Instruments of His Purpose
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John 17:1-3
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son that the Son may glorify thee, since thou hast given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him. And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent."
This is eternal life: that they know thee and Jesus Christ. That’s pretty cut and dried. That’s how we attain eternal life. The effort is not ours, but God’s – through the person of Jesus. It really is just mind-blowing when you actually stop to think about it, isn’t it? Accept and believe in the one true God and in Jesus, Son of God. We have eternal life granted merely because Christ walked the earth, and in abject humility and subjugation sacrificed himself on the Cross. For that reason alone—to glorify God and to bring us to Him!
In return, we are to model Christ in these verses: glorify us so that we may glorify God. That means we take no credit for the good we do. It means we accept no praise for what we accomplish, lest we credit our Creator – who has given us the gifts, talents and abilities. It doesn’t mean we are worthless! Exactly the opposite – we are of tremendous intrinsic value. The point is to recognize who values us enough to have created us in the first place.
It’s sounding a bit like the chicken and the egg analogy. We give God the glory because we are glorious beings, created in His image and likeness. We glorify God by simply being whom and what we were made to be and do! Oh, if only it were that easy. We all too often fall into the worldly traps of self-indulgence, self-fulfillment, self-satisfaction – notice a pattern here? Remember my oft repeated Rick Warren quote? “It’s not about you.”
In these verses we read of Jesus not asking for his death to be quick and painless, but for Him to glorify God by how he dies. Make me an instrument of your purpose, is really what Christ is asking God. Because God has given me so much, use me this one last time as you see fit. I think about that and it just blows me away! This being, who could have called upon the angels to carry him away at any moment, chose not to – so we can have eternal life. He chose to glorify God so we can be in heaven at the end of time.
My prayer today is that you seek to glorify God in everything you do and say. And that you thank Him for the gift of His Son.
Mary
