Why is God faithful?

While involved in my pursuit of godliness I just wanted to share with other people why God's glory is so important in my life.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Light

II Corinthians 4:6-7 "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us."

Paul is talking about how the Gospel is veiled to those who are perishing and that Satan blinds them to the "light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ" (vs. 3-4). But God has shone this light in our hearts so that we would have this knowledge and to show that the "surpassing power belongs to God and not to us" (vs. 6) It's encouraging to me that I have this "treasure," to be reminded of the fact that it is a treasure (vs. 7). We are persecuted, but we persevere and this is all for the sake of Jesus and for our sake, but so that we would be thankful bringing glory to God (vs 8-12). Also so that we would be prepared for eternity and the glory that awaits us there, which would bring about thanksgiving beyond our comprehension which would also give glory to God even further than in this life (vs. 13-15). That's my summary of chapter 4, I like the way Paul words it better though, so take his word not mine (of course his word is God's word through him, so take God's Word and not mine).

Just in case I haven't explained it yet, whenever I find a promise in the Bible I like to write in KABITPOG, it stands for Knowing and Believing In the Promises of God. I write that in my Bible because of a sermon I heard from John Piper once. He was giving an illustration about another sermon that he gave once in where he was discussing what is necessary to become a Christian. His summary statement of his sermon was in order to be a Christian you need to know and believe in the promises of God. A lady came up to him after his sermon and asked him what was necessary to do in life to live as a Christian. John's response to her is something that I try to model in life, "In order to live the Christian life you need to know and believe in the promises of God." So whenever I see a promise I write KABITPOG for short to remind me of what I need to believe in, in order to life the life I want to. With that being said, on with what Paul is teaching us in II Corinthians 4...

Our treasure is that Christ would be glorified, and then He will in turn give us glory (KABITPOG), which will instill in us thanksgiving to God, which glorifies Him. All of this is because God has shone in our hearts "the light of the glory of the Gospel of Christ." It's kind of cool that the Corinthians get to hear this stuff too, they weren't ready for it in I Corinthians, but this is the heart of the Gospel and to know why everything is going on. To know that we're here for God's purposes and that whatever His purposes are they are good (Romans 8:28). I find it awesome when I realize that all of this, that the Christian life is for the glory of God, and He in turn blesses me for being thankful to Him. This is what glorifies God, being thankful for what He has done for us, whether it be His Son's death or getting us through the day, because He's the one that causes all of these things to happen. Another John Piper quote is, "God is most satisfied in us when we are most satisfied in Him." This is something that we get to see as what are lives are suppose to look like. If we desire for God to be glorified by us or satisfied in us then we need to be satisfied in and by Him, to be thankful for His greatness. This also gets back to knowing that He's the one that deserves the glory, so to know that He's using me to glorify Himself, is well, really cool. What more could we ask for, if we truly do believe that God is the one that deserves all the glory, then we'll not want the glory because we know we don't deserve it and we'll also know that what glory we think we receive is useless. We also know that all glory comes from God and He gives it according to His will.

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