What We Really Want

Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”

Seasons of clarity are a gift to us. Seasons of renewed focus on what life, and our lives, are truly about. Too often we live our days in a fog — distracted by all that we want, to the neglect of what God most wants. 

But blessed seasons of clarity, when they come, re-fix our eyes upon what really matters and what really ought to be the center of all our desires, intentions, and efforts — the hallowing, praising, of God’s great name. 

This is why God made a world. This is why God made people. And this is what God, right now, even now, is working all things toward: The worldwide celebration of his name. 

Even now, the heavenly chorus sings:

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty.”

Someday too, the eternal song will ring out from the lips of forgiven sinners from every tribe, nation, and tongue:

“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Yes, it is this — the hallowing, praising of God’s great name — that life, and our lives, are truly about. And so it is this that we now pray toward. 

Prayer of Confession

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Hallowed be your name along Summit Avenue and Grand Avenue. Hallowed be your name from St. Paul to Minneapolis. Hallowed be your name throughout Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Indeed, just as the waters cover the sea, would the knowledge of your glory fill our entire world. 

And Father, in this season in the life of our church — may the name be increasingly hallowed in our hearts. In our minds. In our thoughts. And in our actions. We confess, Lord, that we often fail to hunger for your glory in the world. Fail to live so as to spread your glory in the world. And so it’s with this sin and others like it that we come before you now in this moment of silent confession…