pray. Try starting there today.
Jesus opens this model prayer with God's identity before any request — what does that order tell you about the purpose of prayer, and what it is meant to do in the person praying?
What does 'hallowed be your name' mean to you personally — and what would it look like in a practical sense to treat God's name as holy in your daily life?
The prayer begins with 'Our,' not 'My' — it is communal rather than private. What does the plural challenge about the way you typically approach God?
How does the way you actually think about God — as Father, as judge, as distant, as close, as reliable or unpredictable — shape what you bring to him and how you expect him to respond?
Try beginning your prayer with only this opening phrase for one week, before anything else. What shifts in you when you start with who God is rather than what you need?
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Revelation 4:11
But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
Isaiah 64:8
He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.
Psalms 111:9
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Isaiah 57:15
And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
Luke 11:1
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Romans 8:15
For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 1:11
And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
Ezekiel 36:23
"Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
AMP
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
ESV
'Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
NASB
“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
NIV
In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
NKJV
Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
NLT
With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are.
MSG