From Praying the Names of God Week Seven, Day Three
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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Wednesday
PRAYING THE NAME
I said to the LORD,"You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing." (Psalm 16:2)
Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:25-26)
Reflect On: Psalm 16:2; 73:25-26
Praise God: For he is the source of your life.
Offer Thanks: For all the good things God has given you. (Call specific blessings to mind.)
Confess: Any tendency to withhold certain areas of your life from the Lord.
Ask God: To help you see the connection between his lordship and his blessing.
Imagine that you have inherited a large box filled with diamonds. Along with the box you've also inherited a million different keys, with no indication of which one will open the box. According to the rules of the inheritance you are allowed to try one new key each day until you discover the one key that works. So you start with the most elegant-looking one in the collection. Day after day, you try one key after another, but nothing works. Finally on the one-millionth day, you try the smallest, most corroded key of the bunch, and, of course, it works. Suddenly you are a multimillionaire, rich enough to fulfill your heart's desires. There is just one problem. To use every key, you would have to live to be at least 2,740 years old!
Now consider the story from a different angle. Instead of starting with the most impressive key, let's say you decide to approach the problem counterintuitively by starting with the least attractive key. Bingo! It works. You have instant access to an enormous fortune, more than enough to support you for the rest of your life.
The point of this fanciful story is this: If we want to find the one key to everything good in life, we will need to approach the problem counterintuitively. Instead of operating by instinct, we will operate by faith. Instead of striving to do what we want when we want, we will strive to do what God wants when he wants. As we do, we will begin to understand that his lordship will not diminish or impoverish us but that it will bless us in surprising ways. Astonished by all the good he does in and through us, we will be able to echo the psalmist's praise: "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."
Don't wait until tomorrow to test out this principle. Tell the Lord you're ready to serve him today. Ask him for opportunities to express your love and your faith. And don't be surprised by the lightning speed with which he answers your prayer.
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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.
