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Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Father, glorify your name

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  I tell you the truth, unless and kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds. . . .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 12:23-24, 27-28, NIV)

The time had come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Interestingly enough, in these last days, whenever Jesus referred to this glorification, he was also referring to his death.  Somehow the two were intimately and mysteriously linked.  Somehow it was in doing what he had come to do—to bring glory to the name of the Father—that he himself would receive glory.  Somehow through the death of the kernel of wheat, that would then produce many seeds, God’s name was going to be glorified the most.  And that was the glory Jesus was really seeking; that was the very reason he had come.  His own glory was to do the will of his Father and bring glory to His name.

Why would we think it would be any different for us?  Our very life is not about us at all.  Our constant striving to make a name for ourselves and to receive honor and glory will always come up short.  That is until we finally begin to understand what Jesus was teaching us in this text.  It is the glory of the Father, and bringing glory to his name, that really matters.  And that happens only when we are willing to allow our own little kernel of wheat to fall to the ground and die, so that it might produce many seeds of life and love and peace.

O God, give us the same courage and strength and fortitude that you gave Jesus.  Help us to see that our glory will only come when we are willing to die in order to bring glory to your name. 

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