The Lord’s Prayer (3) – Thy name be sanctified

Let’s continue on. The second point in this prayer is, “Let Your name be sanctified.” I know some translations have, “Let Your name be hallowed” or, “Hallowed be Thy name.” I like the word, “sanctified”. Or if I could take the liberty to translate it a little differently I would say, “Let Your name be lifted up in the earth.” When I think of that phrase it reminds me of the other places in Scripture like the psalms. Psalm 8:1 says, “Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth.” It’s interesting that the psalmist would say that. Most of the psalms were written by David and he kind of goes up and down, up and down. If you read his psalms you will see sometimes he is depressed and other times he is up in the heavens. He kind of has these mood swings—up and down—kind of like you and I have. Sometimes we really feel good and sometimes we don’t feel good. Well, in Psalm 8:1, he is up. So here is something related to the Lord’s prayer where he says, “Your name is excellent in all the earth”, it is similar to, “Let Your name be sanctified” in the Lord’s prayer.

Now one other place in the Bible related to this is in Philippians, “And being found in fashion as a man”, that is speaking about Jesus Christ, “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the cross, even to death on a cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him a name, or the name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” This is a statement about how Jesus went through death and resurrection, and then He was exalted. When He was exalted He was given a name. Listen—everything else has to come under that name. That means things in the heavens, things on the earth, and things under the earth.

Okay, this is related to the name of Jesus. We realize, today, that just about everything has a name. Trees have a name, citifies have a name, lakes have a countries have a name. You and I have a name. Our cars have a name. The street we live on has a name. But according to this verse, the name of Jesus is higher than any other name on the earth. This is a very good way to pray, because when things come along to trouble us, distressful things and things that are out of line with the will of God, we can pray this way. We can say, “God, in the name of Jesus, we claim that all other things have to bow under, or come under the name of Jesus.” They have to come under the name of Jesus. Why? Because that name is a lifted up name. That is the highest name in the universe. In one of the first television programs I said that when Jesus passed through death and resurrection, He attained to highest management position in all the universe. In other words, He is Lord of lords. He is King of kings. In the book of Philippians it says that at the name of Jesus, the highest, most powerful and exalted name—everything else in the universe, especially on the earth, has to come under the name of Jesus.