Pray for God’s Glory to Be Exalted

Pray for God’s Glory to Be Exalted

By Pastor John Dawson

In the Lord’s Prayer, we are instructed to call upon God, the Creator and Sustainer of the world as our Father. We can properly call God our Father because we are joined to the Son, Jesus Christ, by faith. And this is our family prayer that we pray together. Even when we pray this prayer alone we are conscious that we are praying this prayer together with the rest of the family. It does not begin, My Father, but Our Father. I try to keep this in mind when I am praying this prayer by myself. I am not alone in praying it. The whole family of God prays this prayer. Even if I cannot hear them, or they are not praying at the exact time I am praying, we are praying it together. It is a prayer of unity in the family. The unifying factor is Jesus Christ who taught it to us and through whom we have adoption into the family of God.

I pray the Lord’s Prayer often when I am lying in bed. I meditate on the prayer and try to learn how to pray it more earnestly. An early Christian manual (the Didache) instructed Christians to pray this prayer 3 times a day. It does say when these 3 times should be, but I find it instructive to see that the early church was in the habit of praying this prayer very often. This should help us realize the importance of regularly praying this prayer.

You are familiar with the words. You may be familiar with its structure. There are 6 petitions asked of the Heavenly Father. The first three have to do with God. And the second three deal with our needs. One clear lesson from this is to remember to balance our prayers generally. Do we not spend most of our time praying for the concerns of ourselves and our family? This is natural and we are told to cast all our cares upon the Lord because he cares for us. But as children of God, it is important to lift prayers expressing our faith in God and our worship of God.

The first petition is Hallowed be thy name. It goes by quickly and I tend not to give it as much thought as the others. Have you had experience? Just because it is short we dare not pass it by. It is the first petition for a reason. It calls for us to glorify God in all that we do. It calls for all things to glorify God in all they do. It calls on God to make everything work for his glory.

             Our catechism gives instruction on how to understand the first petition. 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: and that he would dispose all things to his own glory.

 First, we are asking that God would enable us to glorify him. God enables us by changing our desires. No longer are we to be only self-focused, but focus on someone outside of ourselves. We think it a breakthrough when we focus on other people. But this petition is even more pointed. We are to think about God, and the glory of God. We are to care about the glory of God. There is a meme that says men regularly think about the Roman Empire. What we should have our mind regularly drift to is God and his glory. We need to increase our desire to know and express the glory of God. One does not need a great talent to glorify God. The humblest creature can do it. What we pray for is for our focus and desire to increase the glory of God would grow.

            We pray also that other people would increase in their desire and focus to glorify God, that they would understand how important it is to worship God. God is over all. His glory is important to all. Creation will be better as God is glorified by everything.

            The last part is that God himself would direct everything to his own glory. Scripture tells us that God will work all things together for our good (Romans 8:28). We find this a great comfort. We love this because it affects us. It affects me. It affects you. But the first petition is bigger than that. We pray that God will direct all things to increase his glory. This is not just assurance that things will go well for me. It assures us all that all things are going as they should. God created all things for his glory. That is the purpose of all things, to glorify God. When we pray this prayer, we pray that all things will be well and every manner of thing be well. Indeed, all will be well as all things will fulfill their purpose for God’s glory. What a wonderful focus of our hearts when we pray.

            Think on these things when you pray the Lord’s prayer. You are not alone when you pray—we are all praying the prayer together. And your focus begins with the greatest thing in the world, God and his glory. Indeed God and his glory are greater than the world. May God increase your focus and desire in fulfilling your chief end, to glorify and enjoy him forever.

Pastor John.