Glorify God

What is your prayer list or your prayers like presently?  May I invite you to look over your list or think back through your prayers and ask yourself, “How would the things I pray for or about bring praise to the Father and the Son?”  Revelation 4:11 states, “Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. For You created all things, and by Your will they exist and came to be.”  The purpose of man, according to the creeds, is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  This aligns with the teachings found in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which emphasizes that man’s chief end is to honor God through worship and obedience. Knowing these truths about our purpose, shouldn’t our prayer life emphasize these same attributes and goals?  

And these truths should help us see what “persistence” in asking, seeking and knocking are part of the teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.  We should always be asking for, seeking, and wanting opportunities for the glory of God.  It also is instructive why we are seeking the face of God before the hands of God.  Because we should want Him and His presence and glory before wanting things.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with bringing our requests and needs before the Lord.  Yet I see in the verses we looked at on Sunday that we are called to ask in faith, in the name of, for the purpose of bearing fruit, as a result of abiding in Christ.  The more time we spend seeking the face of God, the more we will desire the things of God.  For those of you who are married, who have grown together over the years, who enjoy and desire the presence of your mate, haven’t you found it to be true that you want more of what they want, to please them, to simply enjoy being together rather than the ways or things they do for you?  Let our prayers be those that accomplish the purpose of God creating us, His glory and praise, rather than a grocery list of things we think we want or need.

Pressing on…

Ron Tipton, Senior Pastor