gladitudes » Glory

Weakness: An Opportunity to See God’s Glory

Andrew — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:03:33 +0000

Over the past couple months, I’ve kind of had to come face-to-face with some of my own weaknesses. It’s a really hard thing for me. I pretty much hate seeing where I fall short; it makes me feel sort of angry and defeated. My natural reaction, I’ve found, has been to try to figure out a way to make myself right—to find a way to fix myself.

I know from experience, though, that all my efforts to make myself better always fall short. Sometimes there are small improvements, but never the deep, transformational change that I really desire.

I read this verse this morning and it gave me some good perspective on stuff. In context, the Apostle Paul is talking about his own weakness:

II Corinthians 12:8-10 NLT

Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. ⁹Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. ¹⁰That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

My thought is just this: instead of trying to run from weakness, why don’t I embrace it as an instance where God can come in and provide for me? I think that instead of hating my weaknesses, I ought to love them because at the places where I fall short, it provides an opportunity for God to prove Himself faithful and sufficient. As He does, then I will know him more and He will be more glorified in me.

The Voice of the Lord

Andrew — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:44:51 +0000

When you ask God to hear His voice, is this what you are expecting?

Psalm 29:4-9

The voice of the LORD is powerful;
   the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.

⁵The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
   the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
   and Sirion like a young wild ox.

⁷The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire.
⁸The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;
   the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

⁹The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth
   and strips the forests bare,
   and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

Christians sometimes talk about hearing the voice of the Lord. In reading this this morning, I was just really challenged at how I perceive God and how I think about hearing from Him. The truth is that through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for our sin, we are now able to come boldly before God (Eph. 3:12). God doesn’t destroy us with His voice (or other agents of His strength), but we still serve the same God. Holy awe at His Being is the only honest response to understanding who He really is.

Just a thought.

Ephesians 3:16-19

Andrew — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:51:58 +0000

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

I really love this verse! Here are a couple things I like (there are more, but here are two):

From God’s “glorious riches” he strengthens us with power through his spirit in us. God’s glorious riches are great (Look at creation!). The power he can provide for us, is also very great. He provides it to us from within. This pumps me up because inner strength seems to be much more helpful than outer strength.
God’s love is so big it takes power to grasp how big it is. Even though I don’t always understand how big it is, knowing that it is far bigger than I can grasp is pretty sweet.

Glory to God

Andrew — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 18:02:00 +0000

Something that I have long been obsessed with is the reality that the way I live can bring God glory. That is really cliché, so I think that sometimes it’s easy to overlook, but it has really impacted me. I am not anyone special–I’m just 22 year old college student at a small school in a small state who’s pretty mediocre all around. But, the idea that the way I live, could bring Glory to the Almighty God sort of gets me going. It’s something that I really want to do.

I say I’m obsessed with it because I have thought a lot about it and the goal of bringing Glory to God has really permeated me in a lot of ways. There are certain ways of living that bring God glory. For example, by telling the Good News to people so that they will understand God’s love and praise Him; by serving people in need, so that they will praise God for the blessing you are to them; and by encouraging people through maybe a kind word or stimulating thought.

Today as I was reading, I found another way to bring God glory. Here it is: Psalm 50:15 says, “Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”

So, when I’m in trouble, I’m going to call on God and let him rescue me to bring him Glory!