An elderly woman had just returned to her home from an evening of church services when she was startled by an intruder. She caught the man in the act of robbing her home of its valuables and yelled, “Stop! (“In the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven“) The burglar stopped in his tracks. The woman calmly called the police and explained what she had done. As the officer cuffed the man to take him in, he asked the burglar, “Why did you just stand there? All the old lady did was yell a scripture to you.”

When we pray to "our Father", we are not thinking of God simply as the Father of the whole human race. On the lips of Jesus, "Father" always speaks of the intimately personal relationship that was especially his. His prayer in the garden of Gethsemane was addressed to "Abba, Father" (Mark 14.36). The Aramaic word, Abba, is a personal, family word for father - similar to our word, "Daddy".

It is by faith in Christ that we are spiritually reborn and become members of God's family in a personal and vital way. So we find Paul writing, "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father' " (Galatians 4.6; compare Romans 8.15).

Prayer is for practice. It is meant to be a basic part of life, a way of life.

What's in a name?

Years ago, so the story goes, a census-collector was going from house to house. At one house he asked the lady, "How many people are living here?" She started saying, "Well, there's Jimmy and Betty and Mary and Tommy..." But the census-collector interrupted, "Look, lady, I'm not interested in names, I just want the numbers." To which she replied, "I'm sorry, sir, but they don't have numbers, just names!"

These days we can feel ourselves defined by a whole series of numbers - tax file number, social security number, bank account numbers, passwords… Sometimes we are worried about all that "the system" knows about us. But it doesn't know "us". Those who know us, know us by name.

In Bible times. Then a name was always more than just a convenient label. The name might be given because of the circumstances surrounding a child's birth, because of a promise relating to a child's future. It was often seen to reveal the character of the person who bore it.

This is one of the reasons why the Name of God are so important in the Old Testament. As one writer put it, "Each has a fresh and a fuller revelation of the nature of God. One has a revelation of his mighty, another was the unveiling of his wisdom, another of his holiness, another of his glory. In the New Testament God's name means his nature as revealed in Jesus Christ - what God is in himself, his being and attributes, as disclosed in Jesus Christ, and now known and confessed by the Church."

In this petition, then, the Name refers to far more than the use of a Name-word. Rather, it speaks of God as he has made himself known to us - especially here as "Father".

Jehovah Nessi- THE LORD MY BANNER (Exodus 17:15)
Jehovah Rophe -THE LORD WHO HEALS (Exodus 15:26)
Jehovah Jireh- THE LORD WHO PROVIDES (Genesis 22:14)
Jehovah Tzadekenu –THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Jeremiah 33:16)
Jehovah Shalom – THE LORD OF PEACE (THE LORD WHO IS PEACE) (Judges 6:24)
Jehovah Rohi –THE LORD, MY SHEPHERD (Psalm 23:1)
Jehovah Shammah –THE LORD WHO CARES FOR US (servant) (Ezekiel 48:35)

Hallowed...
What does it mean to "hallow" God's name? To "hallow" something is to honour it as holy. So what does this petition really mean? The Jews believed that the Name-word of God - Jehovah, probably originally pronounced "Yahweh" - was too sacred to say. They were afraid of "taking the Name in vain", as the third commandment put it (Exodus 20.7). So whenever they came to it in the Old Testament Bible, they said "Adonai" instead (translated as "LORD" in four capitals in most English versions).

What Jesus means? Is he suggesting that God has a Name so holy that we had better not use it at all? Of course not! Remember that the Name is not just a label. It's the revelation of the Person. God has revealed himself to us. We can and must approach him in the light of his revelation of himself.

And by faith we have been born into his family. My children don't call me "Mr Inso" but "Dad". This is why Jesus taught us to call God "Abba Father".

Hallowing the Name
The first and foremost reference is not to our use (or abuse) of words, but to our relationship to the Person. God has brought us into his family, and we call him Father.

Of course, we still need to come with humility, reverence and awe - not with the slap-happy attitude of some modern children to their parents!

Hallowing God's name is more than what we do in prayer and worship. Essentially, we are to hallow God's name in our daily living, as our Father's character and purpose are expressed in our lives.

Spend some time thinking about God's Name. Who is he? How has he revealed himself to us? What is our relationship to him? Do we have confidence to call him "heavenly Father"?

In Hebrews 10.19 we read, "Therefore, my brothers, … we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus." For the Jews there was a great big heavy curtain separating the people from the holiest place in the Temple. It was split from top to bottom when Jesus died (see Matthew 27.51). Our whole relationship with God the Father is changed because of the work of God the Son.

But what about daily life? That is where we must hallow his Name. We cannot do that without the enabling of God the Holy Spirit. By faith in Christ we bear the family name. What does our life say about the Father? To what extent is his character - his Name - revealed in us?

May the Spirit enable us, not just in our praying and praising and worship, but in all of our lives to express that petition, "Hallowed be Your Name Abba Father. Amen.