#1) Incentive to pray = See God Fellowship with God

An insatiable appetite for fellowship with God in prayer is birthed and sustained by beholding God's communion with God. As we behold God's joyous exuberance in Himself, the Spirit within the believer will entice us to join in His God-centered delight.

True salvation is God opening to you the gospel door of everlasting fellowship with God. The Christian wants nothing more (Psalm 73:25-28). Prayer, for this reason, is a choice Christian privilege (cf. Isaiah 59:2).

According to Luke 11:1, the incentive to want to become a person of prayer begins by observing God's intra-Trinitarian fellowship.

As we behold God's fellowship with God, what will continue to fuel our praying? Joining Him!

#2) Fuel for Prayer = Join God in Revering God

When the greatest Prayer Warrior on the planet was asked to teach His disciples how to pray (Luke 11:1), He began by instructing them to verbally reverence God's Name (Luke 11:2). Do this!

"When you pray, say: Father, hallowed by Your Name.'" (Luke 11:2a)

As One Who knew unbroken intimacy with God, Jesus, as God, was more in tune with the sacredness of God's Name than anyone. It is no surprise, then, that His first step in inviting us to join Him in prayer begins by instructing us to enter into His delight in the inviolable Name of God.

By means of prayer, Jesus taught that we are to acknowledge the sacred holiness, the reverential awesomeness, the untarnished purity, of God's Name. Commanding us to "hallow" God's Name is a call to worship God. Worship is the heart of all true prayer.

As worship, say to God, in prayer, something like:

"You, You, You, You, You, You are wholly other. Your Name, even Your unutterable covenant Name, which You cannot violate, is our only hope. We, therefore, come with glad trembling before You. And only because Christ, we come with confident trembling, even as a child to his loving Father. Indeed, You are 'our Father.' Thus, we approach you boldly, but not presumptuously. The blood of the Lamb is our boast before You, and the integrity and honor of Your Name is our desire. We want to join You in delighting in You. In every way, we venerate Your Name. We agree with You that You are Who You say You are. You are in a category all by Yourself. Happily, we concur with You that Your Name is to be revered by all men, and hallowed. The nations will one day concur that "Holy is the Lord." We concur with You that knees will bow--every one of them--before Your Kingly throne acknowledging the Lordship of Your Son to the glory of Your great Name. Far be it from us, Oh Lord, to trifle with Your Name. Cause the weightiness of Your Name to be known and felt in our lives. Protect us from playing lightly with Your Name. Let us, and not only us, but the many islands and coastlands, too, join You in happy agreement that You alone are God. Consume Your people with a holy trepidation in Your presence, and make ours the kind of lives that accurately reflect the purity of the Name of our God."

As we thus "hallow" God's Name, there is simultaneously an acknowledgement and a request at work.

We are acknowledging that God's Name is set apart, sacred, and to be revered. And as that is happening, we are requesting that His Name will be more accurately revered in our hearts and lives.

Conclusion

Let us not leave this earth having forfeited the privilege of communion with God.

Instead, let us look to Christ with His face bowed low in the dust delighting in the Name of His God and our God, His Father and our Father. And let us join Jesus in reverencing the Name of 'our' God!

When you pray, say this (divinely loaded phrase): "Father, Hallowed be Your Name."