Seeking Glory

Verse of the Week:

Proverbs 3:34   He has no use for conceited people, but shows favor to those who are humble.

Seeking Glory

I loved my Mama's roses.  She used to grow hybrid tea roses, and for as long as I can remember, they bloomed all sorts of beautiful colors.  Pink, maroon, white, and yellow roses graced her flower garden.  Their beauty, scents, and colors would leave me standing there admiring them every time I came for a visit.  I loved Mama's roses! They stood tall and beautiful, and their glory was shown throughout the garden. 

Suppose Mama's roses were left alone for a long period of time. Weeds would eventually grow in the garden and overtake the roses.  The roses' glory would disappear as weeds grew in numbers and invaded the roses.  Eventually, you wouldn't see roses, but a mass ugly clump of weeds in their place.

Pride is just like a clump of weeds.  You see, God uses the humble because He knows that the humble will ALWAYS give Him the glory. For those that don't know what glory means, it means fame.  The prideful have a different motivation: bringing themselves glory.  Just like the clump of weeds hide the glory and beauty of those beautiful roses, the prideful keep the beautiful things of God hidden from the world, and give themselves all the glory.  

Proverbs 3:34 says, 

He has no use for conceited people, but shows favor to those who are humble.

God has no use for those that are prideful because they are stuck on themselves and not on Him. In the end, they focus on glory for themselves, and we know that God does not want to share His glory.  In Isaiah 42:8, He makes that abundantly clear, I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another.

The Bible itself has shown God using humble people for His mighty plans. Moses, who was given the task of leading the Israelites from Egypt and introducing the Covenant between God and the Israelites, was considered the most humble man on the face of the earth during his time. Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. (Numbers 12:3) He was used by God because he knew it was all about God, not about him. In his lifetime, God used him to turn a river into blood, to turn his staff into a snake, to divide the Red sea, and to make water run out of a rock. He could have used God's power displayed through him to bring himself glory, or even more than that! He could have made himself a god to be worshiped and adored, but instead, he used the gifts given to him to show the Israelites and the world the one and true God of the universe. 

When living life and making choices, do you make the choices for your own fame or for God's fame?  Whose glory do you seek  in your daily actions? Whose glory do you strive for when you do important tasks that turn people's eyes upon you? Do you point to your Creator? Examine your heart.

People with prideful hearts and humble hearts have completely different approaches to everyday decisions in life. A prideful person's focus is on what makes them look best.  A humble person's focus is on how to make God look best. For example, a prideful person might purposely slander a person's name to make themselves look good. However, if a person's heart is humble, they see things through God's eyes, and realize that putting a person down will only hurt that person's reputation.  It will not bring God glory, only pain to that person.  A prideful person sees the world through selfish eyes; a humble person sees the world through God's eyes.

Billy Graham is one of the most influential evangelist of our time.  More than 3.2 million people responded to his call to receive Christ as their Savior.  He once was asked what he would ask God when he went to heaven.  He said he would ask, "Why me?"  Why did he choose me for such a task? Such humbleness. He could have used his fame as an evangelist to bring himself glory, but instead he chose to point to the God of the universe in all He did.

For whom do you seek glory for?

Why does God allow bad things to happen?

Verse of the Week:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Why does God allow bad things to happen?

Why do bad things happen?  Living in this fallen world, it is so hard to see people go through pain and suffering.  Disease, death, famines, broken homes, broken relationships, accidents, deception, hate, rejection, shootings, and massacres seem to be evident everywhere. Why does a loving God allow this?  Because people do not understand God's reasons behind tragedies, they grow hateful and resentful towards our Creator thinking that He is not the loving God they think He is.  They want nothing to do with a God who allows bad things to happen.

God allows evil because since the beginning of time, through Adam and Eve, we chose a life of sin over God. When Eve decided to disobey God, sin came into the world. Where sin is present, a place will always be broken.  Therefore, God allows evil to endure in this world. However, people tend to think that He is the one that causes the evil, but we are the ones that brought evil upon ourselves.  In fact, God in his great love and mercy created a way to defeat sin: through his son, Jesus Christ.  Jesus bore our sins upon the cross so that we could be made new inside and receive healing for our broken messed up hearts.

It is human nature to want to be free.  We spend our lives pursuing freedom.  Wars have been fought for freedom.  I have never heard of a person saying that they want to be locked up in a cage for the rest of their lives.  A person rarely likes to be told what to do and then beaten into submission.  We cherish freedom.  Therefore, God gave us a free choice: to choose to follow Him, or choose to reject Him and live a life of sin.  He really is a loving God because he gives us the freedom to choose.  He doesn't beat us into submission.

Therefore evil dwells in the world because of our own choices.  However God still will use evil in this world for good because He is sovereign.

Growing up, I clung to Romans 8:28 during hard times: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."  I didn't understand why hard times came upon me, but I knew it was for my own good.  You see, we can't see the whole picture, but God can, and everything is going according to His plan, both good and bad.  Yes, God allows bad things to happen, but He has a reason behind everything, even if we cannot see it.

In the story, The Proposal,  I read about a man name Jennings who was struggling with why a God would allow bad things to happen.  His friend, Palmer, responded to his question by using Jennings' daughter, Penny, as an example: 

"Let me ask you something Jennings. If you were God, and you could see that Penny was walking along a path that would take her directly past a poisonous snake, might you put a hole in her path to stop her?"

"I might."

But then she might break her little ankle.  The snake would hear the commotion and slither away without Penny  ever knowing he was there, but you would have saved her from a  worse fate."

Jennings stared at Palmer.

"Would you want Penny angry with you forever over something you couldn't explain but you knew to be for her best?"

This is a very simple example, but it illustrates my point.  All things do work together for good, but it is hard to know that when we cannot see the whole picture.  God can. 

God uses troubles for many reasons: to mold and shape us, to protect us from something bigger, to make us depend on Him, to show us His grace and mercy, to bring about things for His glory, etc.  Oftentimes we may never know the reason, but there is one.  All we can do is trust in Him and know that it all works together for good for those who love Him.  

Instead of blaming God for your troubles, keep loving and trusting God during your troubles!  He is the best person to have by your side during the tough times AND.... He has your best interests in mind!