Pray for His Fame

“Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’” (Matthew 6:9)

Dozens of times Scripture says that God does things “for his name’s sake.”

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. (Psalm 23:3)

For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt. (Psalm 25:11)

He saved them for his name’s sake. (Psalm 106:8)

For my name’s sake I defer my anger. (Isaiah 48:9)

Your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. (1 John 2:12)

If you ask what is really moving the heart of God in all those statements (and many like them), the answer is that God delights in having his name known and honored.

The first and most important prayer that can be prayed is, “Hallowed be your name.” I used to think this is an acclamation. Like, “Hallelujah! The Lord’s name is hallowed!” But it’s not an acclamation. It’s a petition. Actually a kind of imperative or command. Lord, let it be! Cause it to be. May your name be hallowed. This is my request, my prayer. I am urging you to this: Cause people to hallow your name. Cause me to hallow your name!

God loves to have more and more people “hallow” his name. That’s why his Son teaches Christians to pray for it. In fact, Jesus makes it the very first and paramount prayer. Because this is the first and great passion of the Father.

“Lord, cause more and more people to hallow your name,” that is, esteem, admire, respect, cherish, honor, reverence, and praise your name. More and more people! So, you can see it is basically a missionary prayer.

John Piper 

Faith Shows Up in the Way You Live

“Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” HEBREWS 10:38

 

PONDER THIS

Faith is the heart’s response to the character of God. When your eye is right, it responds to light. When your ear is right, it responds to sound. When your heart is right, it responds to God, and that response is called faith. That’s the reason the Bible says, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12). Unbelief never comes out of the head. Unbelief comes out of the heart. A lack of faith shows what is in our hearts. Faith is the dynamic of spiritual worship. Faith honors God, and God honors faith. Are you honoring Him through faith?

How have you experienced the reality of faith as a response to the character of God?

What are some ways your life might show a lack of faith, no matter what you say you believe?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of ways your faith is manifest in your life. Make another list of ways your life shows a lack of faith. What needs to change? Take those things before God in prayer.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Honoring God by Honoring Others

“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.” 1 PETER 2:15-17

 

PONDER THIS

An attitude of rebellion is as bad as rebellion itself. We’re to honor every person of every culture, young or old, Christian or not, because the image of God is to be honored! The word honor is the word from which we get our word preciousness. You know the line in that beloved children’s song? “They are precious in His sight.” All people are intrinsically precious to God. Do you believe that? I hope you do. I don’t care who they are or what they have. The Bible says to honor all people.

And then, regarding church life, in verse 17, it says: “Love the brotherhood.” There is a special love that we’re to have for our brothers and sisters in Christ. I love all people, but my wife is my beloved. She is above all other women in my life. And in the Christian world, our brothers and sisters in Christ are special. We’re to love one another with a unique love, and in so doing, we honor Christ.

Why does it matter to God that we respect all people? When is that hard to do?

What are some barriers to honoring and loving one another?

PRACTICE THIS

Go out of your way to show honor and love to another person today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Honor by Serving

“My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother; for they will be a graceful ornament on your head, and chains about your neck.” PROVERBS 1:8-9

 

PONDER THIS

You can honor your parents by living a godly and noble life. You are an extension of your father and your mother. Do you know what gives me great joy? When I sense that my parents are proud of me. When I sense that I give my mother a sense of gratefulness that I am her son. Do you know what gives me great joy as a father? To see my children live right. When I watch my children bless their children, my heart fills with joy.

I went to put my son on an airplane to Spain as a missionary. I watched that man, his wife, and our little Jonathan get on that plane, and I thought “Thank You, God. Thank You for a son who loves you and wants to spend his life spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Your parents gave you life. Their very blood flows through your veins. The love of godly parents is the closest thing to the love of God known on this Earth. Honor them by living your life for the Lord, and by spending your life loving and serving others.

How can you honor your father and mother in the way you live?

What kind of faith legacy do you want to leave? What are you doing right now to pursue that legacy?

PRACTICE THIS

Encourage a person in the next generation in his or her faith.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Prayer’s First Priority

“Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 6:9)

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches that the first priority in praying is to ask our heavenly Father to cause his name to be hallowed. In us. In the church. In the world. Everywhere.

Notice that this is a petition, a request. It is not a declaration or acclamation. It is not an expression of praise, but petition. For years I misread the Lord’s Prayer as if it began with praise: “Praise God, the Lord’s name is hallowed, revered, honored!” But it is not acclamation. It is supplication. It is a request to God that he would see to it that his own name be hallowed.

It is like another text, Matthew 9:38, where Jesus tells us to pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send out laborers into his own harvest. It never ceases to amaze me that we, we laborers, should be instructed to ask the owner of the farm, who knows the harvest better than we do, to add on more farm hands.

But isn’t this the same thing we have here in the Lord’s Prayer — Jesus is telling us to ask God, who is infinitely jealous for the honor of his own name, to see to it that his name be hallowed, which means honored, revered, exalted as supremely precious?

Well it may amaze us, but there it is. And it teaches us two things.

One is that prayer does not move God to do things he is disinclined to do. He has every intention to cause his name to be hallowed. Nothing is higher on God’s priority list. But we should ask anyway.

The other is that prayer is God’s way of bringing our priorities into line with his. God wills to make great things the consequence of our prayers when our prayers are the consequence of his great purposes.

Bring your heart into line with the jealousy of God to hallow his name, and you will pray with great effect. Let your first and all-determining prayer be for the hallowing of God’s name, and your prayers will plug into the power of God’s jealousy for his name.

John Piper 

God Has a Place Saved for You

PRAY OVER THIS

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.” Psalm 23:5

 

PONDER THIS

Who sets the table in your house? It likely depends on who’s coming. If no one’s coming, I may set the table, but I never can get it quite right.

But when we are expecting company, generally, Joyce will set the table. No longer do we have the place mats. We have the linen tablecloth. No longer do we have the glass. We get the crystal. No longer do we have ordinary dishes; the best China comes out, and there will be lit candles and fresh flowers on the table. Everything is just right, and the music will be playing softly in the background. We really love to set the table. Do you know why we set the table that way? To honor the person who’s coming.

You see, here’s what David was saying: “God has put on an apron. God, Jehovah, has prepared a table for me. For me! The Lord of glory has prepared a table for me. He loves me. He welcomes me. I’m special to Him.”

How does it feel to know God values your place at His table?

Who is someone in your congregation who needs to be reminded that God has a place for him or her at His table?

PRACTICE THIS

Encourage someone who may be feeling left out that God has a special place at His table for him or her.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

We Honor What We Enjoy

“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth.” (Isaiah 58:13–14)

It is possible to pursue God without glorifying God. If we want our quest to honor God, we must pursue him for the joy of fellowship with him.

Consider the Sabbath as an illustration of this. The Lord rebukes his people for seeking their own pleasure on his holy day. “Turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day.” But what does he mean? Does he mean that we should not seek our joy on the Lord’s Day? No, because the next thing he says is, “Call the Sabbath a delight.” And in verse 14, “You shall take delight in the Lord.” So what he is criticizing is that they are delighting in their own business on the Sabbath rather than delighting in the beauty of their God and the rest and holiness that this day stands for.

He’s not rebuking their hedonism. He’s rebuking the weakness of it. As C. S. Lewis said, “We are far too easily pleased.” They have settled for secular interests and thus honor them above the Lord.

Notice that calling the Sabbath “a delight” is parallel to calling the holy day of the Lord “honorable.” “If you . . . call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable . . .” This simply means you honor what you delight in. Or you glorify what you enjoy.

The enjoyment of God and the glorification of God are one. His eternal purpose and our eternal pleasure unite in one experience of worship. This is what the Lord’s Day is for. Indeed, this is what all of life is for.

John Piper 

We Honor What We Enjoy

“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth.” (Isaiah 58:13–14)

It is possible to pursue God without glorifying God. If we want our quest to honor God, we must pursue him for the joy of fellowship with him.

Consider the Sabbath as an illustration of this. The Lord rebukes his people for seeking their own pleasure on his holy day. “Turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day.” But what does he mean? Does he mean that we should not seek our joy on the Lord’s Day? No, because the next thing he says is, “Call the Sabbath a delight.” And in verse 14, “You shall take delight in the Lord.” So what he is criticizing is that they are delighting in their own business on the Sabbath rather than delighting in the beauty of their God and the rest and holiness that this day stands for.

He’s not rebuking their hedonism. He’s rebuking the weakness of it. As C. S. Lewis said, “We are far too easily pleased.” They have settled for secular interests and thus honor them above the Lord.

Notice that calling the Sabbath “a delight” is parallel to calling the holy day of the Lord “honorable.” “If you . . . call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable . . .” This simply means you honor what you delight in. Or you glorify what you enjoy.

The enjoyment of God and the glorification of God are one. His eternal purpose and our eternal pleasure unite in one experience of worship. This is what the Lord’s Day is for. Indeed, this is what all of life is for.

John Piper 

We Honor What We Enjoy

“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth.” (Isaiah 58:13–14)

It is possible to pursue God without glorifying God. If we want our quest to honor God, we must pursue him for the joy of fellowship with him.

Consider the Sabbath as an illustration of this. The Lord rebukes his people for seeking their own pleasure on his holy day. “Turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day.” But what does he mean? Does he mean that we should not seek our joy on the Lord’s Day? No, because the next thing he says is, “Call the Sabbath a delight.” And in verse 14, “You shall take delight in the Lord.” So what he is criticizing is that they are delighting in their own business on the Sabbath rather than delighting in the beauty of their God and the rest and holiness that this day stands for.

He’s not rebuking their hedonism. He’s rebuking the weakness of it. As C. S. Lewis said, “We are far too easily pleased.” They have settled for secular interests and thus honor them above the Lord.

Notice that calling the Sabbath “a delight” is parallel to calling the holy day of the Lord “honorable.” “If you . . . call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable . . .” This simply means you honor what you delight in. Or you glorify what you enjoy.

The enjoyment of God and the glorification of God are one. His eternal purpose and our eternal pleasure unite in one experience of worship. This is what the Lord’s Day is for. Indeed, this is what all of life is for.

John Piper