"Father, Glorify Thy Name." (John 12:28)

This brief prayer was made by our Lord Jesus Christ, when the Savior's soul was greatly troubled, because of his keen awareness Of all that he must suffer for our redemption. He must be made sin for us. He must be forsaken of God. He must be bruised, crushed, and put to grief. The Good Shepherd must die in the place of his sheep. Why? For the glory of God. Forgetting agony and pain, Christ Jesus sought only the Father's glory.

Brethren, this was the motivating principle of our Savior's life, and it should be our only goal. The utmost desire of the renewed: heart is the glory of God. Happy is the man who can say always, "Father, glorify thy name in me. Do with me what you will, only glorify thy name." Let this be the principle by which we live. The glory of God, after all, is the end for which all things were created. Paul's Joyful hope, he told the Philippians, when he was a prisoner at Rome, was "that in all things, by life or by death, Christ might be magnified in his body."

Children of God, let this be our continual prayer, as individuals and as a congregation -"Father, glorify thy name."

Don Fortner