Tuesday, March 4, 2006
John 12:27-28 "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!"
GLORIFY HIS NAME IN LIFE
In His most troubling hours Jesus prayed, "Father, glorify your name!" How does one do that? How does a person glorify the name of another?
One way you glorify the name of someone else is by showing that you respect what the other person believes in and stands for. We show honor and respect for someone else's name by listening to what he tells us -- by treating his words as worth paying attention to and following. A child honors his father's name, for example, when he does what Dad tells him to do.
With that in mind, do you see how Jesus glorified His Father's name? The book of Hebrews says, "Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered" (5:8). What better way for Jesus to bring glory to the name of the Heavenly Father than to be perfectly obedient to His will!
Everything the Father wanted Jesus to do, He did. All the way to the bitter cross, Christ accomplished the will of the One who and sent Him. All the way to the God-forsaken moments on Golgotha, Jesus accepted His Father's direction and guidance. "Not my will, but yours be done" is the prayer we all remember from Gethsemane.
Surely we find that we do not always glorify the Father's name with our lives, but Jesus glorified the Father with His life -- with every step He took. And wonder of wonders, He lived that very life in our place!
