-To Him be the glory. Yes, amen, to God be the glory. The great and ultimate Why of why’s, this. This is Why Paul is praying for what he is praying. This is Why Jesus did all that He did. This is Why we the people, the Church, the gathered assembly of those who follow Jesus, do (or should be doing) all that we do. For the glory of God, to show off and increase the celebration of His breathtaking GOODNESS, increasingly so to the end of time and beyond on into eternity. It is the great all-encompassing Why of the universe, why the God of glory, the King of glory, chose to create it all in the first place, and this theme is repeated over and over throughout Scripture from beginning to end, permeating the entirety of what God has communicated to us in His Word. The Bible has been rightly called, "The story of His glory." Observe:
‘And God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good’ (Genesis 1.31). ‘You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good’ (Genesis 50.20). ‘Show me Your glory. And He said, I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you’ (Exodus 33.18-19). ‘Indeed, as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord’ (Numbers 14.21). ‘Tell of His glory among the nations’ (1Chronicles 16.24). ‘Yours O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all’ (1Chronicles 29.11). ‘The heavens are telling of the glory of God’ (Psalm 19.1). ‘In His temple, everything says, “glory”’ (Psalm 29.9). ‘May the whole earth be filled with His glory’ (Psalm 72.19). ‘All the nations which You have made will come and worship before You, O Lord, and they will glorify Your Name’ (Psalm 86.9). ‘Let the glory of the Lord endure forever; let the Lord be glad in His works’ (Psalm 104.31). ‘Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your Name give glory’ (Psalm 115.1). ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory’ (Isaiah 6.3). ‘The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together’ (Isaiah 40.5). ‘I am the Lord that is My Name; I will not give My glory to another’ (Isaiah 42.8). ‘For My own sake, for My own sake I will act; for how can My Name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another’ (Isaiah 48.11). ‘They will possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified’ (Isaiah 60.21). ‘They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified’ (Isaiah 61.3). ‘You led Your people, to make for Yourself a glorious Name’ (Isaiah 63.14). ‘The time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they will come and see My glory’ (Isaiah 66.18), ‘For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the water covers the sea’ (Habakkuk 2.14). ‘Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven’ (Matthew 5.16). ‘Glory to God in the highest’ (Luke 2.14). ‘Father gloriy Your Name. Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again”’ (John 12.28). ‘Whatever you ask in My Name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son’ (John 14.13). ‘I have glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was’ (John 17.4). ‘Immediately an angel of the Lord struck Him because he did not give God the glory’ (Acts 12.23). ‘[They] exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures’ (Romans 1.23). ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3.23). ‘And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy’ (Romans 9.23). ‘For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. to Him be the glory forever. Amen’ (Romans 11.36). ‘You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body’ (1Corinthians 6.20). ‘Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God’ (1Corinthians 10.31). ‘So that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God’ (2Corinthians 4.15). ‘Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ (Philippians 2.11). ‘Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever, amen’ (1Timothy 1.17). ‘Equip you in every thing to do what He wants, working in that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be the glory forever and ever, amen’ (Hebrews 13.21). ‘So that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to Whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever, amen’ (1Peter 4.11). ‘Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and because of Your desire the existed and were created’ (Revelation 4.11).
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