At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen (Matt. 6:9-13).
We really need to pay more attention to glory. We pray to the Father for all these things, as Jesus instructed us, and we do so because His is the kingdom, and His is the power, and His is the glory. As we pray in this way, we are leaning toward a participation in His glory.
Theologians distinguish between God’s incommunicable attributes, which cannot be shared with any creature, like omniscience, and His communicable attributes, which He can and does share with His creatures, like His love. The glory of God here is one of His communicable attributes.
The apostle Paul even defines sin as something which falls short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). We apparently have a moral obligation to attain to the glory of God. God renders to every man according to his work (by grace alone), and so those who in patient endurance seek for glory, honor, and immortality (Rom. 2:7), God grants eternal life.
So we need to know how this works, and this part of the Lord’s Prayer helps us. As creatures, we reflect. We are mirrors. The Bible tells us in its very first pages that we are created as an image (Gen. 1:26-27). This is why we become more and more like what we worship. When we finally see Christ, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). When we worship God, we are facing Him, and when we are facing Him, we reflect Him. When we reflect Him, we are being transformed, from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18).
And so this is what happens as we address the Father, hallowing His name. This is what happens when we humble ourselves and recognize that He is the king, when we bow before Him, acknowledging His power, and when we yearn for Him, seeking to share in His glory. And we will share in it, according to our faith.
