Saturday, December 27, 2008

The Glory of God in Hard Times

God has been giving me a real, deep burden and passion for His Glory. His Glory is quickly becoming the most important thing to me. I say becoming because it would be a lie to say it is the most important thing in my life right now. I struggle day by day to make His Glory my singular focus. I know that I allow other things to creep in and steal my focus from it. I allow my "To Do List" to come in the way. I allow my laziness to come in the way. I allow my weariness to come in the way. I allow my frustration and irritation to come in the way. Probably the most predominate problem for me is allowing life's challenges, difficulties, hard times, and trials to steal my attention away. When these challenges come into my life, I am quickly lose my resolve to promote His Glory in all circumstances. I lose my patience; I scream and yell; I walk away from my loved ones in anger and refuse to talk through the problem in a Godly fashion; I do not turn to God and in some cases blame God and accuse Him for my problems.

It is most difficult for me to promote God's glory in my difficult, frustrating circumstances.

However, as I was struggling through this the other day after another confrontation with my wife in which she pointed out my horrendous attitude, I was brought low and struck by God with the realization that HIS GLORY IS PROMOTED BEST WHEN WE RESPOND BIBLICALLY IN DIFFICULT TRIALS/CIRCUMSTANCES.

It is easy to promote God's glory in the good times. Even the unsaved people give God credit for the good things. And while this does promote God's Glory, His Glory is promoted all the more when we praise Him through the storm.

The perfect biblical example of this is Job. Even in the midst of the most horrendous trials, He remained faithful to God. He never cursed God. He never turned his back on God. And while He did question God, he never lost faith, he never turned away. God is seen as a great and glorious being as a result of Job's faithfulness and proclamation of God's Glory and Worthiness to be God.

I was struck hard with the reality that if I truly want to be zealous for God's Glory; if I truly want to promote His Glory, I am going to have to endure hard times, difficult circumstances. And in the midst of those hard times, those difficult circumstances, remain true to God and praise Him all the more!

I am very protective and zealous for God's Glory to be promoted, to be seen. For this reason, I must endure hard times and I must be found faithful.

No comments: