“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!” John 12:27-28 (NIV)
“Father, glorify your name!” In this our Lord Jesus teaches us that bringing God glory through our lives - in all that we say and do and think - is to be our greatest motivation. God’s glory is to be preferred above all things – as our highest thoughts and greatest endeavors. This was Jesus’ practice and we are to walk as He walked through His power, Amen? Our Lord’s MO was always to bring His Father much glory. All else was vastly beneath it. This same mindset should dwell in us as well.
Our prayers for other things may carry with them limitations or restrictions and are followed by “Yet not what I will, but what you will” as Jesus prayed in the Garden. But to pray for the glory of God – absolutely and simply - there remains no limitations – even if it should cost us suffering or sorrow or death itself. If glory to God arrives from our loss, then it is ultimate gain. God is the Master of making beauty out of all of our ashes. Out of the ruins He can erect a trophy. Remember, our thoughts and our ways are not God’s thoughts and ways. God tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” – and His purposes always ultimately bring Him much glory and us much good. As Piper said: “We are most satisfied when God is most glorified” in and through us. Mercy and kindness flow from God freely and naturally and He takes no pleasure in giving His people up to adversity yet these tests show us what lies within our hearts. We are so easily self-deluded. In things allowed that are not of our choosing – yet for our good – whether we can discern that are not – we are to bring Him glory through our response. As righteous Job stated: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised.”
"As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night. When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.” John 13:30-32 (NIV)