Search for God With Your HEART AND MIND - Understanding the Lord's Prayer

Understanding the Lord's Prayer

To See the difference between having an accurate knowledge of the Bible and having a passing acquaintance with what it says, let us consider what is commonly called the Our Father, or the Lord's Prayer, recorded at Matthew 6:9-13.

Millions regularly recite Jesus' model prayer in church.  But how many have been taught its meaning, especially the first part of the prayer dealing with God's name and Kingdom?  These subjects are so important that Jesus placed them firs in the prayer.

It begins: "Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified," meaning hallowed, or made holy.  Note that Jesus said to pray for God's name to be sanctified.  To many people, that raises at least two questions.  First, what is God's name?  And second, why does it need to be sanctified?

The answer to the first question can be found in over 7,000 places in the Bible in original languages.  One is at Psalm 83:18: "That people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, you alone are the Most High over all the earth."  Concerning the divine name, Jehovah, Exodus 3;15 says:  "This is my name to time indefinite, and this is the memorial of me to generation after generation." But why does the name of God, which is the very epitome of purity and holiness, need to be sanctified?  Because it has been reproached and maligned from the very beginning of human history. 

In Eden, God told Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate the forbidden fruit.  *(Genesis 2:L17) Satan brazenly contradicted God, saying to Eve:  "You positively will not die."  Hence, Satan accused God of lying.  Yet, he did not rest there.  He heaped still more reproach on God's name,telling Eve that God was unjustly withholding valuable knowledge from her.  "For God knows that in the very day of your eating from [the tree of the knowledge of good and bad] your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad."  What slander! - Genesis 3:4, 5.

By partaking of the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve took their stand with Satan.  Most humans since then, knowingly or  not, have added to that reproach by rejecting God's righteous standards.  (1 John 5:19) People still malign God by blaming him for their suffering-even though it may be due to their own bad ways.  "A man's own folly wrecks his life, and then he bears a grudge against the Lord," says Proverbs 19:3.  (The New English Bible) Can you see why Jesus, who truly loved his Father,prayed that His name be sanctified?

Next time: Search for God With Your HEART AND MIND -  "Let Your Kingdom Come"

The Watchtower, 2002