What Does the Bible Say About Prayer?

His Name is Holy

The next portion of the prayer also found in Matthew 6:9 is “hallowed be thy name.” Hallowed means holy. We are acknowledging that God’s name is holy (Psalms 33:21; Psalms 103:1; Acts 4:30; Revelation 15:4) as is God Holy (Leviticus 20:7; 1 Peter 1:15-16). By referring to God as Holy, we are acknowledging His purity in righteousness, goodness, and authority over and above all things.

Matthew 6:1-4, Matthew 6:5-8, and Matthew 6:16-18 give us three areas of consideration to keep in mind as we “hallow” God’s name. The first is in the area of the giving of our time, talents, and tokens (alms) to the work of the Lord as found in Matthew 6:1-4.

(Matthew 6:1-4 KJV) “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. (2) Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. (3) But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: (4) That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.”

We are taught in this passage that our giving should not be done so that it draws attention to ourselves. It should be done in secret so that even each of our two hands do not know what the other hand is doing. Too often, many people who profess to be Christians find ways of letting people know about their big donations or the work they are doing for charity. They might even insist that the money used to buy or build something has a plaque with their name on it or whatever the money is used for is named after them. They do this not because they are motivated out of love for God and their neighbor, but out of pride, hoping that others see their generosity and think well of them. Hiding our “alms” so that only God sees them is showing God that we want to give Him the glory, not ourselves.