My Good In His Glory

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When Moses asks to see God’s glory, God says, “I’ll cause all my goodness to pass before you.” Moses asks to see God’s glory and He shows Moses His goodness.

We want God’s glory to be revealed because Jesus said, “If I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself.” We want Him lifted up because we want all people to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. God desires all to be saved and so do we.

We want God’s glory on display because we want people to see Him. We want them to look to Him and be saved.

He displays His glory in nature in numerous ways, but He also shines His glory through showing His goodness to you! When you have a testimony of God’s goodness in your life, you are showing off His glory.

But there’s another way our good is for His glory. Jesus said to His disciples, “Let your light shine that men might see your GOOD works and glorify God.” We’re also told to do our good works in secret. We diligently serve God by loving others without fanfare, but when we are shining God’s light through our good works, the Father will set our lamp on the lampstand.

The lamp doesn’t put itself on the lampstand, its owner does. The lamp gives no light; it just holds it. The light in us is Christ and the Father wants to reveal His glory.

The Trial and the Blessing

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The Lord has been giving me a lot of lessons through the blessings He has given me. It feels a lot better than the lessons learned through the trials. But I’ve also come to see that the two, the blessings and the trials, are closely related.

God is Lord over the trials. He sends the storm on Jonah, and prepares the fish to save him. The Lord sends the flood and makes sure the boat is finished first. He sends the locusts, and He restores the years they have eaten. He sends the tribulation, but He delivers His children out of all their troubles.

The trouble sets up the miracle. And the deliverance can be its own trial, like all that time stuck on the ark.

When we are in the trial, we see the blessing. We give thanks in all our circumstances and rejoice, always. God is being good. He’s ordained this for His glorious purposes and is working it for your good. We can see the trial as a blessing. It’s from the Lord. His intentions are always good, His motivation only love.

And when we are in the blessing, we have to always keep an eye on the trial. Joseph was in a position of power, wealth, and married into an idol worshiping family. Any one of those corrupts people. He had to live in all three. God had used the trial to prepare him to live in the blessing. That long trial was a blessing. If he had gone right to this position, I do believe it would have corrupted him. I don’t think he could have held onto integrity. But God used the trial to prepare him to receive the blessing and to be able to live in it without it harming him.

We give thanks for the blessing too, but keep an eye on the trial, keep an eye on what wants to get you. Keep it in your sights. You need God’s sustaining grace in the blessing just as much as in the trial.

In the trial we look to the blessing, which keeps us looking to our Savior. In the blessing, we look at the trial, which keeps us looking to our Savior.

Hiding from God’s Blessing

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And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:8

God created the perfect world for Adam and Eve. The trees were given to them as a blessing. God intended a blessing for them.

Instead of enjoying their blessing, they hid among the trees intended for blessing. They hide from God’s call.

The wrong fear of the Lord drives us from God, and we hide from God. The right fear of the Lord drives us to Him, to hide in the shelter of His wings, in the shadow of His presence.

Don’t let the blessing become the curse. Walk in obedience, in the love and the fear of the Lord, offering every blessing right back to God for His glorious purposes with thanksgiving, always praising the One who has given us all things!

The Power to Hope

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Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

What struck me reading that verse was that it takes power to hope.

God gives grace for everything we need, even for the hope to look forward to having every need and promise met in Christ.

We have abounding hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can hope. We can rejoice in hope. We can have peace in our hope. We can be unwavering in holding onto hope. Because we aren’t holding on by our own power. God provides the power to hope.

And He provides in abundance. Abound in hope!

A Miracle Is Brewing

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But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. Matthew 14:24

The wind was contrary, but the Lord was in control. The wind and waves obey Jesus.

The storm serves a purpose. We are growing in our knowledge of our God. To know Him IS eternal life (John 17:3). He is working to bring us to a saving knowledge of Himself for our own sake, and so that we can take that knowledge and lead the many to righteousness.

The wind ceases when Jesus gets in the boat. Our God delivers out of every trouble. Wait and watch for the deliverance. But be like Jesus. We have two images of Him in a storm. One time He was asleep, perfectly at rest. His Father was going to get Him to the other side. The other time is Him walking on the water; He was above and not beneath. He wasn’t overwhelmed by the waves. He walked above it all. It didn’t touch Him.

When the troubles come, when the Lord sets up the contrary winds, know a miracle is brewing. He’s setting up His deliverance, but He’s also bringing You to Himself, teaching you to rely on Him, to walk untouched by the storm at rest in His presence, knowing His power and perfect ways.

Hope that Can’t Disappoint

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Hope does not disappoint us. It doesn’t disappoint, according to the very Word of God in Romans 5:5, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. How can we be disappointed by God’s love? It’s the most powerful thing in the world. Verse two says we’re to hope in the glory of God. God’s glory is revealed in the redemption of everything. Christ’s death on the cross and then rising again, the restoration of all creation — these are acts that reveal the glory of God. We cannot be disappointed in the hope offered us through Christ. God’s full redemption plan will come to completion. It’s a hope that cannot disappoint.

This Is My Body

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What if when Jesus said, “This is My body,” he wasn’t referring to the bread, but the people. The disciples were to become the Church, The Body of Christ. Communion isn’t something that can be done alone. It’s in the definition of the word. Communion is done in community. They were being rebuked for not thinking of others, for not putting others first when they came together, saying even that they were being judged by God because of it. The point was loving each other. What if the point of communion is recognizing that we have been reconciled to God, making us One.

That We Should Walk in Them

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Get up. God’s prepared a work for you to do. He prepared good works for you in advance so that you would walk in them, so that you would do them. But you have to get up first. Feeling like you should invite that family over for dinner or feeling like you should offer to babysit or feeling like you should take your family to local food bank to help out doesn’t accomplish anything unless you get up and make it happen.

Other Focused

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God is the most other-focused being in existence. A non-believer might see Him like Mao, a megalomaniac putting up posters of Himself, wanting everyone to worship and obey Him, or like Darius wanting everyone to pray to Him, to worship Him. Those men had their eyes on themselves. God has His eyes on us. He not only sees each of us, He sees all creation. He knows the number of hairs on our heads, the thoughts hidden in our hearts, and when a sparrow falls to the ground. Above all that, Jesus is praying for us. He is Life itself, and He gives Life itself to us. I feel puny in my attempts to express any gratitude or praise to Him. He is worthy of more than all of us could ever offer in return.