I’m sure this has happened to you: Suddenly, as you read or meditate upon some passage of Scripture, a “new” insight comes to you that has really been there all along, and you see that it could change your life.
The other night, after I had once again awakened at about 3 and couldn’t go back to sleep (Insomnia has become a major problem recently), I was praying through the Lord’s Prayer. Right at the beginning, “Hallowed be your name” struck me with new force.
I realized in a fresh way that the purpose of my life is to bring glory to God, as Paul says, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:11). In the first chapter of Ephesians, he writes that God “predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself . . . to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Ephesians 1:5), and that “we who first hoped in Christ should be to the praise of His glory” (1:12; see also 1:14).
As I pondered this, I saw that living for God’s glory as my prime goal in life could act like the engine of a long train, pulling all the cars along in an orderly way towards my destination, which is true joy in this life and everlasting bliss later.
As the Book of Common Prayer puts it, we should seek to “show forth” his “praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to [his] service, and by walking before [him] in holiness and righteousness all our days” (Order for Daily Morning Prayer, A General Thanksgiving).