The Name of the Lord

One of the things God treasures is His Name. He tells us not to take or use his name in vain. He “leads us in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” In Ezekiel 36:22-23, God declares that he will protect the worth of his name regardless of how the people of Israel diminish that worth. In the next couple of days, you will receive an email from me about the incident that happened last Sunday. Throughout this week, we have received discouraging and painful emails and phone calls, which Pastor Mofid described as inhumane. He said that in Egypt, the persecution of Christians included these kinds of statements. We prayed together, he and I, that God would react and speak into our situation because of his name. We prayed to God to ask him to demonstrate his power in the protection of his name. We prayed honor on his name. We want to react to the people of the world. We want to tell them that they are wrong, or hateful, or at least responsible. But God tells us that he will take care of things. He says not to worry. He’s got it in hand. In Psalm 23, we learn that he “leads us into paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” That is, in order to prove the strength of his name and worth, his presence in the world. He will lead us to do the right thing so that he can be honored throughout the whole thing, even if it’s not what we expect. As we move forward, regardless of what gets in our way, we can trust that God will handle it. We need to look at how he will make his name known through us. We can trust that he will. Blessings, Geoff