John 14:13-15
Hello friend, and welcome to Hope for Today. The program you’re listening to is produced by Heralds of Hope. We’re an international Gospel media ministry. Each week our Bible teaching broadcasts circle the globe in English and 22 other major languages. Tens of thousands tune in each week for spiritual nourishment and blessing.
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During today’s lesson, we will take a closer look at prayer from John 14. In this discussion, he tells us our goal in prayer is God’s glory. In other words, we want to glorify God through our prayers. This can be one of the phrases we hear so often; we don’t hear it anymore. It becomes cliché and casual. This is not good. God’s glory is very motivating and gives us great purpose.
When God’s people are motivated and doing what they do to bring Him glory, good things happen. This is the highest motivation we can have. Good things will happen when this is our motive is to see God glorified.
In Scripture, we see many people motivated by God’s glory. For example, David, as a young man, would not allow Goliath to insult the armies of the living God. He declared he would defeat Goliath so that the whole world will know there is a God in Israel. The Philistines were not giving God the glory He deserved, this motivated David, and he was filled with courage.
Another example is Solomon’s prayer during the dedication of the new temple. Solomon prayed for God to hear from heaven and act, “so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you.” Solomon understood the glory of all people belongs to God. He deserves it! Are we motivated by God’s glory?
Here is another example of how being motivated by God’s glory can affect us. It is the story of Hezekiah. King Sennacherib and the Assyrians were destroying many people and many lands. They were coming for Jerusalem and King Hezekiah. Hezekiah begged God to deliver them so all the earth would know that He alone is God. Our God is not wood, or stone made by us; He is the living God.
God heard Hezekiah’s prayer and responded in a mighty way. In one night, 185,000 Assyrians were destroyed by the angel of God. God cares about His glory and is working to bring more glory to himself. He alone is worthy.
There are many more examples from the Bible of men and women doing great things because they were motivated by God’s glory. Jesus himself prayed, “Glorify thy Son, that your Son may glorify you.” His life was centered on bringing God glory.
In the same way, you and I also must live our lives for God’s glory. When He is not glorified, we should be a little irritated, like David, and fight for His glory. Wherever we are, we attempt to maximize our resources so more people can come to Him and bring Him the glory He deserves.
Being motivated by God’s glory is all through Scripture, and we also want to be people who increase that glory. In our prayer life is one of the ways we can make this happen. Here is Pastor J Mark Horst to tell us more about the Personal Possibilities in Prayer.
Have you wished you could contact God? Have you ever felt deserted by all your friends? Have you ever wish...
