Devotion In Motion
Weekend Inspiration
John 17:1
“Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You”
This is one of the greatest aspects of prayer. You see prayer is always dependent on who or what we direct our prayers too. In the Old Testament the pagan peoples always directed their prayers to false god’s (little g) and their false idols who represented their false gods.
The psalmist wrote in (Psalm 115:1-8)
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
But to Your name give glory,
Because of Your mercy,
Because of Your truth.
Why should the Gentiles say,“So where is their God?”
But our God is in heaven;
He does whatever He pleases.
Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but they do not speak;
Eyes they have, but they do not see;
They have ears, but they do not hear;
Noses they have, but they do not smell; They have hands, but they do not handle;
Feet they have, but they do not walk;
Nor do they mutter through their throat.
Those who make them are like them;
So is everyone who trusts in them
You see They believed that prayer was a way to get their gods to move on their behalf and we make the same mistake I think. You see Prayer is not the way to get the one True God to do our will in heaven. Prayer is the way to get us to do His will on earth.
Once we understand this principle, we find ourselves praying in an entirely different manner. And that’s what Jesus is doing here. ‘Glorify Me,’ He prays, ‘so that You might be glorified—even if that means being pinned to the Cross of Calvary.’
‘That’s crazy you say,
Not at all, because on the other side of the Cross is a crown—joy unspeakable, and great glory. We only see five months or ten years down the road. But God sees the next ten zillion years.
You see, Jesus allowed the Father to be glorified through Him and ultimately that bought a Bride for Him for all eternity.
It’s so radical when a believer finally gets the big picture and stops saying, ‘God do it my way.’ God is not Burger King. We can’t give orders about how things should be done and then complain when we don’t get the lettuce and tomatoes we asked for. God is not Burger King—He’s the King of Kings, He’s the Lord of Lord’s, and He sees what is going to be absolutely best for us in the long run.
Oh it’s OK to ask for the needs of the day, we are commanded to do that but at the end of your prayer, put a “not my will but thy will be done. (Luke 22:42) Some would say that is a prayer of no faith but Jesus would say that is a prayer of immense faith because it is us bowing to the will of the Lord in our lives, that he might be glorified through us.
Amen
Prayer is surrender–surrender to the will of God and cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boathook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.
E. Stanley Jones
Victor Tafoya
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