For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.
– Micah 4:5
That is a powerful verse. It’s a powerful picture. Just think about it. The beginning of verse five saying, “All the peoples walk each in the name of its god.”
Now in Micah’s day, this was all kinds of foreign gods that were being worshiped, and all of that worship affected the way people lived on a daily basis. And you bring that picture into our world today.
Micah 4:5 contrasts the worship of God and the worship of idols.
So people may not be worshiping like idols that they’ve crafted around them, but think about the gods that are being worshiped and the culture, certainly where I live, gods of money that affect the way people live, running after money, more money, nicer things, better things, newer things because we think things will satisfy us or worshiping success, running after this achievement, that accolade, looking this way, getting this position, being perceived by this people in that manner.
We’re running after success, people’s applause, and it affects the way we live. People worship sex, and it leads to all kinds of immorality, it leads to all kinds of actions people take that they’re doing in the name of a god, of a little g, god, whether it’s money, success, sex, fame, sports, any number of different things that we can make gods in our lives that affect the way we live.
Micah 4:5 calls us to walk in the ways of the one true God.
And the last part of verse five says, “But we as the people who know the one true God will walk in his name,” and that will affect the way we live. So we won’t run after money, we won’t run after success and sex and this or that possessions, pursuits, pleasures in this world. Why? Because we’re walking in the name of the Lord, our God, because we have satisfaction in God, because he’s our riches, he’s our treasure, and we want to live according to his Word, and what he says leads to life.
And so we pray, God help us to walk differently than the world around us. God, we pray you would help us to walk in your name as our God. Help us to walk as people who are deeply satisfied in you, who find our security and our identity and our joy and our peace in you, and not in having more money, or better position, or success or prosperity in this way or that way in this world, and not in pursuing pleasure according to our desires or the world’s ways.
God, we pray that you will deliver us from walking in the name of false gods and help us to walk in your name, the one and only true God.
Prayer for the Samagara People
Which then leads us to pray specifically today for the Samagara people of India, this Hindu people group that’s worshiping hundreds of millions of gods in Hinduism. God, we pray that your name as the one true God, Jesus, the one true God who has made a way for salvation from sin and restoration to the one true God, God, we pray that the Samagara people would be reached with the good news of your name as the Savior and the Lord of all, the one true God, who alone can save and satisfy their souls, our souls.
We exalt you as the one true God, the Lord our God. We pray that you would help us to walk in your name today. Lord, we pray that it would be evident in the way we live, that we are worshiping you alone. And God, we pray that you would help us to spread your supremacy, your glory, your majesty, your beauty as the one true God in a world of false gods that will never, ever fulfill. We pray all this according to your Word in Micah 4:5 in Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
