Ah, The Glory of God!

Glory is the credit we give to our Lord, although His glory is more than that and not dependent upon it. The heavens declare the glory of God according to a psalm of David (19:1). It is good for us to declare God's glory in our lives by testifying to His salvation and the good news of Jesus Christ. Our story is His story, what He has done in our lives especially to change our lives form the fallen sinner's life we led before His sanctification began in us.

I don't know how you fared back in the day, but before the work of Jesus began to show in me, I was pretty self-centered. Unfair was defined by me in relation to my wants and desires. Love, goodness, and giving were nice things as long as they flowed my way. Luck and chance were mean and hateful when they didn't land on my number. Superstition had much to do with everything because 'self' was at the center of things. It wasn't constantly this way of course because I was taught to share, obey the law, and live as a good citizen. However, how well I did these things had much to do with fear of punishment for breaking rules and laws. I was mostly about me until He came into my life!

The changes that God wrought in me were quite often too subtle for me to see right away, mostly because I tend to look on the outside first. It is difficult to see God's love, peace, patience, kindness, and gentleness growing inside of me by staring at a mirror. Faith doesn't show up well in things I can touch and feel. It is easy to feel older as the years roll by, much more difficult to feel more faith in God. (Probably because faith isn't a feeling.) Ah, but the glory of God is coming soon, and better still it is not tied to the old me!

How great is God that He should love us while we were yet sinners! How wonderful that God chose you and me before we made all those outward changes to make ourselves more acceptable in our own sight (or even in spite of them if we were successful in those resolutions). Hmm, it seems the glory of God is in His work, not mine. Without Him I tend to do vain things that benefit me. In Christ, my work is His work, and it has a more lasting glory that is all due Him! Blessed indeed is the name of our Lord Jesus! Immanuel.

Bucky