“Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. Why do the nations say “Where is their God?” Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever pleases him.” – Psalm 115:1-3
We know that God loves His glory so much because He warns us that He does not share it. Appealing to the glory of God’s name is a good tactic when we are earnestly petitioning Him. The Psalmist above asks why people should mock him when he has staked his all on the God who is in heaven and can do anything he wants to do. In effect, he asks God to vindicate the relationship they have, because he belongs to God.
Moses thought along these lines when he appealed to God to hold his declared wrath against the Israelites who had fallen into idolatry so soon after God had delivered them wondrously.
11 Then Moses pleaded with [c]the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. – Exodus 32:11-12.
The thing about this line of prayer is that it is a two-way street. If we are asking God to glorify His name in our lives by granting a particular petition and begging Him not to allow our enemies to mock us, then we must also ensure that seeking His glory is our defining purpose in life. We must seek His glory in everything we do, and avoid any impression of self-glorification. We must give Him the credit for anything good that is in us or done by us.
Then we can confidently take up that cry in earnest prayer because it will not be lip-service. God will see that we want Him to glorify His name in that pressing situation because that is what we are always most concerned about – His glory. He would have observed that we have been living only for the glory of His name in everything we do.
We believe that as He did upon Moses’ intercession for the wayward Israelites, He will arrange the outcome of whatever we are pleading about for the glory of His name. This will further encourage us to continue to live for His glory. We cannot go wrong with that mentality.
Hilltop Thoughts, Valley Strengths 