Now that the formalities are out of the way we can get to the meat and potatoes. The rest of the Lord's prayer is made up of 8 petitions divided into “thy” and “us” categories. First comes the “thy” stuff which focuses on God.
Sooooooo... who knows what hallowed means? There's gotta be at least one brainiac out there with the answer, but for the rest of us: hal·low (verb) to make holy or sacred, to sanctify or consecrate, to venerate. This line translates to “Holy is your name,” right? Hold up. Remember this isn't a statement. This is a petition. Old school grammar has messed up your sentence structure. “Name” is the noun and “hallowed” is the verb so the switcheroo gives us, “your name be made holy.” And who makes God's name holy? Not you. He does. Well that seems like an odd prayer. “Hey, God, keep it up with that whole holy thing.” Remember a while back when I talked about a name representing the person (John 17:11)? This line is really asking for God to reveal his holy nature to us.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy. God, just pop down here for a moment and show us some of that holiness. Why doesn't he do that? Because your head would explode from his sheer awesomeness. (Don't believe me? Check out Exodus 33:20.) As a result, God indirectly reveals himself to us in at least 3 ways.
(1) The most obvious reveal is the complexity and beauty of creation. Devil's advocate says: Statistically speaking, the microscopic probability of a planet being created in perfect positioning to facilitate life is outweighed by the vastness of the universe thus making this unlikely planet, in fact, probable. Without going into too much counter-counter-argument, all theories of the origin of our planet are based on faith. I just depends if you believe this is all a sweet coincidence or a divine plan.
(2) We see God in other people. The Bible is a biography on God written by the people seeking him. But it's not just through old stories. We see God in everyday actions. Do I want to go out of my way to be nice to you? Straight up N-O. I'd rather be over here fixing my own problems thank you very much. It's God's love in me that fuels my desire to help others.
(3) On very rare occasions, God does show up. Not head-popping type show up, but you can clearly hear his voice or feel his presence. Now I mean way beyond answered prayers or stuff often classified as “the Holy Spirit moving.” I'm talking straight up, “Who just said that? Cuz it weren't me.” It's like with little Sammy in Samuel 3. In my entire life I've experienced the clarity of a drive-by holy on two occasions.
We're not praying for knowledge of God just to be smarter. You're “acquiring satellites” to align your spiritual GPS.
If you can properly use the word “hallowed” in a sentence:
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