Hallowed Be Thy Name: Spiritual Warriors Prayer, Part 1
We're starting a seven-week study on the Lord's Prayer, or as Pastor Ricky Jacob likes to call it: the Spiritual Warriors Prayer.
Listen to the devotion:
There once was a young girl who found herself miles from home, away from her family, friends, and classmates. She had been carried off in a raid of her village by a warrior, whose wife she now served as a slave. In spite of her predicament, this young girl still feared God and honored His holy Name!
We might wonder how in the world could this be? Often times we find ourselves questioning God ~ why did this or that happen? Why me? Why now? What did I do to deserve such abuse or neglect?
And yet this young slave girl had compassion on Naaman, the one who robbed her of so much from her life! When she saw that Naaman had a skin disease her heart went out to him. She is moved to speak up: “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” (2 Kings 5:3)
What this slave girl did was to honor or hallow God’s Name. This is the first petition in a prayer that I like to call the Spiritual Warrior’s Prayer: Hallowed be Thy name.
God’s name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be kept holy among us also. God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven!
But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us.
Protect us from this, heavenly Father!
At the end of this story, Naaman honors the slave girl’s God with these words: “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.” (2 Kings 5:15b) You may often question ‘why?’ However, you would truly be blessed to pray ‘Hallowed be Thy Name’ and then trust in God with a faith that teaches and lives according to the Sacred Word of God.
There is one more spiritual warrior that needs to complete our meditation today. This spiritual warrior was the only one who honored God’s Name so completely as to redeem all mankind through His ultimate sacrifice. Who is this spiritual warrior? None other than Jesus ~ God’s only begotten Son.