Devotionals
Moment of Transformation:
- Pray for the items listed in your Transformational Journal
- Pray for the transformation of the five individuals/families you chose
- Pray that your relatives will be transformed by Christ’s GRACE
- Pray for your transformation in order to overcome the storms of life
GLORIFYING GOD
Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You. John 17:1 NKJV
Those who have a knowledge of God in Christ Jesus are under obligation to perform his expressed will in doing his commandments, which are a transcript of his character. We are under a debt of gratitude to God for the revelation of his love in Christ Jesus; and as intelligent human agents, we are to reveal to the world the manner of character that will result from obedience to every specification of the law of God’s government. In perfect obedience to his holy will, we are to manifest adoration, love, cheerfulness, and praise, and thus honor and glorify God. It is in this way alone that man may reveal the character of God in Christ to the world, and make manifest to men that happiness, peace, assurance, and grace come from obedience to the law of God. Thus glory redounds to God in good and righteous actions through harmony with the laws of Jehovah’s government.
It was positively necessary that man should know his Heavenly Father, and discern his paternal attributes of character; for in becoming acquainted with God, men may become partakers of the same virtues and the same glory. In the prayer of Christ for his disciples, the truth embodied is of the deepest significance and interest to all his followers. “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, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” To render acceptable service to God, it is essential that we should know God, to whom we belong, in order that we may be thankful and obedient, contemplating and adoring him for his wonderful love to men. We could not rejoice in and praise a being of whom we had no certain knowledge; but God has sent Christ to the world to make manifest his paternal character.
It is our privilege to know God experimentally, and in true knowledge of God is life eternal. The only begotten Son of God was God’s gift to the world, in whose character was revealed the character of him who gave the law to men and angels. He came to proclaim the fact, “The Lord our God is one Lord,” and him only shalt thou serve. He came to make it manifest that, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” That which proceeds from the mind of God is perfect, and needs not to be taken back, corrected, or altered in the least. We may ascribe all perfection to God. He holds in his hand the existence of every human being, and upholds all things by the word of his power.
Ellen G. White, The Review and Herald, March 9, 1897
Quote of the Day “God glorifies in heaven those who glorify Him on earth.” Quesnel
Did You Know?
In the prayer of John 17, Jesus address God in a special way six times. The form of address is the simple “Father,” the address of a child to its parent.
Going Deeper
“The hour has come”; it is the event to which the whole life and mission of Jesus has moved (contrast 2:4; 7:6, 8, 30; 8:20 with intimations of the arrival of the hour in 12:23, 27–28, 31–32; 13:1, 31). The petition, “Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,” strikes the keynote of the prayer (“The first petition is in fact its whole contents,” Bultmann, 490). Its significance is complex; in the context it expresses the desire of Jesus that his life, now to be devoted to God in death (v 19), may be an acceptable sacrifice; that God may raise him to the throne of his glory (cf. 13:31–32); that the honor that comes from God alone may be his, and that all may recognize it; that thereby this event may constitute the coming of the saving sovereignty, the kingdom of God for the life of the world, and so the revelation of the Father’s glory in terms of redeeming love and power.
George R. Beasley-Murray, John, vol. 36, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002), 296.
Question…
How can you use prayer to glorify God?
This Week’s Homework
- Memorize: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 NASB
- Contact the five individuals/families and kindly invite them for a fellowship time or a special meal in order to spend time and foster your relationship with them.
