Today’s devotion builds on the thoughts from Sunday’s Sermon – Week 2 of the Lord’s Prayer Series (LISTEN HERE).
“That’s not me!”
We fight vehemently to protect our name. Mistaken identity or stolen identity is a dreaded event. Mistaken identity can lead to the wrong person being arrested. Stolen identity can lead to a large amount of financial mess to untangle.
Our name is a precious commodity. It identifies us and represents all who we are and all we do. It is a shortcut for people to use which communicates the sum total of our being. We work hard to protect it and ensure people have an accurate depiction of our name and identity.
Recently I was talking with an individual whose girlfriend had a bad experience in a previous relationship. Any time this individual did something that looked or felt like the previous relationship it triggered all the negative emotions related to it. “I’m not your X,” he finally said.
We don’t want to be identified as someone who we are not.
Neither does the true God.
Yet our culture and society does it all…the…time. It lumps the God of the Bible, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the same camp and identity as everything else that is called God.
“We all call on the same God, but call him by different names.”
“There is one God, he just reveals himself differently to different people.”
“We have to unite around good, and not focus on the differences.”
And the list goes on.
All the other gods, Allah, Buddah, nature gods, spiritual entities, Hindu gods, etc. may be “ok” being lumped together as “one God,” but the God of the Bible is not. He does not want HIS name profaned by being equated with all the pseudo/false gods of this world. How do we know? He tells us, “That’s NOT me!”
Isaiah 42:8 “I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.
It defames the name of the Lord when we buy the lie that all gods are the same. It’s like saying all “Mike’s” are the same. It’s like saying all men are the same. Sure they may have some similar characteristics, but they are NOT the same.
God’s name is hallowed, kept holy, when it is held above every other name of every other god. Every other god is an invention of man. Only the Lord is the true God.
Even God followers of Jesus’ time who “thought” they were following the true God, Jesus called out as deniers of the true God.
John 10:37 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
Our culture wants to minimize the discussion and make “religion” easy by lumping all faiths and beliefs into one bucket. This on the one hand minimizes every god to the least common denominator, but most importantly diminishes the true God to the status of false God.
So we pray “Hallowed be thy name” often so that God’s name may be always holy in our hearts and be recognizes as the only holy, true God among many names for God that are NOT God!
Apply: Why is it tempting to buy the lie that all gods are the same?
Prayer: Lord, hallowed be your name. Forgive us for minimizing your name to the realm of all gods that are false. Heighten our conviction that your name and yours alone is the one, true, almighty God. Thank you for revealing yourself to us through your Spirit and the Word of truth. Help us to believe you and your words always! AMEN.