Glorify Your Name // Prayers of Passion Week Devotional

I don’t know about you, but there are times where I have to pray for strength just to pray for what I desire most. While it can get a little rough at times trying to figure out how to approach the Lord with our request, remembering what is most important to God always gives us the right answer. On the third day of Passion Week, Christ ended a long day of dealing with tough situations by opening up to the disciples and all who were in the temple. John writes in John 12:27 – 36 that Christ was stressed and troubled in his soul. This wasn’t the typical “I’ve been working hard all week, my kids are acting out during quarantine while try to homeschool and my spouse is distant because I haven’t been serving her well” type stress. This is the stress that led Christ to have sweat that was like blood coming from his pores just a couple days later (Luke 22:44).“Shall I say ‘Father, save me from this hour?’” he asks rhetorically. And then in his troubled state he releases a prayer that every one of us should tattoo on our hearts.

“Father, glorify your name.” Once again, Christ shows us in his humanity what a perfect servant of the Lord possesses. Courage to pray for God’s Will NO MATTER THE COST.

Here’s the deal. Jesus called out to God, requesting that his actions glorify God the Father. By calling on the Father in his broken and troubled state…in front of many who looked on him, He put the spotlight on God. That’s what glorifying God is. When people look at what made the situation all that it is… you point, and as a result… they look at GOD. With a short prayer, Christ asked that his future acts of obedience and sacrifice allow everyone to see God in all His glory. By Him being willing to lay down his life and offer himself up as a sacrifice, he would go on to magnify the nature of God for everyone to see. God’s wisdom… truth… majesty… justice…mercy…and holiness, all became illuminated by the sacrificial acts of Christ. As deep as that is, it didn’t end there. In response to the short prayer and assurance of trust …GOD SPEAKS! In front of everyone at that. Jesus’ public prayer that pointed to God (and not his own desires or requests) was answered by God in front of everyone. He prayed that God would be illuminated and in a rare happening, God lets everyone there hear His voice.

What is most important to God is that He is your God, and by that He should be glorified. Knowing this, we must realize that none of this is about us but rather, about a gracious and wonderful God that has given us more than we could have ever deserved and offered Himself so that we may LIVE. Not just on this earth… but in an eternal place of peace, life and purity with Him. The God who can do all of that deserves to be magnified and pointed to by everything in the world! Although we will never be able live as Christ did, we will have to suffer we proclaim Christ and live as the Spirit enables us (1 Timothy 3:12). When you are filled with pain, anguish or fear to the point that it hurts, pray that in the circumstances… God will be glorified through it. And if we are IN CHRIST as believers, when God is glorified … Christ is glorified and we will have peace within him