Lesson 66: The Chief End of Prayer, part 4
Let us look to Jesus. In Him we can see by what death we can glorify God. In death, He glorified Him; through death He was glorified with Him. It is by dying, being dead to self and living to God, that we can glorify Him. And this—this death to self, this life to the glory of God—is what Jesus gives and lives in each one who can trust Him for it. Let nothing less than these—the desire, the decision to live only for the glory of the Father, even as Christ did; the acceptance of Him with His life and strength working it in us; the joyful assurance that we can live to the glory of God, because Christ lives in us—let this be the spirit of our daily life. Jesus stands as guarantor for our living this way; the Holy Spirit is given, and waiting to make it our experience, if we will only trust and let Him. Oh, let us not hold back through unbelief, but confidently take as our watchword—all to the glory of God! The Father accepts the will; the sacrifice is well-pleasing; the Holy Spirit will seal us within with the consciousness that we are living for God and His glory.
And then what quiet peace and power there will be in our prayers, as we know ourselves through His grace, in perfect harmony with Him who says to us, when He promises to do what we ask: “That the Father may be glorified in the Son.” With our whole being consciously yielded to the inspiration of the Word and Spirit, our desires will be no longer ours but His; our chief end the glory of God. With increasing freedom, we shall be able to say in prayer: Father, You know, we ask it only for Your glory. And the condition of prayer-answers, instead of being as a mountain we cannot climb, will only give us the greater confidence that we shall be heard, because we have seen that prayer has no higher beauty or blessedness than this, that it glorifies the Father. And the precious privilege of prayer will become doubly precious because it brings us into perfect unison with the Beloved Son in the wonderful partnership He proposes: “You ask, and I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
Prayer: Blessed Lord, the God of glory, the Father of glory, my God and my Father, accept the desire of a child who has seen that Your glory is indeed alone worth living for. O Lord! Show me Your glory. Let it overshadow me. Let it fill the temple of my heart. Let me dwell in it as revealed in Christ. And fulfil in me Your own good pleasure, that Your child should find his glory in seeking the glory of his Father.