Glorify Our Father

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

GLORIFY OUR FATHER

John 17:1-5

17:1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

"Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

NIV

It does not seem right to break up the prayer of Jesus into smaller sections, but how could we deal with the whole of it within this short devotional thinking, and do any justice to the truth within his prayer. The first truth we notice is that Jesus is praying that the Father would glorify Jesus, so that Jesus may glorify the Father. Jesus was not looking for the glory for self-edification, or to be seen as someone special, one with a special relationship with the Father, or has some special knowledge. Although that is very true. Jesus does have a very special relationship with the Father, they are one. Jesus does have special knowledge, he is omniscient, knowing all things. But the desire of Jesus, the Son, is to bring glory to the Father. This is the first lesson we should learn as a believer. Our task, our purpose in this life, as a child of God, is to desire to bring glory to our Father in Heaven. The world system is not set up to bring glory to God. Everything we learn from our early childhood is to seek to be the best we can be. This world philosophy thrives in self-glorification. We are honored when we achieve various levels in our endeavors. Awards, trophies, plaques, and titles or some other significant way to recognize our achievement. It would seem in the church, it would be different, but yet we have much the same methods to give honor to the achiever. Some children’s programs are based on a secular scouting system of badges for certain achievements. It seems we want to mimic the world, but make it look spiritual. How are we bringing glory to the Father? When we are honored, either by the world, or the church, how do we respond? Is our first impulse to bring glory to the Father? It should be. How can we bring glory to the Father when we are given recognition? We have to speak up, we have to say words, other than, “Thank you”. What honor are we truly worthy to have? We have the honor of being a child of God, and even then all too often we give ourselves glory by saying it is our faith which saves us. Even faith is a gift from the Father, for in and of ourselves we are not capable of having faith. There is no honor we can think of that we are worthy of, for all honor and glory belong to the Father and our life, however, it turns should be all about giving him the glory for all things. Our heart's desire should be to glorify our Father.