Well, welcome back to another podcast of Struggling Well. And yes, what No, I'm always going to do it anyway. I just was thinking it's
when you hear this, it'll be mid August,
sort of mid August. So, I just have a question for you.
which obviously I'm not going to hear the answer of, but I would love to for you to ponder this as you're listening. Is how's your summer been? what did you set out as some plans or goals for the summer? And how's that working? Like I do a Bible study with 12 amazing young women. And the beginning of the summer, I sent them out a text and I said, you know, keep studying. We're going to finish the book of Romans, the last half of Romans in the fall. And I just sent out this text and said, you know, keep studying, keep journaling, keep, you know, whatever. Find something to study for the summer. And I've not contacted them again because I'm not their mom. and I was thinking about my own plans for this summer. So, I just want to drop out What were your plans for the summer? Did you think, "Yeah, I'm going to read the whole Bible this summer. I'm going to study a certain book." h how's it gone? And that mean has nothing to do with what we're going to talk about this morning, does it?
Well, it does, but it's just it's like that's what we do. We have conversations. So, so what was your plan for the summer?
Well, my plan was to paint every day, which I have done two days out of the summer so far, and I'm pretty proud of that. no, most It was to finish journaling, writing out the book of Romans. So, I'm almost done.
So, you're writing the entire book of Romans.
Writing out the group of 12 girls and I that's what we're doing. We're writing out the book of Romans.
You think that's what they're doing, but that is what you're doing.
That's what I'm doing. But the other thing,
what chapter are you in?
I'm in 14. So, I have two more chapters and then I'm finished. And it's been remarkable.
And we might visit Romans again. I don't know. And we are so off track right now. It's not funny. But, you know, for those of you that have been listening, you know that Jimmy is the engineer and I'm the caboose. And honey, I love to jump off the track whenever I can. It's just the way I'm wired.
Well, let me just tell you.
I was gonna make a segue. I was going to make a segue.
Go ahead.
Segue away.
The other thing I was going to do, and here we go. Watch. Watch how well this works. Is I've been studying, get ready, the names of God. Take it away, Jimmy.
Well, oh my goodness. so, you know, the disciples walked with Jesus for 3 plus years of his public ministry. And yet, there's only one place recorded in the Gospels where they actually asked him to teach them something, which I find is amazing. You know, you have the you have God walking the son of God walking with you for three years. And maybe they asked for many other things, but there's only one place that's recorded and that's in the Gospel of Luke where after having watched him for obviously many many months. they say to him, would you teach us to pray? And I just find it's fascinating that's the only thing they ask him. Teach us to pray.
And out of that comes what we call the Lord's prayer. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And that's the part that really has captured my attention is he says you should when you pray you should understand that the father 's name is hallowed, which is a word we don't even use.
but it comes with the idea of being set apart, being revered, being held up as something that we look at as being preeminent. And God's name is to be revered. It's to be set apart because it is set apart. I mean,
and one of the things that I've been seeing as I've been studying the names of God is
That was the segue.
Yours or mine?
No, yours. Back to the names of God quickly.
Wasn't that a good segue for you though? Good segue.
Okay. So, what is the fact that when I pray and I refer to God, I think of God as the only name I think of. So, that really limits who he is and his character because there's so many characteristics of God that come out in the various names that are used in the Old and New Testament. And so, studying the names of God and I've done four 20 I think right now is has been fascinating. because they reveal characteristics of attributes of God.
Yeah. And you know, I think that we need to understand when we come to prayer, which has always been a struggle for me. I'm just honest in all my years of prayer I don't get. And so, I've got books on my shelf of prayer and they either cause me to feel guilty or they cause me to go, I don't understand this. but I think it as he gave us in the Lord's prayer, that opening thing, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, it gives us insight into just how serious God is about his name. And so when I come to prayer, even I usually come to prayer and I jump right in with what I'm asking for. You know, you know, father, I got a friend who's suffering with an illness and would you please help them? I've got or somebody comes to you and says, would you pray for me? And so immediately I walk right into prayer as opposed to sitting with the name of God and understanding how significant it is and should be to me but how significant it is to him.
in the book of Ezekiel God says in the 36th chapter to his people you have profained my name and he said but I had concern for my holy name and so God comes in and steps in and says you've trashed my name in essence profaneed my name the way in which you've lived amongst the nations and God steps in and says, "But I have concern for my name."
Now, even to the point that I'm going to step in and do something, but it's not for your sake. It's for my name's sake.
And I don't think we understand fully how set apart his name is to be and how we're to respond in such a way that we seek when we come into prayer, we seek in our lives that we pause long enough to go, Let me just let me just exalt his name. Let me hallow his name.
As I've been studying the names of God, several have really jumped out at me because I've never heard them before. And I'm not going to try to do the Hebrew, although Hebrew is a beautiful language. I love the sound of it. And some I'll be able to say, but there are so many so many of the name well all the names are speaking about the nature of God. And so when I come to him, and I hollow his name and I look at his name in the context of what the scripture is saying, it'll give me a clue as to who he is in that situation and why they refer to him in that particular way. We all know Elohim, which is the creator god. We're familiar with that. But there are so many I'm just going to read you the English version of who he is. he's a jealous god. He's referred to as the ancient of days. he the Hebrew phrase for this one is so beautiful, but I can't say it. But he's a renewer of life. What would it look like if as we pray and we hollow his name to be familiar with the very nature of God through his names and prayed in that vein. Like if as I'm praying to the renewer of life, it will even change the way I pray because I'm not just praying dear God. I'm praying God, you are the renewer of life. And as I look at this situation, I'm asking you to respond to my prayer, hear my prayer as the renewer of life. he's the great one, the holy one. He's the provider. Jehovah Gyra, we know that one. Elshama is one of my favorite, the God who hears. Often times when we pray, even when we're praying the Lord's prayer in a congregation, we're wondering, are do you hear me? Well, according to the word, he is El Shama. So, he hears us. He's the God who hears. That's not something we wish he was. It is who he is. It's his very nature. And so, how that will change our prayer life when we're praying to wait, he is the God who hears. he's God, my rock. He's here's the other one that I love. We all so many of my friends love this too. Elroy, the God who sees me. I mean, just take those two things. The God who hears and sees me. So, as I'm praying, as I'm sitting here right now, he is the God who hears me and sees me. And isn't that the cry of every heart that we want to be seen?
Yeah. And so, when you take that and take it back into the context of the Lord's prayer, which is primarily there's a lot of petitions we ask them in the Lord's prayer. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins. So, there are things that we ask him to do. But the whole idea that before I rush into my prayer, whatever it's going to be, that I pause long enough to reflect on his name because it is his heart for his name to be lifted up and exalted. When, you know, you go all the way back in the Old Testament to when Moses is going to go back to Egypt to lead the people of Egypt out the pe children of Israel out of Egypt, he says, "What basically what authority am I going to them with? Who shall I say sent me?" Yeah.
And God says, You just tell them I am.
Yeah.
So, so the great I am is the one who sent me,
right?
and it all comes back to his name. And I know that again culture, language has changed. profanity is it feels to be everywhere in every sentence by some people. But there's a difference even between what I would call coarse words that we would look at and go that's probably not the best word to use. And somehow honoring his name.
Yeah.
And I draw a line there. And I think one of the things that this summer has helped me come to grips with is that as I enter into prayer, I take time to pause and just reflect on him and his name. And that's how the Lord prayer starts. And that's what the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to
teach us how to pray. Wow. That's pretty cool. You know, as we hallow his name and as we study his name, It reveals to us his nature but it also hand in hand is it reveals to us how he deals with mankind.
So I want to know that he is a god who sees and hears but I also need to know that his name should be revered by me. I really appreciate what you said too about how you know there's a lot of course language out there but the thing that is the hardest for me is when somebody uses God's name in a very cavalier casual way and you know oh my gosh turns into
yeah
and that is it's not that it's offensive to me which it is but it's offensive to God
right
like we're using his name like it has no meaning and yet you think about when let's go to creation all he had to do is speak
he was God he spoke and the world as we know it came to be.
Yeah. So, one of the things that we want to leave you with is as you go to prayer, and we hope you do. I hope I do on a regular basis, that before you jump into the list of things that you want God to do for you, that you take time to pause and reflect on his name and lift his name up before I ever enter into asking him for what I want from him. Have a great day.
Thanks for listening.