2_The Prayer of Recognition
THE PRAYER OF RECOGNITON
The Lord’s Prayer: Path To Inner Peace
Part 2 of 8
June 29 & 30, 2002
Tom Holladay
“This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name…” Matthew 6:9 (NIV)
How does honoring God’s name reduce the stress of everyday living?
I. I RECOGNIZE THAT GOD IS ABLE TO MEET
__________________________________
God’s Names Tell Me:
God wants to ___________________________
Judges 6:24 “God is my Peace” (Jehovah Shalom)
God wants to ___________________________
Jer. 23:6 “God is my Righteousness” (Jehovah Tsidkenu)
God wants to ___________________________
Ex. 15:26 “God is my Healer” (Jehovah Rophe)
“Let Your tenderhearted mercies quickly meet our needs…” Psalm 79:8 (NLT)
“God will supply all that you need from His glorious resources in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19 (Ph)
God can meet my need for:
II. I RECOGNIZE THAT GOD IS GREATER THAN
______________________________
“His name is greater than all others…” Psalm 148:13 (TEV)
“Who but our God is a solid rock?” Psalm 18:31 (NLT)
“You are my rock and my fortress. For the honor of Your name, lead me out of this peril.” Psalm 31:3 (NLT)
“God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.”
1 John 3:20 (Msg)
God is bigger than:
III. I RECOGNIZE THAT GOD CALLS ME PART OF
__________________________
“You are members of God's very own family…” Ephesians 2:19 (TLB)
“May you be able to feel and understand, as all God's children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high His love really is.” Ephesians 3:18 (TLB)
“Follow God's example in everything you do, because you are His dear children. Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ, who loved you and gave Himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins”. Ephesians 5:1-2 (NLT)
I will act like God’s child by:
No wonder we are happy in the Lord! For we are trusting Him. We trust His holy name.
Psalm 33:21 (TLB)
THE PRAYER OF RECOGNITON
The Lord’s Prayer: Path To Inner Peace
Part 2 of 8
June 29 & 30, 2002
Tom Holladay
I was thinking since it’s going to be the Fourth of July this next week and all the news this last week about God’s name and the Pledge of Allegiance– whether it’s in or whether it’s out – would you indulge me? Let’s stand together and say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Those two words “under God” created quite a stir this week when the courts were deciding whether they’d be in or they’d be out. Just be coincidence we happen to be beginning a series looking at the way Jesus taught us to pray. We call it The Lord’s Prayer. And how He taught us to pray to the Father. This week we’re going to look at that phrase “hallowed be Thy name.” Just by coincidence this week we happen to be talking about what it means to honor God’s name. I can’t think of a better week to talk about how important God’s name is. Why is God’s name such a big deal?
Jesus made it a big deal. Look at Matthew 6:9 at the way Jesus began The Lord’s Prayer. “This then is how you should pray, ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name.’” There it is at the top of The Lord’s Prayer where it will never be litigated or legislated out. It’s going to stay there in The Lord’s Prayer. Jesus begins with this phrase “Hallowed be Your name.”
I look at that phrase and two questions hit my mind immediately. Why is God’s name so important? What is it about God’s name that’s important. The second question is, What in the world does that word “hallowed” mean? When I hear that word I think of Halloween. When I hear that word I think of the hallowed halls of justice or the hallowed ground of a battle. What does it mean for God’s name to be hallowed? It just means important, valued. To hallow God’s name is to honor God’s name. To see it for its true importance and value. What’s so important? What’s so valuable about God’s name?
When you think about God’s name one of the funny things about it is how often it’s used by those who have no idea who they’re really talking to. God’s name is probably used more by people who don’t believe in Him than do believe in Him. We use it as a curse word quite often. I always wonder how God feels about that. I know how I would feel or how you might feel if people used your name in that kind of away – Tom blankety this or Sue blankety that! Or, O my George! It sounds funny. I think God probably smiles at that realizing the people don’t even know who they’re talking to. They need to know who they’re talking to and have a greater honor in that because God’s name is valued above all others.
Names are important to us but they’re much more important to God. When you look at God’s name it’s talking about the way they used to use names. Names used to be used to indicate who a person was. If somebody was named Carpenter that meant they were the carpenter in the town. If somebody was named Smith, they were the smith in the town. A guy named Miller was the miller. Somebody named Jackson was Jack’s son. The name indicated who you were.
God’s name indicates who God is. Names represent character. When we talk abut valuing God’s name we’re talking about valuing who God is. We’re saying, “God, let me value You, who You are above all others.” That is how this prayer begins. Right after addressing God as father Jesus says, First thing say Honored be God’s name. Right up there at the beginning.
Do you want pace? I want peace. If you want peace you begin by recognizing who God really is. Before you even make all of your requests, recognize who God really is.
This week as I looked at God’s name I asked myself a question. How does honoring God’s name reduce the stress of everyday living? If this prayer – The Lord’s Prayer – brings peace into our lives and it does along with a lot of other things, then how does honoring God’s name bring God’s peace into our everyday lives.
God has hundreds of names in the Bible. I spent this week looking at many of them thinking about this question. Tonight we’re going to talk about three things that happens when we pray what I like to call the Prayer of Recognition. Recognizing God’s name for what it really means. What happens? How does that bring peace into my life when I pray this prayer?
1. Praying the Prayer of Recognition, recognizing God’s name, means I recognize that God is able to meet my deepest need.
The amazing thing about God’s names is that for each of God’s names there is a need in our lives. God’s names show us how He can meet the deepest needs in our life.
For instance, in the Old Testament, God has a name Jehovah Shalom which means “God is my peace.” That name tells us what God wants to do in our lives, how He can meet the need of our live. That tells us that God wants to reduce my stress. God is our peace. God wants to reduce my stress in life. Jesus talked bout that in John 14:27 when He said, “The peace I give you, it isn’t fragile like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled, don’t be afraid.” The difference between the world’s kind of peace and God’s peace is this. The world’s peace is based on circumstances. God’s peace is based on God’s character. The world’s peace is based on the circumstances that are good sometimes and bad others. So some days you’re at peace and some days you’re in anxiety. God’s peace based on God’s character is always there because His character never changes. God’s name – Jehovah Shalom – reminds us that God wants to meet that need in our lives.
God has another name in the Old Testament, Jehovah Tsidkenu. (If you ever have to read words like this just say it any way you want. Nobody knows if you’re right or wrong anyway. You don’t know whether I’m reading this right or not. Just say it with authority like you know what you’re talking about and everybody will go, “Oh, that’s the way you say that.”) That’s the name that means “God is my righteousness.” “Righteousness” just means setting things right. God is the one who can make wrong things right. That tells us that God wants to meet a need in our life. God wants to forgive my faults. He wants to forgive the greatest faults in your life. Anything wrong in your life? God wants to set it right. Any guilt in your life where you feel “I can’t live with this guilt!” God wants to forgive that sin and He wants to cleanse you, heal you of that guilt on life. God’s name tells you He can meet that need in life.
God has another name. Jehovah Rophe. That mean “God is my helper.” That reminds us that God wants to heal my hurt. The deepest hurts in life are not physical. They’re emotional. They’re relational. You may have had an emotional or relational hurt in your life this very week. Or there may be one you’ve been living with a long time. Wherever that hurt came from, whenever that came into your life, God wants to heal that hurt. God sees and God cares and God wants to help you begin again. God can do in your life what no one else can do.
Honored be God’s name. When you think about honoring God’s name, don’t forget the one Jesus talked about at the very beginning of The Lord’s Prayer “our Father in Heaven.” Father is one of God’s names. One of the ways you and I honor God’s name is by acting like He is our Father.
Those of you who are parents. Suppose you’re driving home and one of your kids – let’s say they’re eight – you find your kid setting out on the street corner and they have a sign scrawled in crayon that says, “Will work for food.” How would you feel as a parent, driving past that? You’d stop and go, “What are you doing?!?” And they’d look up at you and say, “You’ve taken care of me for eight years now. I figure I’m on my own now.” That’s crazy. You’d say, “Get back in the house! First of all you’re embarrassing me being out here. And secondly, I want to take care of you. It’s my job. I like to take care of you. I like to meet the needs in your life. It’s what I’m supposed to do.”
God enjoys meeting the needs if His children. He enjoys meeting your need. He desires to meet your need. You and I honor God’s name when we realize He wants to be our Father and meet our needs. Look at what the Bible has to say about God’s heart towards us. Psalm 79:8 “Let Your tenderhearted mercy quickly meet our needs.” Did you know that God has a tender heart towards you? Because of that tender heart, He wants to meet the needs of your life. He is our Father.
The Bible tells us in Philippians 4:19 “God will supply all that you need from His glorious resources in Christ Jesus.” Circle “all that you need.” I have to admit, it doesn’t say He will meet all of our greed. But He will meet all of our need. Everything we need in life, God will meet those needs. That is His promise. Why does He do it? Because He’s our Father. Because He loves us.
We just talked about a few of God’s names. There are hundreds in the Bible. Every one of those names tells us how God can meet one of the deepest needs in our life. The point is this: all of your basic needs, all of your deepest needs are met in trusting God who God is.
This is so vital and so important for the stress level in every one of our lives. One of the greatest causes of stress in any life is looking to the wrong place to have your needs met. It creates incredible stress. When you ask anything to carry a weight that it’s not designed to carry – great stress! I remember going on a backpacking trip with bunch of kids. We had a sixty-pound kid show up with a forty-pound pack thinking he was going on this backpacking trip. To his credit he was able to get the thing on. But every time he tried to take a step forward he would fall backwards, right on his back on the backpack. He had too much weight. He couldn’t carry it.
Let me tell you why there’s some stress in some of our lives. There’s stress in your life because you’re asking other people to meet needs that only God can meet. Because of that there’s incredible stress in your relationship. Your marriage may be under stress because you are asking your husband, your wife, to meet needs that only God can meet. You may be under stress with your kids because you’re asking them to meet needs that only God can meet. With a friend. You may be under stress with your parents because you’re asking them to meet a need that only God can meet. You cannot expect an imperfect person to perfectly meet all of your needs. It’s impossible. There are some needs in all of our lives that only God can meet. That is why He is God. That is why He can meet those needs.
You may have read this last week the exchange between Tatum O’Neal and John McInroe. He wrote a new book. He used to be married to her. She responded in a Barbara Walters’ interview. I read the interview and honestly my heart went out to her. She talked about her life, growing up with her father Ryan O’Neal and the lack of love she felt there, the marriage, the wrong on both sides, the anger that was in that marriage. But particularly my heart went out to her when she talked about her children toward the end of the interview. She said this, “I have never known unconditional love. I get it from them. They are the purest human beings in the world.”
That’s a nice thought but as I read that I thought she’s setting herself up for another fall. Those kids can’t love her unconditionally any more than anybody else can in this world. If you’re looking to your children to give you perfect love so you can make it in this world you’re in big trouble. Because they’re just human beings like you and me. Anytime we expect out of a human being what only God can give – incredible stress. Great weight on the relationship and a crash is on the way.
So I ask you, God can meet my need for … what? What need have you been expecting some other person to meet that you just right now need to do a transfer and realize I’ve been asking them to meet a need that I need to expect God to meet in my life. Maybe it’s just the biggest need, the greatest most urgent need in your life right now. Whatever it is God can meet that need. Take it to Him. Talk to Him about it. Tell Him about it. Write down your most urgent need.
The fact is God knows what you need before you ask. There’s a logical question that goes along with that. If God knows what I need before I ask why doesn’t He just give it to me right now before I even ask? Prayer is not informing God of your need. He already knows about your need. Prayer is not informing God of your need. It’s depending on God for that need. It’s saying, “This time, with this decision, with this need in my life instead of depending on myself, doing it my way, figuring out how I want to do it, God, I’m depending on You. You show me how. You show me what I need to do. You show me what steps I need to take. You show me where I need to wait and where I need to work. You show me. I’m depending on You.”
What’s the greatest need in your life? Write it down and say, “God, for this one, I am depending on You.” That’s part of the Prayer of Recognition. Recognizing that God alone can meet my deepest need.
There’s a second part of this Prayer of Recognition.
2. I recognize that God is greater than my biggest problem.
You think of the biggest problem that you have, that you’re facing in your life right now. God is bigger. He is greater, much greater. And by the way He’s greater than the biggest success you’ve had recently.
What happens with the stress in our lives, whenever you or I, whenever your life, your problems, your successes become the greatest thing in your life, you live under tremendous burden because it’s all on your shoulders. We’re not meant to live that way.
Jesus teaches us when we pray, He says, “When you pray here’s how to do it. First of all start out and call God your Father. Realize that that’s the relationship that you have with Him.” Then right after that you say, “God, I want Your name, who You are to be honored in my life and in this world.”
That’s not how I usually pray. Oftentimes when I go in I’ve got my list. “Here it is God. I need this, this, this and this… See You later, God.” And I’m out of there.
Do you ever pray like that? God listens to every one of our prayers. He hears our prayers. But we’d have a lot more peace in our lives if we prayed the way Jesus encourages us to pray. Sometimes, even in our prayers, we tend to focus only on our problems. We just get more and more in our problems even when we’re praying bout them. Jesus is reminding us, “I want you to talk to Me about your problems but if before you did that you’d just take a minute to realize that God is your Father, that He loves you no matter what problems you have in your life and He’s never going to stop loving you. And you just took a moment to realize that God is greater than anything, He’s greater than any problem you’re going to talk to Me about right now, if you take just those few seconds to do that, the stress level will dramatically decrease in your life. It’s a lot better relationally to talk to God that way, to begin by actually talking to Him, telling Him what you feel about Him.
What if your spouse called you and here was the total phone call: “Pick up the kids at school, get the oil changed in the car, get us some money at the ATM. Amen.” Click. That was the whole phone call. That would not be very good relationally. How would you feel at the end of that call?
That’s how we treat God a lot of times. Just take a moment to say His name – Father. Realize His importance and His greatness as you begin. Prayer is not just asking God for things. It’s part of our relationship with God. When you do that you realize God is greater.
Psalm 148:13 talks about God’s name. “His name is greater than all others.” God has names like all mighty, all powerful, Lord. Something happens in my life when I take the time to recognize the greatness of His name. For me, the focus shifts. All of a sudden I’m not the center of the universe any more. All of a sudden it’s not all on my shoulders any more. I realize God’s greatness. It’s not up to me to hold everything together. Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that we are holding the universe together. That our plans are holding the universe together or our strategy or even our worry. Some of you think that if you stopped worrying this universe would cease to exist as we know it. You really feel that way. The truth is God was running the universe just fine before I got here and He’s going to run it just fine after I leave. That’s the greatness of God. Sometimes I need that to put life in perspective. We all need something greater to give us the security that we need to make it in everyday life.
The Bible calls that the rock that is higher than I. That’s security God wants to give in our life. God talks about Himself being a rock quite often in the Bible. In light of that I thought we’d do a little rock quiz tonight. People come from all over the nation to see rock formations. They come by the thousands from all over the world. One of the questions I have is why. Why do they do this? The rocks don’t do anything. They just sit there! There’s no lights, no show. They just sit there. But people come from all over the world just to stand in the shadow of these great huge rocks and say, “Wow! Look at that! That thing is huge!”
We all need a little bit more wow in our lives. Not the wow that comes from looking at a big rock or seeing a great game on TV or going to a super movie. But the greater wow that comes from the greatness of God. There’s something about that wow, realizing how great He is, that puts my life in perspective and brings the peace that I need. One of God’s favorite descriptions for Himself is rock. He knows that we all need something to stand on and that God’s greatness is that rock. Psalm 18:31 says it this way, “Who but our God is a solid Rock.” There’s really nothing else solid like God that you can stand on and be secure in no matter what.
When life is unfair God is our rock. When life seems unmanageable – I don’t know where to turn next – God is our rock. When things are falling apart all around me – God is our rock. When I feel threatened – God is my rock. I know Simon and Garfunkle used to sing that song a long time go I am a Rock. No they weren’t and no you’re not. You might be a pebble, maybe a grain of sand. We aren’t a rock but we need a rock. We need the rock solid security of God’s love for us and the fact that we can stand on that love.
Psalm 31:3 tells us an amazing truth about how God wants to show this security in our lives, how He wants to honor His name in our lives. “You are my rock and my fortress. For the honor of Your name lead me out of this peril.” One of the way God honors His name is by leading us through and out of the difficulties of life. Whenever you have a struggle in life one of the ways God wants to honor His name is by you trusting in Him and by Him leading you out of that difficulty, that struggle, through that difficulty. He won’t always do it as quickly as you would like but He will always lead you out of it. And as He does that He’s showing Himself to be the rock of security that people need in this world.
Earlier we wrote down, God is greater than my biggest problem, you might be thinking, What if my biggest problem is me? What if my biggest problem is my own heart, the struggle I have within, maybe my own insecurity, maybe my own guilt or maybe my own sense of inadequacy in this world? What if that’s my biggest problem?
I love this verse 1 John 3:20 in the Message paraphrase, “God is greater than our worried heart and He knows more about us than we do ourselves.” There are some days, some weeks, in my life when I need to lean on the rock of that truth. I need to lean on the truth than even though I feel insecure and wonder how I’m going to make it, I can lean on the truth that God who is greater than my heart understands me more than anyone else and says He has a future for me. He has a plan for my life. Even when I feel like I don’t see the plan I can lean on the truth that God has a plan. Even when I feel like I don’t know if God can forgive me God says I know you better than you know yourself and I’ve said I can forgive you. Some of you right now you need to lean on that truth, that the God who knows you better than you know yourself loves you more than anyone else. You might be feeling pretty desperate right now, How am I going to make it? Because of the inadequacy or guilt within. God says I know you better than anyone I love you better than anyone and I’ve got a plan for your life. Lean on that truth. That’s a rock that we need in our lives. God is our rock. If you depend on anything else, anyone else and eventually they’ll feel like Jell-O. God’s the rock that we need.
I’d encourage you to write down, God is bigger than… what? What problem are you facing? Write it in. It’s your step of faith saying I realize I need to put this in perspective and realize God’s bigger than even that problem. Maybe you need to write, God’s bigger than me. Maybe you need to write, God’s bigger than some success that you just had in your life. God is bigger.
In the Old Testament, there’s a book by the name of Job. It’s a pretty long book. It’s a pretty depressing book for most of it. At the beginning of the book Job has a lot of problems. Everything in his life falls apart. The middle part of the book, the larger part of it, is Job’s friends giving him bad advise about what to do about those problems. It reminds us that friends don’t always give good advice. At the end of the book Job meets with God. He’s been asking God all throughout the book, Why is this happening to me? At the end of the book Job meets with God and God never tells him why. He never answers his question. God just comes and says, “Listen Job. I want you to hear how great I am.” And God tells him about His greatness. And that was enough. That’s what Job needed to hear. That satisfied his heart. In the end he didn’t so much need to hear the answer to his questions as he needed to meet the person of God and realize how great He was. How great He is. At the end it wasn’t so much getting the answer to why as seeing the who.
And maybe that’s what you need – to realize God’s greatness. There’s some questions in this world I’m never going to get them answered. I’m just not smart enough to figure out everything in this world. I might get them answered when I get to heaven but even if I don’t get them answered here God is still great. And God is still loving. And God still has a plan for my life.
There’s a prayer I’d encourage you to pray in recognizing God’s greatness. It’s from Psalm 61:1-2 “Hear my cry, O God. Listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to You. I call as my heart grows faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” God is bigger, greater than even your greatest problem.
There’s a third thing to recognize in this Prayer of Recognition.
3. God calls me to be part of His family.
God calls me. Here’s the amazing thing. This great and holy name that God has He invites us to share it. That’s amazing to me. God’s name is God’s reputation. There’s a difference between reputation and character. Character is what you are. Reputation is what other people think you are. The amazing thing to me is that God has put a good deal of His reputation in our hands. We’re called by His name. We’re His family. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:19 “You are members of God’s very own family.” We’re called Christian after Christ. We are called by His name.
If you don’t believe God puts His reputation on the line by giving us His name just talk to some friends, maybe some friends of yours who would tell you, The reason I’m not a Christian is because I’ve met some hypocritical Christians and I don’t want to be like that. If you don’t believe God puts His reputation on the line, just listen to what Ghandi said during his life, “I might have become a Christian if it were not for the Christians I’ve met.” God’s reputation is on the line in our lives.
To be called by God’s name, that should make a difference. In fact, it should make a difference in two primary ways and don’t get these out of order.
One is to recognize and realize how deeply God, my Father, loves me. I’m a part of His family. I’m loved by Him more deeply than I could ever imagine.
Secondly, it should make a difference in the way that I live.
First in knowing how deeply I’m loved and then the way that I live. Don’t get those out of order. You start by realizing how much God loves you. Then you live out that love in your everyday life. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 3:18 about how much God loves us. “May you be able to feel and understand as all God’s children should how long, how wide, how deep and how high His love really is.”
I invite you to make it one of your life goals to understand how deeply God loves you. You can exhaust your life trying to understand that and not get close to understanding how deep His love is for you. That’s a great goal for any of our lives.
Then once you begin, as you begin to understand the depths of His love for you, then you live as a child of God. You live out that love. Ephesians 5:1-2 says it this way, “Follow God’s example in everything you do because you are His dear children. Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ who loves you and gave Himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins.” We’re God’s children. We represent God’s name. We’re part of His family.
If you’re praying for God’s name to be honored, to be valued, to be shown as important then live that way. That’s one of the ways that we honor God’s name. We bear His name. And God sends us out into the world saying, “Go out as I would live. Go out and show some people. Put a face on the name of God.” I encourage you this next week to remember that at the office. Or at the gym. Or at the Little League field even. All those places. Remember that when the checker in the checkout line takes ten minutes longer than you think it should have taken. Or remember that when you miss your connecting flight somewhere in the middle of the country and you’re stuck there. Remember that when you’re on business trip alone in a hotel room with your thoughts and a cable TV channel. Remember you represent God’s name. There’s no greater privilege than to represent His name.
I’ve talked to some people, some who are not yet believers, who would say to me, “What you’re talking about right now, that’s why I’m not a Christian. I’ve met some Christians who are supposed to represent God’s name and the way I see it they’re not doing a very good job of it. I don’t want to be one of those kinds of people so I’m going to wait until maybe I’m more perfect, [which is never going to happen] to start to represent God’s name in life.”
Let me share a couple things with you.
First of all when it comes to living out the Christian life you’ll find some people who as they live out the Christian life, they’ll just blend in with the world. They’re just like everyone else around them. There’s no difference. Obviously you’re not representing God’s name if you do that. This is an opportunity tonight saying I’m going to change. I’m not going to do that any more.
There’s others, they don’t blend into the world, they escape from the world. They get as far away from everything in the world as they can. The monks are the best illustration of that. They go way up into the hills and if there is any difference in their life nobody knows it because nobody can see them.
But there’s another kind of Christian, another way to live the Christian life. You’ve met these kind of people. They take God’s name into the real world. They take the challenge to show the importance of God’s name, live out the importance of God’s name in the real world. Yes, they struggle sometimes because they’re not perfect any more than anybody can be perfect. But they’re struggling to grow.
You’ve met those kind of people. That’s the kind of life that God invites you to. That’s the kind of adventure that God invites you to. If you’re not yet a believer those people that you’ve met that are like that, that’s what He’s inviting you to. That’s what He’s calling you to.
If you’re a person who, as a Christian as I’m talking about living this life of faith, if you’re feeling like, “This is a sermon about peace? And you’re talking about living up to God’s name? That sounds like a lot of pressure to me.” If living the Christian life is one big pressure to you, you’re doing it wrong. God didn’t mean for it to be a pressure. Jesus said, I mean for it to be a life of peace, a life of rest. My commands, He said, they’re not burdensome. They’re light.
So what’s wrong? Why does it all of a sudden for many of us feel so burdensome? Some of you, the truth be known, you didn’t even want to come to church tonight. It’s just become another thing to do.
The main reason it becomes burdensome is because we put the weight on our shoulders. We try to do it on our own. Instead of realizing how much God loves us and living that life out we take it back for ourselves and say, I’m going to plug into my power and make it work on my own power. It’s not going to work. You can’t make yourself holy any more than you can make yourself a foot taller just by your own willpower. It comes by God’s power.
So I invite you this week to realize God didn’t call me to live this burdensome Christian life. That’s not His flavor, His brand, His way of doing it. He’s got a different kind of life for me. He’s got a life of peace. He’s got a life of joy that He’s offering me. I’m not going to settle for this burden. I’m going to ask Him for the peace. I’m going to spend this week thinking about how much He loves me rather than how much I need to do for Him. Then out of my understanding of His love then maybe I can begin to do things for Him again.
That’s what the Prayer of Recognition is all about. You stop trying and you start trusting. You need this prayer in your life. I need this prayer in my life to remind me that the power comes from Him. It’s not a life of pressure. It’s a life of peace. Out of that life of peace it is a worthy goal to pray, God make my life honor Your name. It’s a worthy goal to write down something like I will act like God’s child by… what? How do you need to act like God’s child this week? By asking forgiveness of somebody in your family? Or forgiving somebody in your family? God is forgiving so His children should act forgiving. Act like God’s child by taking a step of integrity at work? Even if that step of integrity means you might lose your job. God has integrity. He expects His children to have integrity. You know. You may have been facing this integrity decision at work for along time. You know deep down if you take that step even if it has tough consequences you’re never going to regret it. You’ll never regret doing the right thing. Maybe you need to act like God’s child this week just by realizing He loves you even though you don’t feel like it right now. God’s love isn’t dependent on my feeling. There are many days I don’t feel like He loves me but He still does. He’s still there.
Or maybe you need to become God’s child today. We talked last week about the fact that although all of us are created by God all of us are not God’s children. God doesn’t force any one into His family. He invites us all into His family. Maybe you need to take the step of faith to realize God wants you to be a part of His family. He sent Jesus Christ into this world to say, “I’m willing to open the door. I’m willing to forgive you of the wrong things you have done if you’ll trust Me to do that. I’m willing to be Your Father and begin to lead and guide your life if you trust Me to do that.” As you trust Him in that simple way through prayer, you come into God’s family.
Whatever step you need to take it’s going to involve trust because God’s children trust Him. That’s what marks one of God’s children. Psalm 33:21 “No wonder we are happy in the Lord for we are trusting Him. We trust in His holy name.” Circle “happy”. The result of trusting in God’s name, honoring God’s name, hallowing God’s name should be happiness. God’s name is not meant to be a curse. It’s meant to be a blessing as we honor it in our lives.
How do you need to trust God? I invite you to pray along with me the Prayer of Recognition tonight, recognizing God for who He is in your life and asking for God’s peace. Just make a place there with you and God and just take a moment to stop from everything in life and talk to Him.
Prayer:
Father in heaven, today I choose to make Your name something more than just to talk about. I choose to trust in Your name. I trust You as my savior. That’s Your name. I trust You as the one who is willing to forgive my sins. I trust You as my Lord. That’s Your name. One who’s willing to lead and guide my life, who has the power to make me the kind of person You created me to be. I trust You as my provider. I trust You as my healer. I trust You as my rock of security. I trust You as my Father in heaven. And I pray that Your name, Your character, will be recognized as of greatest importance in my life. May my life be a continual invitation for others to join Your family. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.