Humble in the Presence of the Holy

“When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.’”—Luke 11:2

The first step in approaching God is to recognize who He is. He is Father and He is holy. Holy is a term that has lost its luster and potency in our Wikipedia world where everybody has access to everything. Holy means separate, consecrated, or set apart for a specific purpose. In other words, He’s completely separate and distinct from us. We can’t get to Him. He dwells in an unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16) so bright that by it we can see light itself (Psalm 36:9). We can’t get to Him for He is holy, set apart, and wholly distinct from us. The prophet Isaiah was awed when brought into God’s presence. He wrote,  

“I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!’”—Isaiah 6:1-3.

Even the angels couldn’t look upon God! He was and is too holy! How much less are we? We cannot approach Him apart from Christ. We could not gaze upon Him, for it would be too beautiful for our eyes to digest. Our minds could not fathom His brilliance. When Moses was confronted with God’s holiness, he was commanded to remove his shoes. God is so holy that every other law is suspended in His presence.

In Exodus 33 Moses asked to see God’s glory. God allowed Moses’ request and agreed to let all of His goodness pass by him with a proclamation of His holy name, the LORD, being spoken as God passed by. But Moses was not allowed to witness God in all of His glory. He was hidden in the cleft of the rock with God’s hand covering him. As God passed by, God took His hand away so as to allow Moses to see only His back, because no one could see God’s face and live, so holy is He.

It’s only in His mercy that He makes Himself known. And it’s only through Christ that we have any merit to approach Him. So we do approach Him, but we approach Him knowing that He is who He is and far beyond our understanding or our ability to comprehend; therefore we consider His name to be “hallowed.” That’s what Jesus meant when He used the term “Father, hallowed be Your name…” Jesus was teaching us to revere God and recognize Him in all of His glory, grandeur, goodness and…holiness. We come humbly as the tax collector did in Luke 18, who wouldn’t come near to God nor even look up to heaven. He stood at a distance beating his chest saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”—Luke 18:13.

May God be merciful to us! Let us never lose sight of who He is. He is the thrice-Holy one in whose presence angels cannot look, but He is also the one who delights in us because of His Son. As we pray, may we approach God in humility but with confidence (Hebrews 4:16), knowing that He does answer prayer. So let us pray, asking Him to work His will in our lives for His glory. Amen.