Day 12: Glorifying God by Finishing the Work

John chapter 17, verse 4 is part of the great high priestly prayer that Jesus prayed to the Father on behalf of His disciples before He was separated from them by arrest and trial and execution. And in this fourth verse, Jesus says this:

“I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.” (ASV)

Where that translation says "accomplished", the Greek word is just the ordinary simple word for 'to finish'. I prefer to keep the word 'finish'. "I glorified Thee on the earth, having finished the work which Thou hast given Me to do." All the way through, the emphasis of Jesus is not merely on doing the will of God, but on finishing the work.

He had said earlier in connection with the incident with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work." Jesus was always looking ahead to the triumphant conclusion of His task. And here He says, "Now, I’ve brought glory to Thee, O Father, on the earth [how?] because I’ve come to the end – I’ve finished it." To take the picture of the race that we looked at in our first study – He’s finishing the race, He’s just about to breast the tape. And He says in doing that, "I’ve brought glory to God."

Doing the will of God will always bring glory to God. It’s always so designed that whatever God calls us to do, whatever task He assigns to us – it may seem to be very simple, very humble, very ordinary, it may be just being the best husband or the best mother that a person can be, it may be just being a very efficient colleague or a very good physician – but if that’s your assigned task and you finish it, you do it thoroughly, you can rest assured that you will bring glory to God.

Self-seeking, half-hearted service never glorifies God. And one of the reasons actually why it doesn’t glorify God is because such a person’s motive is always wrapped up in himself. There are, I’m sorry to say, Christians – even ministers – who are concerned for their own glory rather than God’s glory, and they do not bring glory to the name of the Lord. They may attract a following, they may get people interested in themselves and in their gifts and in their ministry, but the ultimate end will not be the glory of God.

In order to glorify God, we have to have a single vision for the task that God has assigned us and a complete determination that, no matter what it costs, we’re going to finish that task. There’s nothing that I could desire better that I can think of, that by the time I come to the end of my ministry and my life on earth, I will be able to say in my own limited measure what Jesus said, "I glorified Thee on the earth, having finished the work which Thou hast given me to do."