SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/8/2020 9:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “God’s Priority”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 6:9c
Message
of the verse: “hallowed be Thy name.”
We hallow the name of God by having
and understanding true knowledge about who God is. False ideas about God are disrespectful. John MacArthur quotes a man named Origen who
said “The man who brings into his concept of God ideas that have no place there
takes the name of the Lord God in vain.”
As we discover and believe truth about God, they demonstrate reverence
for Him; and willing ignorance or even wrong doctrine demonstrate
irreverence. We can’t hold in the highest
regard a God whose character and will we do not know about Him or even care
about. However acknowledging God’s
existence and then having a true knowledge about Him are not enough to hallow
His name, as one must have a constant awareness of God’s presence. Occasional thinking of God does not hallow
His name. If we are to truly hallow His
name it means to consciously draw Him into every daily thought, even every
daily word, and also every daily action.
David’s writing of Psalm 16:8 helps us to better understand this: “I have set the
LORD continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be
shaken.” This is similar to what Paul
wrote when he said “pray without ceasing.”
MacArthur
concludes this very important section with the following: “The Father’s name is most hallowed when we
behave in conformity to His will. For
Christians to live in disobedience to God is to take His name in vain, claiming
as Lord someone who we do not follow as Lord.
‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’’ Jesus warned, ‘will enter
the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven’
(Matt. 7:21). When we eat, drink, and do
everything else to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31), that is hallowing His
name. Finally, to hallow God’s name is
to attract others to Him by commitment, to ‘let [our] light shine before men in
such a way that they may see [our] good works, and glorify [our] Father who is
in heaven’ (Matt. 5:16). Psalm 34:3 sums
up the teaching in this phrase with a lovely exhortation: ‘O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt
His name together.’”
11/8/2020 9:41 AM
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