A friend of mine was traveling alone in a country whose main religion is not known to have a high value of women. For whatever reason they took her and put her in a back room.
Soon a few men came in and then more and more. Very shortly more than a dozen men were eyeing her in this room as she sat alone. It was clear that this could be very bad as she was alone and no one knew where she was.
What she did next has stuck with me for years. She didn’t invest her prayers in crying out for help and deliverance, although she needed it. Instead she prayed this:
“Lord, glorify your name.”
What an amazing prayer in a situation that could have turned life-altering in a bad way. But there she prayed, “Lord, glorify your name.”
This morning I was reading a phrase near the end of Philippians that we see so often in Scripture:
“To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen (4:20).
Paul was in chains in prison with a very real possibility of death before him. He did have a sense in God that he would be delivered for the sake of continuing his ministry. But still he had an awareness that death could be imminent. Yet joy was his response and his goal was glory to the Father.
It made me think of my life today. It’s a blazing furnace right now and it’s been so very messy, brutal and all over the place. So I began to pray this morning,
“Lord, glorify your name in these days and in this situation.”
It adds to me a different perspective. Can God get glory even in this? From the outside it’s easy to say, “Of course!” But with the battles it isn’t even close to being neat and tidy.
“Lord, glorify your name.”
Praying this makes me want to live at a different level, with a different spirit, for a different purpose. It’s not just about doing the right thing, it’s also about bringing glory to the Father. And that changes how things are done.
Try it for yourself. Try praying out loud that God would glorify His name in your life and in the challenges set before you.
My friend did so. She prayed this prayer when surrounded by a potential situation that could have gone very bad. But the Lord broke in and was able to deliver her. She escaped that situation with no harm done. But even if something had gone differently, I believe that God still would have heard her prayer and even in the face of evil, he can still glorify his name.
Oh, Lord. Glorify your name in me today.