Psalm 19 : “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.”



Psalm 19 verse 1: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.”

Prayer for the Day

“Come, Holy Spirit! I surrender. Take my hand and lead me.”

Reflection

Fear of death or fear of suffering often slows us down and makes us timid to take on the work of serving one another in Jesus’ name.  Fear of shame or being made a fool of; fear of poverty or the inability to take care of ourselves; fear of being alone or outcast by those we value; fear that if someone disagrees with our ideology we might be wrong; fear that God does not really love us and so we have to earn that love . . . all these and other self-centered fears are essentially the work of  the enemy of God who attempts to stop the work of Christ in us to bring the whole world to the Father.

John 17:1-11a is the first section of a long prayer that Jesus makes to the Father, commonly called the High Priestly Prayer. It is the longest of the recorded prayers of the Lord in scripture. In this first portion of this long prayer, our Lord uses the words "glory" or "glorify" six different times. In asking the Father to glorify Him, Jesus is offering His soon-to-come sacrifice to the Father in complete knowledge that He will be resurrected and will conquer death.

 In the middle of Christ's offering to the Father, He shares with us that His sacrifice will result in eternal life for us all and that eternal life is to know "the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ." Christ will be glorified in His resurrected body and we too will one day be glorified in the same way, due to the complete and holy sacrifice He made for all of us.