Thursday, October 13, 2011

October 14, 2011

EKG Devotional Day 13

When God acts in human history, it is always for our good and His glory. Lest you wonder which one of these is the most important of the two, God's glory always comes first.

For exmple, when God began to ove on behalf of His people being held captive in Balylon, He made clear through the prophet Ezekiel that "it is not for your sake that I will act, house of Israel, but for My holy name, which you profaned among the nations where you went." Exekiel 36:22.

Their deliverance was about God's desire that the ntions see and come to know Him as the living God. Everything is about God, and His kingdom people must embrace His mission as their own.

Like Israel, we are tempted to think that we are the center of the universe, that our desires and prayers determine God's agenda. Part of me wishes this were true. This kind of message has an immediate appeal. But when I consider the end result of this kind of theology - the self-centered emptiness of expecting God to bow to your personal wishes - I don't want any part of what it offers. It's like peeling away the layers of an onion, working our way furher down into ourselves until there's nothing left to show for all of our struggle.

When we pray that God will be glorified, He will send us deliverance, or faithfulness, patience, strength, wisdom - whatever is required to reveal His presence and draw oters to Him. The sooner we understand that God is King - that He alone is the cener of the universe - the sooner we'll come to experience the freedom of living in His kind of purpose and protection. It is indeed the only way to live.

Do you have self-serving layers you need to strip away to see that God is King and the center of the universe? What must change to make Him the center of your universe?