The EMW Summer Call to Prayer
GOD’S GLORY IS WORTH MORE THAN ALL BESIDES
This crisis gives us an opportunity to examine our motives and re-align our hearts and all that we do with the heart of Scripture and creation – the glory of God.
Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
Psalm 115:1-3
The purpose of creation is to show God’s glory – that is God being seen to be who and what he is. He made us so that we would realise his truly glorious character.
God reveals his glory in various ways. In creation he shows us his power and goodness, and in our consciences and in his judgments, he shows us his justice. But it is only in Christ that we see his saving grace and the unimaginable extent of his love:
GREAT God of wonders! all Thy ways
Are matchless, godlike, and divine;
But the fair glories of Thy grace,
More godlike and unrivalled shine:
Who is a pardoning God like Thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?
When we pray that people would be saved, we are praying that God be glorified.
When we pray that Christians would be strengthened and comforted and made more like Christ, we are praying that God be glorified. When we live faithful Christian lives, we are living in a way that brings glory to God.
But the glory of God must be more than just one of our motives to pray and to live, it must be the pre-eminent motive in all we do. In this present crisis our main burden must be that God is glorified.
“He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
Pray that our first concern in everything may be that God is glorified.
Mark Thomas, EMW General Secretary