From Praying the Names of God Week Seven, Day Four

The Name
Adonay is a Hebrew word meaning "Lord," a name that implies relationship: God is Lord, and we are his servants. As a word referring to God it appears more than three hundred times in the Hebrew Scriptures. As you pray to Adonay, tell him you want to surrender every aspect of your life to him. Pray for the grace to become the kind of servant who is quick to do God's will. Remember, too, that the Lord is the only one who can empower you to fulfill his purpose for your life. In fact, it is in knowing him as your Lord that you will discover a true sense of purpose. The New Testament depicts Jesus as both Lord and Servant. In this latter role he exemplifies what our relationship to Adonay is to be.

Key Scripture
You are my Lord; I have no good besides you. (Psalm 16:2 NASB)

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Thursday
PRAYING THE NAME

Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes. (Nehemiah 4:14)

Reflect On: Nehemiah 4:7-18

Praise God: For he is more powerful than our most powerful enemies.

Offer Thanks: That your powerful Lord uses his power on your behalf.

Confess: Any tendency to live by fear and not faith.

Ask God: To help you fight for your marriage, your children, and your home.

Nehemiah helped rebuild Jerusalem more than a hundred years after it had been destroyed by the Babylonians. He began by reminding a demoralized people, not of who they were, but of who God is—"the Lord, who is great and awesome." Having thus rallied them, he succeeded in rebuilding Jerusalem's defensive walls in only fifty-two days, despite significant resistance from outside enemies.

Thousands of years later, we still face forces intent on destroying us—enemies that eat away at faith, that corrode relationships, that destroy families. Some of us are bone weary from the struggle, about to give up on the spouse who seems so distant, the child who has wandered away from God, the job we can't seem to succeed at, or the prayer that has gone so long unanswered. If that describes your spiritual state, let the words of Nehemiah sink into the raw places of your heart where disappointment lodges: "Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome." Now is not the time to give up or give in. Remember whose servant you are. Fight in his strength for your children, your marriage, your church. Do whatever it takes for however long it takes, knowing the Lord is with you.

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Meet your spiritual ancestors as they really were: Less Than Perfect: Broken Men and Women of the Bible and What We Can Learn from Them.