Soli Deo Gloria

   I was rebuked by a sermon today. I was challenged to stop, reflect, and remember what the point of everything is. It is so easy to get caught up in the routine that you forget why it is you started the routine in the first place!
The point is very simple: God's glory.
The sermon very clearly (and biblically) displayed that the reason, the motive, behind everything God does is His own glory. He loves, He saves, He restores, He reconciles, etc.. all for the fame of His name.
And that is awesome because that is what makes Him God.

Now if God is passionate about His own glory, would not that imply that His people should be equally passionate about it?
Absolutely.

All of this came crashing down with one glaring point: it is not about me! The world does not revolve around me. My rights, thoughts, desires, plans are pretty much insignificant. They don't matter.

This is so counter-cultural it is almost ridiculous. Culture is telling me that I deserve it, I have the right to be offended and upset, I should look out for number 1. But God is telling me that instead, I need to be passionate for His glory. I am not to be consumed with myself, I am to be consumed with Him.

And the knowledge of that is incredibly freeing.
Once my hurts, my trials are compared to the weight of His glory, they don't seem like a big deal. I am free to let go of the pain I want to hold on to, am even expected to hold on to! With my focus redirected on glorifying Christ, I am free to see Him and not the things that weigh me down.

That sounds spectacular, but does it really seem possible?
Even though I know these truths and know them well, life often still seems difficult. Why can't it just be easy to forget the pain? Do I have to feel it so deeply?

As I mediated on this, this passage came to mind that shed some light.

"Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another." -Isaiah 48:10-11

Yes, I will be afflicted. For some reason I was hoping that my shift of focus would take away the pain in its entirety. I was hoping that remembering God's glory would just make life easy somehow.
But the point was never about not feeling pain! That is me making it about me again! I have been arguing that I need to remember that I am not the center of the universe. Life is not about me. Everything is about God and His glory!
 However, I forgot that God receives glory in a variety of ways.
And one of those ways is through trial and tribulation. Affliction will come. But I will bring glory to God in my affliction. I will remember that God is refining me, FOR HIS OWN SAKE!
And though I will feel the angst that comes with the trial, the burden will be slightly lifted with the knowledge that God is being glorified.

God is passionate about His glory. His people should share that passion.

I had said that that realization will bring freedom.

And so it has. I am free to bring glory to God, whether the sun is shining or the storm is raging. All be for His reknown.

Soli Deo Gloria