This Very Reason

This passage so caught my heart today when I came across it...

These are Jesus' words as He's speaking about His coming fate with His disciples. The spirit and intention in His words and sentiment really just touched my heart today:

"Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!" John 12:27-28a (NIV)

There are so many things to grab onto here; for me, I find so much hope and instruction. One, there's Jesus' example. His heart is troubled now that He's come to the "hard part" of His journey. Yet, what would He do? Ask the Father to change it all? No. As He says, the journey is about the hard part. This alone is a good reminder and example for me, but what He says next is so compelling. In the midst of His troubled heart, Jesus' primary desire is still to glorify the name of the Father! I pray for the faithfulness and commitment to have my heart's cry, in the midst of trials, be first and foremost for the glory of God. I ask that my priorities be ordered as such, all the way down to my bones!

And I take hope from this passage as well; what Jesus went through, none of us can really imagine. The earthly consequences of my own sin sometimes have felt crushing; I really cannot begin to even comprehend or imagine what Jesus must have endured. And yet, what does He say about it? That it was FOR this very reason He came! I forget sometimes that He didn't come just so He could relate to us and us to Him on an earthly plane. He didn't walk the sand for a break from His daily routine. He came for the very reason this passage speaks of: He came to set us free!

This wells up hope and praise inside my heart! And it inspires me to live for the Glory of God ever more so! I hope you take from it some value too; the wealth of the Word continues to astound me! I love it!