Words Of Encouragement For Your Day ( Monday 01/28/2013)

So That God Will Be Glorified

Isaiah 49:1-4 Amplified Bible (AMP)

Listen to me, O isles and coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar. The Lord has called me from the womb; from the body of my mother He has named my name.² And He has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand has He hid me and made me a polished arrow; in His quiver has He kept me close and concealed me. ³ And [the Lord] said to me, You are My servant, Israel [you who strive with God and with men and prevail], in whom I will be glorified.⁴ Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in empty futility; yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense is with my God.

            I think it is safe to say the older we get the wiser we should become.  “There is a saying that says there is no fool like an old fool.”  This saying is so profound, because as we mature and live life, we should gain wisdom, knowledge and insight through our experiences in life.  It is sad when people don’t gain for their experiences and grow wiser and even in their old age they are filled with foolishness, and their life seems to perpetuate foolish things.  This morning as I prayed and meditated on something a good friend had written in her devotional, I had to ask, what have I stopped at that takes away from God getting or gaining more glory out of my life?  I thought about the fear that I sometimes allow to stop me dead in my tracks, or the reflection of past pains that I had allowed to keep me sitting and not doing what I understood was the call of God on my life; I understood the frustrations that I have allowed to cause me to question my faith.  I thought about so many things and I was determined to get these things corrected not because  I saw my life spiraling out of control, but because as I have grown older I realize, more and more each day, “I am not my own.” My life belongs to God as worship, and a light to others to draw them to God.

            I often have heard myself and many others make excuses for our living out of and away from the will of God in our lives.  We use the phrase well I am only human, often enough to allow it and its acceptance of it to be as comfortable as our favorite blanket or comfy robe.  We act the plum fool and then almost in the same breath tell someone how much we love God.  But as my mother and Grandmother before her would say, the proof is always in the pudding.  A man at a church I used to go to use to say, often during key points in the sermon, “How are you living?”  Every time I heard him say that it was a reminder that I could hear the word each week, and I could say what I wanted but the truth of who I was living for and living to glorify was in my actions, my behavior, my treatment of others and my overall lifestyle.  How are we living?  Moreover who is our life glorifying?  You see we were created to Glorify God alone, because He created us, foreknew us, and called us by name unto Himself. He could have chosen to call anyone, but He chose us, but the question is how are we living to repay that call, resemble that call, and honor that call?

            Many of us can say that we are good people, but are we living a life that is purposeful and meaningful to giving God the glory?  Do people know who it is who has called us by the way that we live, speak and treat others, or are they conflicted every time they are in our presence, or have we learned to just hide our mess well?  Only really us and God know for sure, but don’t think just because people don’t know that it doesn’t matter, we aren’t called to please people, but to please God.  We are called to submit ourselves and our lives to Him, in order for Him to gain and get the Glory out of the name that He has called and placed upon our lives!