Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you.” John 17:1

Jesus gave tutorials on prayer to His disciples. He gave them an outline of subjects for prayer; he also gave them examples of how to present (and how not to present) our prayers to God. But in John 17 it is simply his own heart-felt prayer that we can observe and soak into our spirits. John must have been eaves-dropping during this intimate time that Jesus had just hours before he was arrested. John knew that Jesus was modeling something life-changing. We do well to examine it closely and to follow his lead.

His first prayer-point is to request that God would glorify him, and then he, in turn, would glorify the Father. Glorify isn’t a word we use much unless it’s in a lyric of a worship song. What does glorify really mean? In Greek it means to praise or celebrate. So Jesus is saying, Father, you celebrate me, and I’ll celebrate you. It is a wonderful circle of love and admiration that never ends.

Let’s make that our life style. Let’s make this our prayer.

Father,

Celebrate me today and let me receive your affirmation so that I can give that praise and love and joy right back to you. I don’t know what’s around the bend for me today, Lord, but if you will glorify me, I know I can get through anything. I am here in my closet today to receive all that you want to give me. I open the capacity of my heart and ask you to fill me with the power of your great love that is wide and long and high and deep. May my love for you, my Father, grow in knowledge and depth of insight. May this love strengthen me to do all that you have given me to do in this life.

Thank you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.