God’s purpose is:
to make known the riches of
his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand
for glory.
Romans 9:24
1. As a child of God, I am a vessel of His mercy. This is why I exist.
2. God prepared me to value supremely and absolutely reflect His Glory. I have done nothing for this.
3. My inheritance in Christ is INFINITELY greater than the greatest riches on earth.
This is truth. This is what God is teaching me through my daily life: prayer, study, and just ... living. People want to know what is going on with "me". If you really want to know, this is it. My heart for God and my desire for others to know (to REALLY love, cherish, value above all else) God is what occupies my mind, emotions, and actions day to day.
Have you have never tasted the glory of God?
I say, you have tasted many of its appetizers. Have you ever looked up? Have you ever been hugged? Have you ever admired anything? Have you ever sat in front of a warm fire? Have you ever tasted sexual desire? Have you ever walked in the woods, sat by a lake, lain in a summer hammock? Have you ever drunk your favorite drink on a hot day or eaten anything good?
Every desire is either a devout or a distorted enticement to the glory of heaven.
You have tasted the appetizers. Go on to the meal. You have seen the shadows; look at the substance. You have walked in the warm rays of the day; turn and look at the sun itself. You have heard echoes of God’s glory everywhere; tune your heart to the original music.
The best place to get your heart tuned is at the cross of Jesus Christ. "We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). If you want the most concentrated display of the glory of God, look at Jesus in the Gospels, and look especially at the cross. This will focus your eyes and tune your heart and waken your taste buds so that you will see and hear and taste the glory of the true God everywhere.
That is what you were made for. I plead with you: don’t throw your life away. God made you to know his glory. Pursue that with all your heart and above all else.
-John Piper
What is going on inside of me is simply incredible. I am 15 weeks pregnant with six children growing steady, healthfully ... miraculously inside my womb. I have had no complications except for some occasional cramping, fatigue, nausea, and feelings of fullness. I swim, bike, do appropriate strength workouts, play with my kids all day, cook, clean, and socialize! It makes no earthly sense. But it won't ... it can't, because I and our babies are in the hands of Almighty God who is not bound by the "rules" of earth.
We are doing well not because I am a "picture of health" but because Jesus Christ is taking care of me. Prayers are being answered, truth is being proclaimed, and for one reason or another, our SOVEREIGN God has decided to protect us from malady for 15 weeks straight. We may only plead that He continue, but He surely doesn't have to.
I recently watched this video by Matt Chandler, one of God's greatest saints alive today. He filmed the clip one day before he had surgery on a tumor in his brain. He did not know if he would come out alive. I saw it for the first time many months ago. This time, it struck me differently. I recognize with every word he says. Please, watch it and be blessed.
I am well aware that cries from a cancer ward are much different than the moans coming from a labor unit. My situation is nothing but something to REJOICE about. But the truth is that, for everyone who is in Christ, all cries, all sufferings, all groanings are those of "childbirth" for, the prize of God's glory is so much greater than the trials themselves.
Beholding the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into
the same image from one degree of glory to another ...
2 Corinthians 3:18
(My favorite verse, if you haven't noticed :))