Hallowed Be Your Name EGP Blog post from October 21, 2018

“If you’re lifting your hands and your heart is not hallowing, cherishing, esteeming, honoring, treasuring Him above everything, those hands are hypocrite’s hands. Our Father seeks our praise because the very heart of praise is finding pleasure in His supreme value and if that is missing, praise is empty.” —John Piper, “Are We Adopted for Us or for God”

“What does ‘HALLOWED’ mean? The word is literally ‘SANCTIFY’ … or ‘REGARD as holy’. We don’t ‘MAKE’ God holy, we REGARD Him as holy, SEE Him as holy, SENSE Him as holy, stand in AWE of Him as holy. … And not just SEE it, the DEVIL sees it. Remember, the DEMONS said to Jesus, ‘We know who YOU are. You’re the HOLY ONE of God.’ So, they REGARD Him as holy, BIG DEAL, it’s so much utterly CRUCIAL that we not just REGARD Him as sacred, … but that we FEEL it.

Hallowing happens in the HEART, … not in the HANDS first. The hands may go up as the FRUIT of hallowing. But if the hands go up WITHOUT the heart, … He holds His nose at THAT ‘worship’. So, if you’re lifting your hands and your heart is not HALLOWING, CHERISHING, ESTEEMING, HONORING, TREASURING Him above EVERYTHING, those hands are HYPOCRITE’S hands. … Our Father seeks our praise because the very heart of PRAISE is finding PLEASURE in His supreme value, and if THAT is missing, praise is EMPTY. …

Our Father is most GLORIFIED in us, when we are most SATISFIED in Him. When God adopts us into His family, and He makes the ULTIMATE goal that HE would be made much of forever—His GREATNESS, His BEAUTY, His WORTH—would be treasured above ALL THINGS. … More than you’re glad in your LIFE or ANYTHING in it. … When He does that, He’s not a deranged EGOMANIAC, He’s a LOVING FATHER. Because … He’s setting at the center of the family the ONE Reality in ALL the universe that would satisfy our souls forever: HIMSELF. And He’s summoning us, not just to REGARD Him as supremely valuable, but to ENJOY Him as supremely valuable. FOREVER.”

—John Piper, Are We Adopted for Us or for God?

Key verses

Matthew 6:9–13; Luke 4:33–34; Isaiah 1:13–18; Mark 7:6–9; Romans 5:1–5; 1 Timothy 6:17–19

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