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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