God’s Glory in Our Prayers

What happens when we pray? It would be accurate to say that when we pray we commune with God. This is true but what is the result of communing with God in prayer? What is the outcome or effect? There are many things that result from communing with God in prayer, but I want us to focus on one aspect that we can often lose sight of. God is glorified by our prayers. 

A couple of definitions. First, to glorify God means to reflect or point to God’s glory. Second, God’s glory is the display of his character and perfection. So we glorify God when our lives display who God is or when we point out evidence of God’s character and perfection. We are not adding anything to God when we glorify him, but rather we are making known, displaying who God is. 

So how does prayer glorify God? Prayer displays people as people and God as God. Meaning, we come to God in prayer as needy creatures and God is revealed as the perfect creator. God is glorified in our prayers as we humbly come to him, displaying his steadfast love and perfect care for us as our heavenly father. Our posture of prayer brings glory to God. 

Prayer displays that God needs nothing from us and that he is doing the work. God is not dependent on us, rather he is infinitely strong and powerful. And when God answers prayer, his perfect rule over all of creation is revealed. 

God is glorified in our prayers when we ask him to act according to his will, so that his purposes and his plans will be front and center of our lives and the lives of those we are praying for. And, we give thanks to him and make know to others how he acted through our prayers.

God is glorified when we as a church pray to him. We are displaying the fact that we are his church; we are his children and he is our greatest treasure. We reveal to the world and the spiritual realm that through the church God’s manifold wisdom is made known. God is glorified in our prayers by displaying his heart and power to care for, protect and mature his church. Prayer reveals that God does not seek to be served but rather to serve. 

So our exhortation this morning is to have a wider view of prayer and consider the amazing truth that God is glorified by our prayers.

Prayer is for our good, but it is also for God’s glory. 

John 14:13 [Jesus speaking] Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

We know that all too often we can have a narrow view of prayer. Too often we see prayer as only one way; considering only our good and forgetting God’s glory. Let’s now take a moment to privately confess ways our personal and corporate prayers have been selfish or lacking. And then I will lead us in a corporate prayer of confession.