Hallowed Be Your Name: Starting Prayer with Worship, Not Wants

I used to think I was a pretty good person. But it wasn’t until I hit a wall after our adoption, when I hit rock bottom, that I saw the truth. I didn’t pray much then, not because I didn’t believe in prayer, but because I was drowning in my own self-centeredness. I just wanted out of the pain. I wanted things fixed.

But God wasn’t in a hurry to fix my circumstances. He was after my heart.

It wasn’t until I came face-to-face with the depth of my own sin—not just the mess of my situation, but the pride and self-reliance that ran deeper—that I began to see the greatness of His holiness. My smallness of heart magnified His greatness by contrast. In that light, my heart—and my prayers—began to change as I learned what it meant to say, “Hallowed be Your name.”   

What Does It Mean to Hallow God’s Name?

When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He didn’t start with requests. He started with reverence: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” Before we ask for bread, forgiveness, or deliverance, we ask God to be magnified.

This is not about asking God to be more holy. It is about recalling who He already is and letting that frame the requests that follow. This first request orients us before the infinitely holy God who is high and lifted up. It protects us from asking with wrong motives so that we honor Him in the things we ask.

The amazing thing about Jesus’ approach is the juxtaposition of the holy God with personal Father. Because of Christ, we have been brought near to Him. As we remember His holiness, our needs do not change, but how we ask does. Instead of approaching him as a genie in a bottle, we humbly ask Him to transform our hearts to glorify Him even as we share what is on our hearts.

Lord, let Your name be honored in my heart, in my home, in my church, and in the world. Let everything in me glorify You.

The Heart That Hallows

This kind of prayer doesn’t come naturally to us because this is a prayer of submission. It’s not instinctive to begin with worship when we’re hurting, anxious, or overwhelmed. But that’s precisely why Jesus teaches us to begin here—because praise doesn’t flow out of a heart that’s full of self. It flows from a heart that has been humbled and made alive by grace.

In that difficult season after our adoption, I wasn’t in a posture of reverence—I was in a posture of resistance. I didn’t want God’s will. I wanted relief. And in doing so, I had unknowingly centered my prayers around myself. My comfort. My escape.

But God, in His mercy, brought me to the end of myself—not to shame me, but to show me something greater. When I saw the sinfulness of my self-reliance and the smallness of my view of God, I began to hallow His name. Not as a theory, but as a lifeline.

To hallow God’s name is to stop making ourselves the main character of our prayers. It’s to bow low and lift Him high. It’s to remember that prayer is first about who God is—not what we want.

Practicing Praise in Everyday Prayer

So how do we actually begin to hallow God’s name in the way we pray? If you’re like me, like a child, I am usually thinking about myself first, so it may feel like a rote step to go through. But training ourselves to pause first allows us to adjust the focus of our hearts. Here are some things that have helped me.

1. Start by settling your heart

Often, like a child who is always in action, it takes a moment to settle down. It’s not that we can’t pray while we’re in action. But I often find it hard to focus when I’m flitting around. It is in these moments that I like to take a walk or simply sit and take a few deep breaths until I’m ready.

2. Borrow from Scripture

The Psalms are a great way to help us reorient our hearts as well. Pick a psalm of praise, like Psalm 103, 145, or 148 and read it slowly, letting these truths fill your mind and your focus.

If a verse stands out, turn it into your own words: “Lord, You are gracious and compassionate—thank You that You have not dealt with me as my sins deserve.”

3. Use the Names and Attributes of God

Each name of God reveals something about His character. El Roi—the God who sees. El Shaddai—God Almighty. Jehovah Jireh—the Lord who provides. When I begin prayer with who God is instead of what I want, I find that my wants begin to reorder themselves.

Try this: Choose one name or attribute of God and dwell on it for a moment. Say it aloud. Thank Him for it. Praise Him for how you’ve seen that truth in your own life.

4. Let who God is impact how you ask.

As children of God, we are free to talk to the Lord about whatever is on our hearts. Hopefully, taking time to enter into His presence and remembering who He is will help us to shape how we ask for things. Our priorities begin to shift when we remember who He is.

I used to ask God to get me out of my hard situation at home. That request, however, centers on my will, not His. Though He could grant my request, it may lead to other troubles, and I may miss out on the greater and better things He wants to do through my sufferings.

Because I believe He is sovereign, good, and after my sanctification, I have changed how I pray when I feel tempted to ask God to remove my cup from me. I can be honest with Him, as a child would, but I also ask Him to help me endure. Forgive me for idolizing comfort. Reshape my attitude to become more like Christ. Enlighten my understanding to think differently. Restrain me from anger. Empower me to be patient.

These requests, unlike a request for a change in circumstances, will be answered because they are in line with who He is and His Word. If not right away, in His time.

5. Learn how to praise Him without asking.

Though it is completely acceptable to ask things of God, I want to also learn how to praise God—and then stop short of asking. That’s hard to do.

This is the prayer of a child who just loves being with her Father, not always wanting things from Him. It is simply words of gratitude and thanksgiving for what He has done for me, woven in with words of praise that delight in who He is by nature.

Often, I am the center of my own world. But as I grow in faith, I want to slowly shrink and learn to see Him as He is, in all His greatness and glory.

We are to pray freely about what we need. But I want to end learn how to not just make my requests and jet out of there. I want to pray that ultimately, His name will be glorified in the way He answers those prayers. And I thank Him in advance, regardless of how He responds.

Let’s Pray

Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.

You are holy, high, and lifted up.

You are good in all Your ways, and faithful in all Your works.

Forgive me for making prayer about me—my needs, my comfort, my desires.

May You be glorified as I recognize my smallness before You.

Teach me how to pray about my sufferings and sins.

I want your glory more than my own comfort.

Let Your name be hallowed in my thoughts, my words, and my life.

For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.