Actual Reality

Any of you weepy out there? I'm going to blame it on not seeing the sun for the last two weeks and needing a bit more vitamin D. But this (hopefully) short season of "melancholy" has also caused me to be more reflective...to stop and think beyond the next hour or the hour gone by. I don't do that enough. I have a great tutor in thinking long, deep, and hard. Bryan is a constant source of encouragement and an example of the discernment and wisdom that comes out of being still, pondering, and filtering all of those thoughts in and through the Word of God. I am thankful beyond words for his leadership in my life in this way and many others!

With that said, I know that in my more weepy days, it's so easy to focus on me and on my sadness over this, that, and the other thing. This time, in God's great mercy, He has been so gracious to pull me up from the muck and mire of my own perceived reality and into the beauty of the actual reality that I live in. A reality that is so breathtakingly beautiful that I wonder how I can, so quickly, pull my eyes off of it and onto things that, in comparison, are nothing less than admiring a garbage dump.

My perceived reality is that life should go a certain way. That "way" looks different for each area of my life....husband, home, children, friends, money, time, etc...but all are within the framework of Phil 4:8 (whatever is true, noble, right, etc...). I mean, come on, if I can quote Bible verses to go with my desires...they have got to be good ones and worthy of being heard and answered, right?! :) But THAT is where the problem is. No matter how "good" my desires might be, the second I believe they should be answered in the way I see fit is the moment I place myself has sovereign and my precious Lord as my servant to do my bidding. It sounds so heinous when I put it like this....how could I ever live this way? Yet, I do it all the time. My perceived reality is horribly skewed...like looking through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars!

Actual reality, Godward reality, truth living and speaking reality says something entirely different. It frees us from ourselves in a mighty way. Here it is:

"...everyone called by My name and created for My glory." Isaiah 43:7a

I was created for God's glory...PERIOD. Say that a few times to yourself. And then a couple more times. I was not created for comfort, ease, financial freedom, pain-free days, stressless living, or deep sleep. I was not created to be seen as wonderful, have my thoughts heard, win the mother-of-the-year award, or be loved by all.

I was created for God's glory....created to live the life that He planned out for me so that He might be glorified. I don't determine how He is best glorified, God does. He is the planner, sustainer, and perfector. He see's what reality really is, because He IS reality.

"God's wisdom means that He knows all things, first to last. He never discovers or learns. Every possible outcome has its conclusion in Him. He knows what is best and most beautiful in every situation, and causes all things to work infallibly for His glory (Job. 12:13)." 
                                                                    -"True Beauty" by Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Whitacre


Hebrews 11 is an amazing chapter. In it, we find out who the "cloud of witnesses" are that surround us in chapter 12. We read of people who's examples encourage us and remind us to not grow weary and lose heart. I've been thinking about their lives...their realities...

Abraham: promised land and descendants more numerous than the stars, yet spent most of his life a fatherless wander.

Joseph: blessed greatly by his father, hated deeply by his brothers. Sold as a slave, falsely imprisoned, and long imprisoned because the good he had done to the cupbearer was forgotten about.

Moses: Went from the world's wealthiest kid to an outcast hiding and tending sheep in the wilderness for 40 years. Then he spend another 40 years dealing with a whining, complaining nation that did not grow up and move out of the house, if you know what I mean!

And I could keep writing....Daniel, Job, Jeremiah, Isaiah, David, Peter, Paul, John the Baptist, and countless others.

Their realities were hard. Their realities were what Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 4:8 "afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed".

But their realities, just like yours and mine, serves a magnificent purpose:

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us."    2 Corinthians 4:7

John MacArthur's commentary on this verse says: "By using frail and expendable people, God makes it clear that salvation is the result of his power and not any power his messengers could generate. The great power of God overcomes and transcends the clay pot. The messenger's weakness is not fatal to what he does; it is essential." 

WOW! "The messenger's weakness is not fatal to what he does; it is essential." That pierces through my perceived reality and drives home my actual reality. My life is for the glory of God, to be lived out in whatever way HE chooses, so that HIS saving power is magnified, amplified,  and glorified in all those hard things I would chose, in my flesh,  to see removed from my life.

My actual reality, the glory of God, is a reality of sweet rest and peace in the arms of a loving God. A God who sent His only Son down to earth...from the manger to the cross...."He who did not spare His own son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things"(Romans 8:32).

All that we need is found in all that He is.

"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen."
Romans 11:36

That's reality!





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