January 26th, the giver gets the glory.

To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling

and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power,

so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in Him,

according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. Tessalonians 1, 11, and 12.

It is very good news that God designs his glory to be magnified through the exercise

of His grace. To be sure, God is glorified through the power of his wrath, Romans 922, but repeatedly

in the New Testament and the Old Testament, for example Isaiah 3018,

says that we should experience God's grace so that God gets glory. Ponder how this works

in the prayer of 2nd Thessalonians 1, 11, and 12.

Paul prays that God would fulfill our good resolves.

How? He prays that they would be done by God's power.

That is, that they would be works of faith. Why? So that Jesus would be glorified in us.

That means that the giver gets the glory. God gave the power. God gets the glory. We have faith.

He gives the power. We get the help. He gets the glory. That's the deal

that keeps us humble and happy and keeps him supreme and glorious. Then Paul says that this

glorification of Christ is according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus.

God's answer to Paul's prayer that we rely on God's power to do good works is grace.

God's power to enable you to do what you resolve to do is grace.

That's the way it works in the New Testament over and over.

Trust God for gracious enabling, and he gets the glory when the help comes.

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