Thursday, April 21, 2011

"And so we keep on praying for you that our God will make you the kind of children he wants to have- will make you as good as you wish you could be- rewarding your faith with His power. Then everyone will be praising the name of our Lord Jesus Christ because of the results they see in you; and YOUR GREATEST GLORY will be that YOU BELONG TO HIM. The tender mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ has made all of this possible for you."
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

Your greatest glory will be that you belong to Him. That is our glory. Not our gifts or blessings. He is our great reward. This is nothing new. It is something we say quite often. But when I really started thinking about it, I questioned my true motives. Do I do the right things because I want to be blessed by Him or because I know it brings Him pleasure and it doesn't matter if He blesses me? God is all excellence. He is better than any of the gifts He gives. He is better. Him. The being. Because there is nothing as perfect as Him. He is all goodness. Do I want the person of Christ or the gifts of Christ? I will best glorify Him when I am enjoying Him. Him alone. It is as if I have lost focus on truth. The reason I do things seems to have a selfish motive to it. This is not the person I want to be! How I want enjoy Him. Only Him. Because He is my glory. Not the things I do. Not the things I withhold from doing. Every good thing is from Him and He asks us to seek Him out with all our hearts and souls. He wants us to discover just how majestic He is. That He, himself, is the gift. He is the love, the hope, the forgiveness, the light. Everything. I want to know my glory is because I belong to Him. He is the answer to all my questions. He is the one who satisfies all my longings. The blessings He showers on us is because His nature is goodness and kindness. And those are the things I shouldn't be living for. Instead I want the giver of the gifts. The gifts don't sustain us. The giver does. And He longs for us to find Him and enjoy Him. It is the journey that brings real life. Lasting life. Nothing can taste as good as Him. Nothing is as good as Him. He asks that we die to self so that we might follow after Him. Follow Him into green pastures to see the King in His splendor and to behold the highlands of the heavens.