SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/9/2020 7:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Priority of Prayer
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 6:9c
Message of the
verse: “Hallowed be Thy Name.”
I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that I have been reading
a book by John MacArthur entitled “Jesus’ Pattern of Prayer,” which is on the “Lord’s
Prayer.” I have also mentioned that when
we look at the “Lord’s Prayer,” that it is like a skeleton that has to have
things added to it in order to understand it more thoroughly. When I look at MacArthur’s commentary on the
book of Matthew I know that it comes from sermons from Matthew that he preached
in the late 1970’s and this book was written in 1981 so there is more to it
than from his commentary. Now with this
in mind I want to quote a section from his book that adds things to what we
have learned, but some of the things may be a repeat. I just want to warn you of that now.
“So that’s what it means to hallow His name, but how do
we do that?” (We have gone over what it
means in earlier SD’s.) “How can we know
the prayer is answered and that God’s name has really been hallowed? We are asking God to let His name be
hallowed, and the implication is that that will be effected through us. ‘Let Your name be hallowed in our lives.’
“But how do we really reverence God?”
Number one, we hallow His name when we believe He
exists. Hebrews 11:6 says, ‘He that
cometh to God must believe that He is.’ That
is where it begins, and the Scripture never tries to prove God’s
existence. Why? Because God is self-evident.
“Astronomer Sir James Jeans said, ‘No astronomer could
ever be an atheist.’
“Immanuel Kant, the philosopher, had this right, at
least: ‘The law within us and the starry
heavens above us drive us to God.’
“But it does not stop there. You can believe God exists and still not
hallow His name.
“Second, we must know the kind of God He is. Many people say they believe in God, but they
don’t hallow His name because they don’t believe in the God He really is. Swearing is not the only way you can take the
name of the Lord in vain. You take the
name of the Lord in vain every time you think a thought about God that is not
true. When you doubt God, when you
disbelieve Him, when you question Him, you are taking His name in vain.
“The Greeks had gods that were far afield from the true
God. They had invented gods who fought
wars, had quarrels, had lovers, felt hatred, seduced each other, and committed
adulteries, immoralities, perversions, and atrocities” (murders). “When men invent gods, their gods turn out like them.
“So to tell the Greeks to hallow and exalt and reverence
their gods would be ridiculous. Their
gods were as vile as they were.
“Some have tried to say that the true God is cruel,
savage, vindictive, and harsh because He punished certain nations. Even Job fell into that sin in Job 30:21 when
he said, ‘Thou art become cruel to me.’
“God is accused of being unloving, of indiscriminately
banishing people to an eternal hell, a national ally of Israel who goes around
slaughtering other people. When you think wrong thoughts
like that about God, you don’t understand who He really is, and you have not
hallowed His name.
Third, we hallow His name when we are constantly aware of
His presence. We need to live every day
of our lives giving place to God. In
Psalm 16:8, David wrote, ‘I have set the Lord always before me.’ That’s the key.
“How about you? To
reverence God is to live in His consciousness.
Most of our thoughts of God are spasmodic; sometimes intense, sometimes
absent. But to really hallow His name is to draw conscious thoughts of God into
every daily thought, word, and action.
“To hallow God, then, means that we must believe that He
exists, that He is who He says He is, and that we must be constantly aware of
His presence. But you could do all three
of those things and still not reverence God or hallow His name.
“Fourth, we hallow God’s name when we live a life of
obedience in Him. To do all the rest and
to then disobey cuts off the capability to reverence His name. The request is not just that God’s name be
hallowed in heaven; it’s
not just that God’s name be hallowed around the world; it’s that God’s name be
hallowed in me, that I may be a vehicle for His holiness.
Martin Luther asked, ‘How is God’s name hallowed amongst
us?’ His answer was, ‘When both our
doctrines and our living are truly Christian.’
“That’s where prayer begins. Before we start asking for what we want, we need to ask for what we
should be. When you have the right
thoughts of God and you do the right deeds from God, you are hallowing His
name. The first part of the Disciples’
Prayer is really saying, ‘God, teach me the truth and help me live it.
“First
Corinthians 10:31 says to do ‘all to the glory of God.’ The Bible says we glorify and obey God by
confessing Him as Lord, by confessing sin, but faith, by bearing fruit, by
praising Him, by being content, by proclaiming His truth, by evangelizing, by
sexual purity, by spiritual unity.
“Gregory of Nyssa prayed this: ‘May I become through Thy help blameless,
just and holy. May I abstain from every
evil, speak the truth and do justly. May
I walk in the straight paths shining with temperance, adorned with
incorruption, beautify through wisdom and prudence. May I meditate upon the things that are above
and despise what is earthly, for a man can glorify God in no other way save by
his virtue, which bears witness that the divine power is the cause of his
goodness.’
“Hallowed be the name of God.”
My prayer is that this will be helpful to those who read
this and that God’s name will be glorified.
11/9/2020 8:23 AM
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