Making God Famous

God’s desire is that all the earth will know Him. You see this theme scattered through the whole Bible. “From the rising of the Sun (the East) to it’s setting (the west) and (everywhere in between), His name will be great.” (Malachi 1:11) That’s God’s desire. How does that happen? How will that happen? How does His name get magnified? How does He become famous?

God does do, and is going to do, some pretty amazing things. He has and will make a name for Himself. But, in day to day life, most of what God does, goes unnoticed and unseen. He is the invisible God. So, it’s going to take those who follow Him declaring His works, pointing out, bringing attention to, giving testimony and declaring, “Wow, that was amazing, only my God could have done something like that!

Psalm 147:10-11 David declares that God’s delight is not in how strong we are, or how strong our horse is (I guess we could replace horse with something more modern like a car, or a job, etc). The Lord takes pleasure in those whose hope is in his steadfast love! In 1 John 4:12 John actually says that we will reveal the unseen God by displaying his love. When our hope is in his love, we should desire to show his love in practical ways so that through our actions, and our words, we will declare His love to those around us. That is what will magnify God’s name. That is what will make him famous!

David declared this to be a daily practice for him. Psalm 145:2-6 “Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever…” His greatness is unsearchable, His acts are mighty, they will speak of His fame… Psalm 147:5 says, “Great is the Lord and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure

What have you seen God do that you can declare? As I continue to learn to share Christ with others more, it’s been exciting to declare Him to others. On Christmas Eve we had a pipe break in our bathroom. It created a minor emergency that required a trip to the hardware store. The lady at the check out asked me the question, “How are you doing?” So, I responded with talking about the real joy of Christmas being Jesus. She was a Christian, and was delighted to talk about Christ. It was a wonderful conversation.

Robin and I were visiting with one of our pastors and his wife and I shared this story. Pastor Lee then shared a similar story of a conversation he had with a bank teller. I have always been impressed at how natural Pastor Lee has been at sharing hope in Christ and bringing God into the conversation. I really want to become more natural at this. Whether it’s unbelievers, or believers, we should be asking God to use our mouth to speak words of encouragement. Ian Thomas said that he often starts his day off praying these words:

Father, today I am completely available for the flow of your life through me to others. I place my humanity at your disposal. I thank you in advance for the blessing you are going to be through me to others.

Thank you for the boys and girls, the men and women into whose faces I have never looked and whose names I have never heard, but to whom you are going to speak and to whose lives you are going to add yours, who are going to be redeemed from darkness taken out of death and raised into newness of life in the power of your resurrection.

I want to be adding God to other people’s lives. I want to be giving hope in a world that is fearful and without hope.

What has God done that I can speak of to others? This week I am going to be asking God to help me declare his greatness and make him famous in the eyes of those I talk to. Pray for me. I will be praying for you also.