Glorify

Father God,

God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ. God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the One True God who breathed Your Word into existence through Your servants the prophets, and who watches over Your Word to fulfill it. Your glory is revealed through Your power to speak prophecy into existence, and to accomplish it in Your perfect power, in Your perfect time, and according to Your sovereign purposes. Not one of Your promises has failed or will fail, for Your eternal Word endures forever.

You are the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Your eternal power and divine nature are revealed in all that Your hands have made. How vast and beyond measure is the sum of Your creation. Yet You can hold the oceans in the palms of Your hands. The mountains are like a single speck of dust beneath Your feet. People are like grasshoppers and are utterly dependent on Your grace for life and breath. Fear of You is the beginning of wisdom, for You are God Almighty, the King of glory.

While man struggles to measure the absolute within the finite boundaries that You have wisely and firmly established, You see all of creation at once, in perfect precision and infinite wisdom. You are a mighty, holy King. Your majestic throne is in the heavens in Your holy temple. You reign from on high, and the earth is Your footstool. The Lord Jesus, whom You love, whom You exalted, and whom You sent to redeem and sanctify Your people, is seated at Your right hand, enthroned in glory.

Father, You have not redeemed Your people based on their own strength, wisdom, or righteousness, but based on Your grace, glory, and great faithfulness, and the perfect worthiness, power, and righteousness of Your Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. For You appointed Him as the Heir of creation through whom, for whom, and to whom all things have been made, that He might have preeminence over all the works of Your hands. There is no other name by which man can be saved, and when Jesus returns in glory, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord.

By Your immeasurable grace and foreknowledge, You sent Jesus into the world in the flesh to seek and to save sinners. A holy hush must have resounded in the heavens the day You appointed Jesus to bear the sin of the world. For our sake, Your eternal, glorious, sinless Son became the curse of sin on the cross, dying in the place of sinners, in order that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. What grief You must have borne to witness the suffering of Christ as He willingly bore the full weight of Your wrath on behalf of depraved and guilty sinners, such as I was.

You revealed Yourself as the Just and the Justifier of man when You raised Jesus on the third day from the grave, just as You promised, and just as Jesus had foretold to His disciples prior to His crucifixion. Jesus appeared to His disciples and to over 500 witnesses in His resurrected body, and eyewitnesses testified that Jesus lives. You are mighty to save, and to all who receive Jesus by faith, You freely give Your grace.

To all who are baptized into Christ’s death, You raise up and give new birth by the Holy Spirit. Borne of the Spirit, we are a new creation in Christ, forgiven and sanctified by His blood. Redeemed by the precious blood of Christ and imputed with His perfect righteousness, You justify us by Your grace through faith alone in Christ. And You send the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and to sanctify us by His power. By the Holy Spirit’s power, we are being conformed to the likeness of Your beloved Son.

The blood of Jesus Christ inaugurated the New Covenant, which You revealed through Your prophet Jeremiah. Just as You covenanted with the house of Israel, You place Your law within Your people who abide in Christ and are baptized with the Holy Spirit. You have written Your law upon our hearts. You are our God, and we are Your people. You have forgiven our iniquity, and remember our sin no more.

To all who receive Jesus, who believe in His name, You give the right to become children of God, who are born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. From the fullness of Christ, we have received grace upon grace. Through the grace and truth that came through Jesus, we receive knowledge of You. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, we cry to You, “Abba, Father.” And You hear us.

Father, we cannot save one another. Salvation comes from You through Jesus Christ, according to Your sovereign grace and power. Yet You have entrusted the ministry of reconciliation to Your people through the preaching of the Gospel. I pray that You will send many workers into the harvest and give them power and authority to preach the Gospel. And I pray that the eyes of many will be opened, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to You, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus.

May You glorify Yourself in Your Son through Your servants who abide in Him, and may Your people respond with praise and worship, in Spirit and in truth, that bring You honor, glory and delight. May we exalt the Name of Your glorious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, who ministers powerfully in us and through us. And I lift this prayer to Your throne of glory and grace in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.