Beholding His Glory (2 Corinthians 3:18)
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
– 2 Corinthians 3:18
Oh, this is such a good verse. The takeaway from this verse to summarize in just a short way is that we become like what we behold. We become like what we behold. This is something we see all over scripture. As we read in the Psalms, for example, about people worshiping false gods, the Bible says that people become like what they worship. If you worship money, love money, then your life will be transformed around money, wealth, and possessions. If you worship your image, your self-image, your reputation, then your life will be transformed around yourself, around what promotes your reputation.
The picture here in 2 Corinthians 3:18, is that when you worship Jesus, your life will be transformed to look more like Jesus. The more you behold Jesus and all of His glory, the more you will be transformed into His image “from one degree of glory to another”. What a phrase! That you and I can be transformed today to look more like Jesus from one degree of glory to another. How? By fixing our eyes on Jesus, by fixing our hearts on Jesus. How do we do that? Through His word, through listening to His word, in prayer, through fixing our minds on things he calls us to fix our minds on. Oh, I just want to encourage you today. What are you beholding in your life? If you are spending hours every day on a screen scrolling through stuff in this world, then you’re going to be transformed into the pattern of this world.
But if you’ll set that aside, fix your eyes on Jesus, on his word, meditate on his word, memorize his word, you’re going to be transformed from one degree of glory to another, into the image of Jesus. And isn’t this a worthy goal that you and I would look more like Jesus tomorrow than we do today? That we would look more like Jesus at the end of today than we did yesterday? How does that happen? By beholding the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into his image from one degree of glory to another by the power of His Spirit. So God, we pray this over our lives. We pray that you would help us to become more like Jesus today than we were yesterday, to think more like Jesus, to love more like Jesus, to desire what Jesus desires, to fill our minds with Jesus’ Word.
God, help us to become more like Jesus through beholding Jesus. Help us to meditate on your word all day long as we go throughout our day. We pray that your word would be top of our mind, that we would walk in continual prayer, praying at all times without ceasing for different things in our lives, for different things on behalf of others. Help us we pray to behold your glory all day long today and be transformed into your image from one degree of glory to another amidst everything we’re doing, amidst work, amidst school, amidst time, with friends, with family, amidst time at the gym or on the ball field, whatever we’re doing, God, we pray that we would be transformed more into the image of Jesus by the power of your Holy Spirit, and that the fruit of that would be looking more like Jesus when we lay our head on our pillow tonight, tomorrow night than we do right now.
A Prayer for the Hijazi Arab People
And God, we pray for people who’ve never beheld the glory of Jesus. They’ve never heard the good news of who Jesus is, the truth about who Jesus is. We pray for the Hijazi Arab people of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and all across the Middle East. God, we pray that Hijazi Arab men, women, and children would be reached with the good news of your love for them, of your glory revealed for their salvation in Jesus. That they might be transformed into glory for all of eternity through the gospel. We pray that over the Hijazi Arab people today, even as we pray that we would be transformed from one degree of glory to another today. In Jesus’ name we pray, help us to behold Him at all times, that you would be top of mind and heart at all times in our lives. Jesus, we pray in your name. Amen.
