His Glory and Our Good

 

"We live for God wherever we are, knowing He has put us there."

The Lord doesn't need our permission to act. You may have noticed that He doesn't ask for it, either.

God brings about whatever is, and He often does so through means of nature's laws (like gravity) and/or man's actions (like electing a President). There are times, of course, when the Lord acts supernaturally, bypassing what we deem to be ordinary, but, by definition, those times are extraordinary. They don't happen often. Rather, we see the day-in, day-out sovereign hand of God through the commonly experienced activities of life.

This reality is why it is important for us to remember that God works all things together for His glory and our good (Exodus 9:16, Psalm 106:8, Romans 8:28). When we get so caught up in the events that take place below the stratosphere we quickly become inward-focused, considering ourselves only. In a moment of ugly pride we may even wonder to ourselves how God could bring about such unwanted events in our lives. "Didn't He know that I wouldn't like this?"

The Lord is not motivated by the preferences of your flesh. His priority is His own glory (and rightly so, praise His name), followed by your good as His child. You may have noticed that you don't often want what's good for you, which is why you may hesitate to share the gospel with someone who needs to hear it, or why you may struggle to confess your sins one to another. In life, we don't want what's hard or heart-wrenching; we naturally desire life in the honeycomb without having to be a worker bee.

Yet God gives us what we need for our good, and He is glorified in it. At times, He shows us great kindness by granting to us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:1-6); regardless, He never errs in what He gives us (1 Corinthians 10:13). May we remember that this day is the work of His hands (Psalm 118:24) and He has called us to see Him in it, that we might embrace His sovereign work with our lives.