God is the Heavenly Father of real Christians, not of everybody. This becomes clear when we recognise that only true Christians can pray from the heart, "Hallowed be thy name".
God's Glory
To hallow simply means to sanctify or set apart. In this
petition it means to think rightly of God, speak rightly
of God and behave in a way that rightly acknowledges God.
The prayers of non-Christians are at worst self-centred and at best man-centred. The desire for the glory of the living and true God who speaks in the Bible is absent. Only those who are born of the Spirit love this God and are concerned for His honour and glory. Our prayers are, first of all, to glorify God. They are not to be a mere shopping list drawn up by people who want to use God as a convenience.
The Name of God
The name of God is not simply the words by which we refer
to Him. It is all that by which He makes Himself known.
"The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the
righteous runneth into it and is safe" (Proverbs 18:10).
This means taking refuge in all that God has told us
about what He is like; holy, almighty, all-knowing,
unchangeable, loving and gracious.
To desire the hallowing of God's Name is to desire that we and others think reverently and rightly of God as He really is. To have wrong ideas of God in our minds is idolatry.
The Reality
We do not naturally think rightly of God. And when
confronted with what God is really like, we do not
naturally like what we see. That is why the Lord Jesus
said, "ye must be born again" (John 3:7). We
need our hearts changed by God. The result will be facing
the fact that we are guilty sinners deserving eternal
condemnation from the Holy God of Heaven, we will
heartily trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who
bore the guilt of sin on the cross. Thereafter, we will
desire to become more like Christ and that others will be
converted to Him. We will desire that we and others will
hallow the great name of God.
Can you truly pray this first petition? Are you really a Christian? Are you born again?