MrWonder's Bible Chat

After Jesus said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You.- John 17:1

April 11, 2008 Floyd Ray Gage

Jesus set us the example for everything and all aspects of the life He wants us to lead. This verse is an instance of that example. In one of His final prayers to the Father, Jesus proclaims that His course is almost finished on this earth as a man and that He wants the Father to glorify Him.

The next part of the verse is the part we need to see as our example. Jesus wants to be glorified for one reason and one reason alone. He wants to be lifted up so that He can glorify the Father. There is no pride or ego in this request. There is no self-seeking in this prayer of Jesus.

Jesus is showing us that even when we desire to be exalted it should only be in order to lift up God and bring glory to Him. This example is sorely needed in our me-first and me-only society. Even in the circles of “Christianity�?there is self-seeking and self-glorification at every turn.

As I listen to the prayers of Christians, I sometimes hear a lot of me, me, me, but little of the glorification of the Lord. We want God to bless us, but we don’t want to use the blessing to glorify God. We want to consume the blessing and then have God give us more.

Another aspect of this prayer that we don’t need to miss is that Jesus was referring to the Cross as the means of His glorification. Jesus knew what was about to happen and He knew that the road of the cross was the only road on which lay His glorification as the Son of God, Savior of the world. He knew that to be exalted, He was going to endure the cross first.

We want the glory. We want the blessings, but we don’t want the cross. This is human nature, but we must remember that we have God’s nature now. Jesus has set us the example that we shouldn’t always be thinking “me first.�?We should be thinking “God first.�?/FONT>

A lot of the theology I see in our world today is man centered. It is about us getting the cars and houses and things we want when we are faithful to God. When we don’t get the blessings, we must not have enough faith or we are not trying hard enough. God always wants us to be blessed, right? Yes, but not always in the manner that we think.

God’s major objective is to glorify Himself and thereby bring us the best. Jesus knew that the best for Him and for everyone else was for the Father’s will to be done. Jesus knew that to truly be glorified, He had to glorify the Father, no matter what that meant in personal cost to Himself.

I don’t think that sacrifice is preached much anymore. I don’t think that doing without so that God can be lifted up is taught much anymore. The example of Jesus is not truly followed much anymore. Instead of health and wealth, we should be seeking praise and honor for God.

We should be asking God to glorify Himself in whatever our circumstances are whether that be wealth or poverty, health or illness. Our main concern should be to lift up Jesus in all aspects of our life. Then we can say with Paul, that we have learned to be content in all circumstances of life, because we are seeking to honor God. When God is honored, then we are happy and content. Let us look to Jesus as our example. Let us seek to bring the glory to God and not to ourselves. Let us look to God’s will and not our own.