Ten Core Values for the Christian life (3)

Jesus taught His disciples to pray: Our Father in heaven: May your holy name be honored (Matthew 6:9).

To honor the name of the Lord comes as the opposite of misusing that name, or using that name in vain. And that brings us to part 3 in this new blog series, to the third commandment: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain (Exodus 20:7).

It is one thing to claim we don’t use the Lord’s name in vain. We don't swear, we don't misuse His name. But for what purposes do we use His name? 

Are we bringing honor to His name? Do we have a genuine love for His name? Is everything we do and say then, done in His name?

‘Lord’ is not a word to end our sentences with when we talk to Him, nor is it a filler to make our prayers sound more holy and authentic. ‘Lord’ (YHWH) is His personal revelatory name and He gave it to us for use on a daily basis. Why?

Because God's presence is connected to His name.

• In Exodus 20:25b, for example, God says Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you.
• Or, as Jesus said, in Matthew 18:20: For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.
• And let's not forget the announcement of the birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:23): Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, God with us.

Whenever we call on the name of the Lord, He will be right there. His presence is in His name.

👉The core value I have attached to the third commandment is PRESENCE

We seek the presence of God daily by honoring His name and His presence brings peace, healing, and revelation.

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For more on this topic, read my book 'In My Name' (Inviting God's holy presence in daily situations). The book is available on Amazon in your country.

For the honor of His name (4)

Don't you love this topic? So far we've seen in this blog series that God brings honor to His own name by renewing our strength, guiding us along the right path, forgiving our sins, and rescuing us from danger.

Our response therefore should be thankfulness for His love and compassion, readiness to share our testimony, willingness to receive His forgiveness and to forgive others, and trusting Him to lead us to safety!

Let's take a look at Isaiah 48:9. When we read that scripture in context we notice that God is kind of mad at His people because they were disobedient, stubborn, unfaithful and what more. And then He says: Yet for my own sake and for the honor of my name, I will hold back my anger and not wipe you out.

Well, isn't that interesting? God honors His own name by being patient and by extending grace to the Israelites. 👉He is true to His nature as a good, good Father. Of course, we see the same thing in the New Testament... for God does not change, He is patient and He does not want anyone to perish.

Isn't it fair to say that when we extend grace to someone, when we hold back anger, and when we are patient, we bring honor to His name as well?

For the honor of His name (3)

In the previous blog posts in this series, we saw that God is good to us, which brings honor to His own name. He renews our strength, He guides us along the right path, and He forgives our sins.

Let's stay in the book of Psalms and go to Psalm 31:2-3, Turn your ear to listen to me; rescue me quickly. Be my rock of protection, a fortress where I will be safe. You are my rock and my fortress. For the honor of your name, lead me out of this danger. Pull me from the trap my enemies set for me, for I find protection in you alone.

God is our rescuer, our protector, and our defender. In essence, He is our Savior! Whatever danger we might find ourselves in (self inflicted or not), He is ready to lead us out and bring us back to safety. This is His nature, this is who He is and when He acts according to His nature, it brings honor to His name.

That makes sense, doesn't it? A savior saves, a healer heals, and a protector protects. God always acts according to His nature and this brings honor to His name. This is how people get to see Him and know Him.

Now, it is our job, as believers, to make Him known to people who have never heard of Him or have a wrong concept of who God is. 👉When we point people to the Savior, the Rescuer, the Protector... we bring honor to His name!

For the honor of His name (2)

Glad you are joining me for this new blog series 'For the honor of His name'.

We saw in the previous post that God renews our strength and guides us along right paths (Psalm 23:3) which brings honor to His name. So in a sense, His goodness and kindness bring honor to His own name.

This is a concept we can find throughout the Bible. Let's take a good look at Psalm 25:11 where it is written: For the honor of your name, O Lord, forgive my many, many sins.

Think about that, the forgiveness of sins brings honor to God's name. When Jesus took that task upon Himself, He did so to bring honor to His Father's name. When He died on the cross for the forgiveness of the sins of the world, it was an act of obedience.

And He was honored for it. Philippians 2:8-10 says, He humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

We are forgiven for the honor of His name. When people refuse His forgiveness, they basically dishonor His name. I would say, that is a thought which needs some further contemplation!

For the honor of His name (1)

Summertime, for some bloggers a time to take a break, and for others time to pick up writing again. In the same way, for some readers time to take a break from social media, for others a time to catch up on reading.

Whatever the case, I decided to do a blog series 😀 on the topic: 'For the honor of His name'.  Where did I get that? Well, basically from the Lord's prayer, as can be found in Luke 11:2, Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this: ‘Father: May your holy name be honored; may your Kingdom come.

To bring honor to the name of God is a prayer uttered by millions of believers... regularly (if all is well). It is one thing to pray those words, but how exactly can we bring honor to His name in our daily lives? 

We can read in the book of Deuteronomy for example that it was very important for the name of God to be honored in a specific place, a place where His presence dwelt. I wrote a book about that (In My Name). In this series, however, I do not want to look at where His name is being honored, but at how His name is being honored.

👉Let's get started with Psalm 23:3 (NLT), where it says: He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.

The NKJV says 'for His name's sake'. When we feel weary, when we feel weak or kind of off-track... God wants to renew our strength. He wants to guide us along the right way. When we ask Him and allow Him to fill us again, to redirect us again, to sustain us again, it brings honor to His name!

That is, if we give Him the glory and thanksgiving of course. Testifying about our recovery is important. We do it for the honor of His name!