This week Michael will look at why we should pray for God’s glory. He asks: Why are your sins forgiven? The reason is for Christ’s namesake and for His glory. If our Christianity errantly rests on anything else, it’s Humanism not. The problems are not in the Church, the body and bride of Christ which God called to be spotless because of the perfect payment of Jesus Christ’s innocent blood. The problem is in the perception of the so-called “church.” Let me explain.
Christianity cannot be understood in light of Humanism. The philosophy of Humanism is “the glory of Man.” The root of Humanism is the devil’s original lie that he told Eve in the Garden of Eden, “You shall be as God knowing good from evil.” The truth of the Word of God focuses on the glory of God rather than the glory of man. The glory of God must be understood in light of “substance” or weight according to the Word of God. The adversary’s job is to deceive the elect of God. If we see according to the eyes of the sinful flesh instead of the eyes of the spirit of Christ in us, we will be deceived. Because we pray doesn’t mean we’re doing the right thing. Prayer is aligning our heart with God’s heart, not vice versa. If we pray like the Pharisee saying, “I’m glad I’m not like those sinners over there,” our prayer is not a righteous prayer. Prayer must be according to the glory of God in order to be effective. The promises of God are an offer to accept the terms and conditions of His promise. Believing action according to the Word of God is the only way to accept the promise of God. Our righteousness is in the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ … His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
When the Children of Israel refused to enter into the Promised Land because they did not believe that God would deliver their enemies into their hands. Who did Moses pray for? Moses did not pray for the people, rather he prayed that God would uphold the honor of His own glory. God revealed to Moses that he did not need to pray as a priest on behalf of the people to intercede for them. Rather, he needed to understand that everything is insignificant compared to the glory of God. The glory is not to judge the unrighteousness people. Rather the glory is for God to judge according to His own righteousness glory. Paul prayed that “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know the hope of your calling…and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints. The understanding is to know the riches of God’s glory … His inheritance in us.
Our prayer needs to be that God sends His power at the right time and place for His honor and glory. Tribulation and trials are so that we can understand the glory of God to deliver and that we are but dust compared to the awesome power of His own glory.
According to Psalm 107:1-7 “O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy; And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Oh, that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.”
Let's continue Michael's message on "Glory" in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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