“In the path of your judgments oh Lord, we wait for you. Your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.”
– Isaiah 26:8
I love this verse. What a picture. This has impacted my life. Here is Isaiah in the middle of everything going on in the world around him, and he says, “I’m waiting for You,” which we know is a picture of trusting in God. And then he says, “so I have a desire in my soul as I look at everything in the world around me.” And it’s like, “Okay, what’s the desire?” It’s, he says, “It’s Your name and Your remembrance.” Some translations say, “Your renown.” “Your name, Your remembrance, Your renown are what I desire in the world around me.”
Isaiah 26:8 Reminds Us Our Desire Should Be Glorifying God
Let one desire drive you. That through and in us others can know the glory of God
And just think about it. This is exactly how Jesus taught us to pray. From the very beginning, pray like this: “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name.” Cause Your name to be a known as holy. And this is the desire that should drive all of our lives. Everything we do, everything we think, everything we say, we wanna do it with a desire from His name, His renown, for His glory.
I just wanna encourage you to think about today. What you’ve got going on in your life today. Let one desire drive us. I want Your name, oh God, Your renown, Your glory to be made known through me today, in my life, in my family, in my work. In everything I say, I want others to known Your glory. I want my family to know Your glory.
This Verse Leads Us To Pray For God To Be Glorified Through Us
So let’s just pray these things. God, please, in our lives today, cause Your name to be glorified in everything we say and everything we do and everything we think. God in our thoughts, glorify Your name. And our desires, what we want. May a desire for Your glory drive every other desire in us. We pray for that in our lives, we pray for that in our families. God we pray that You would be glorified in our families, that You would show Your grace, Your greatness, in and through our families. We pray for that in our work and everything we do at work. God we pray that You would glorify Yourself.
In everything we eat today, I just, think about First Corinthians 10. Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God. God, help us to live today so that Your glory would be evident in our lives, be they known in and through our lives.
Isaiah 26:8 Leads Us To Pray For the World To Glorify God
And far beyond our lives, God we pray for Your glory around the world. We pray for people around us who don’t know Your grace. God, may they be saved by Your grace for Your glory. And use us toward that end. We pray for people around the world that are worshiping all kinds of false gods. God, we pray that You would glorify Your name among them, cause Your name to be renowned among the nations. We pray, particularly for the nations who’ve never heard the name of Jesus. God, we pray together today. Your name, and Your remembrance are the desire of our soul. And may that desire drive everything we do. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
