223. Establish God’s Name and His Church
1 Chronicles 17:24 Let it even be established, that thy name may be magnified for ever, saying, The Lord of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel: and let the house of David thy servant be established before thee.
“Hallowed by Thy name.” May the name of God be magnified forever. God’s name is already holy and it is already magnified and bigger than anything else, but we still pray for it and believe the promise that it may be holy and big among us where we live in this world. God promises to answer our pray to bring His Name, His Presence, and His “Godness” into our hearts and our lives. God will establish His Name in us, in our families, in our churches, and in our communities. We pray that the Name and Presence of God will be so large among us that everything else, ourselves included, will be small in comparison. We pray that we might be able to let God be everything. We pray that the name of God will be as established among us in our own conscious awareness as it already is in reality. We pray that we might believe and live according the awesomeness of that truth. And God promises to hear our prayer.
The Lord is our God, whether we acknowledge it or not, but we need to pray that we might be aware of it: we make our selves and our sins small through repentance and humility, and we make God as holy and as big as He is through faith in the Gospel of Grace. God will establish His Name.
We also pray according to the promise that the house of David will be established before the Lord. The house of David is the Son of David, the Messiah of God, who will be established as king of the kingdom forever and ever without end and without fail. The kingdom of God, the Church on earth and the Church in heaven, is established forever through the work of the Christ. Such is the truth, such is our prayer, and such is the promise. The Kingdom of God is established in our hearts today and into the eternal future. We pray for its manifestation and reflection through us.