I have purposely taken a sabbatical from posting, as I desperately needed to break up a hardness in my heart. “Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.” (Hos 10:12)

I’ve been going through a humbling experience, for which I’m grateful “for it is time to seek the Lord”. I’ve been meditating on a thought for several months, and that is why did God create me and do I have a specific purpose? His Word says, “Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him” (Is 43:7). 

There are many teachers and spiritual books out there that tell us how to find our purpose, which seeks to glorify ourselves. God has already said why He created us: to glorify Him. How can we give glory to “the King of glory” (Ps. 24:8)? Glory belongs to God (John 17:5; Acts 7:55). God reveals His glory (Ex 24:17). We can observe His glory (John 1:14). But how do we give Him glory?

To glorify God is not to bestow glory on God or add to His glory, but to recognize and acknowledge His glory. The basic meaning of the word glory is “heavy in weight.” It is the “weighty importance and shining majesty that accompany God’s presence.” The verb glorify means “to give weight to” or “to honor.”

Thus, to glorify God is to recognize God for who He really is and to respond appropriately. What is appropriate? “Be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Pet 5:5b-6). 

Yesterday’s devotional in Oswald Chambers’ “My Utmost For His Highest”, drove home that it is my inability to do anything for His glory without humbling myself to the Lord that truly glorifies Him. Jesus taught, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

The text in the devotional begins, “We tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to Him, He will lead us to great success. We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God’s purpose for us…We have the idea that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not…What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself.”

“What is my vision of God’s purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish–His purpose is the process itself. What He desires for me is that I see “Him walking on the sea” with no shore, no success, nor goal in sight, but simply having the absolute certainty that everything is all right because I see Him. It is the process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God.”

“God’s training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience, and we are wrong to concern ourselves with it. What people call preparation, God sees as the goal itself.”

“God’s purpose is to enable me to see that He can walk on the storms of my life right now. If we have a further goal in mind, we are not paying enough attention to the present time. However, if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.”

I don’t know who else needed to read this, to ponder on this, but as stated previously we have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience. That’s all up to the Lord, in whom I trust and who never changes.