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Today is the 21st day of Lent, a 40 day season of spiritual reflection, repentance, and renewal.  During these 40 days we’ll explore the prayer life of Jesus, walking chronologically through every mention of Jesus’ prayer life and prayers in the Gospels.

Here is today’s prayer event:  1When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.  6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. (John 17:1-8 ESV)

Here, Jesus prays, “The hour has come.”  In other words, “It’s time to die.”  It is the darkest moment of Jesus’ life to-date.  “It’s time to die.”

Yet rather than pray a lament or complaint, which would be well-deserved, Jesus offers a prayer of confidence: “Glorify me with glory.”

“Glory” and “glorify” are important words in John.  They are found 14 times in the first 11 chapters and 19 more times in the Gospel’s concluding chapters.  They are used 10 times in this prayer.

Here, the words carry two possibilities.  First, Jesus may be praying for God to exalt him.  Just as his death on the cross will be inglorious, so he prays for God to follow that death with a glorious resurrection.  He prays for God to exalt him

Second, Jesus may be praying for God to reveal himself through the death.  In the Old Testament, God’s glory is his visible manifestation (e.g., Ex. 16:7,10).  Jesus may be praying that through the crucifixion and resurrection, God will reveal himself.

Both possibilities point in the same direction: Jesus prays that through this painful time, God will bring the best from the bad; God will bring triumph from tragedy; God will let the Story end spectacularly.

The word “glory” carried then as it does now the hint of light.  Something that is glorious is something that is full of light.  Jesus prays that out of this darkness, God will bring light.

Consider a painful time in your life.  Pray for God to bring triumph where you see only tragedy.  Pray for God to bring the best from the bad.  Pray for the Story to end spectacularly.  Pray for God to bring light from the darkness.

SHARE A TIME IN WHICH GOD BROUGHT LIGHT FROM DARKNESS, TRIUMPH FROM TRAGEDY…

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Today is the 18th day of Lent, a 40 day season of spiritual reflection, repentance, and renewal.  During these 40 days we’ll explore the prayer life of Jesus, walking chronologically through every mention of Jesus’ prayer life and prayers in the Gospels.

Here is today’s prayer event: 27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” (John 12:27-28 ESV).

As with all of the prayers for which we have Jesus’ actual words, this one is prayed in the cold shadow of the cross.  Here, Jesus lays out the two options we have when faced with pain and suffering: “Father, save me.” or “Father, use me.”  The prayer, “Father, glorify your name,” is a plea for God to use the cross and Jesus’ suffering for His purposes, to reveal something about Himself.

Save me.  Use me.

Take a few moments right now to identify a circumstance in your life that brings you pain or suffering.  Rather than asking God to save you from that circumstance, ask Him right now to use you in the midst of that circumstance.

SHARE WITH READERS BELOW A DIFFICULT TIME WHEN GOD USED YOU  OR THE CIRCUMSTANCE FOR GOOD.

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Today is the 17th day of Lent, a 40 day season of spiritual reflection, repentance, and renewal.  During these 40 days we’ll explore the prayer life of Jesus, walking chronologically through every mention of Jesus’ prayer life and prayers in the Gospels.

Here is today’s prayer event:  33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”  38Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” (John 11:33-42 ESV).

Timothy Jones (“Praying Like the Jew, Jesus” (70)) points out that Jesus did not speak this prayer of thanksgiving after Lazarus has been raised from the dead.  Jesus speaks this prayer of thanksgiving while Lazarus is still decomposing in a tomb.  Jesus is not thanking God because he is certain God will raise Lazarus.  He thanks God simply because God hears him.  What did God hear?  Jones argues that God heard Jesus’ tears: “When [Jesus] found himself in the shadow of his friend’s tomb, he couldn’t put his prayers into words, so he put them into tears instead.  And his Father heard his cries.”  Jones concludes: “Perhaps it’s because at the heart of all our prayers, what we really want is not an answer but an assurance—an assurance that our Father is listening.”

Jesus thanks God simply because God hears.  Even in the midst of a painful time, Jesus believes that God hears.  And here, that’s all Jesus needs.

Is it enough for you to know that God hears?  Why?  Why not?  Take a few moments and just thank God for his open ears, for the way his door is always open, for how God is always willing to listen.

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