The Joy of Glory

Discovering endless joy in the boundless glory of God…

Month: March, 2015

March 10, 2015

Lent Devotional: Isaiah 65:17-25

Isaiah 65:17-25 (click here)
But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. (Isaiah 65:18-19)

Reflection
Joy.

We thirst for it…long for it…seek it…yet it seemingly remains elusive.

All of life can seem like an unfulfilled hunt to satisfy our hunger for joy. Why? Why do we seek joy and why does it seemingly remain just out of our reach.

Scripture answers our questions with the claim that we were created for joy! We seek joy because that is what we were made to do. Yet, we do not find it because we fail to look for it in the one place it can be forever found…God.

We have an eternal thirst for joy, and there is only one eternally satisfying source.

We were created for joy in God.

However, our hunger has become twisted and seeks to be satisfied by anything other than the Lord. We need to be recreated with a hunger for God! We need this world, which tries to distract us with so many false joys, to be recreated in such a way that all things draw us toward the eternal fountain of joy…Jesus!

This is exactly what we have been promised. God will recreate all things to be a joy! All things will bring gladness to us, his people, for all things will perfectly point us to him!

No more weeping and crying in distress because we cannot find that which satisfies! No! He who satisfies will be ours forever and we will be his!

We fight toward that day! We fight right now to find our joy in Jesus, knowing the day will come when that fight will be won and we shall know perfect, eternal joy in him!

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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March 9, 2015

Lent Devotional: Isaiah 25:6-9

Isaiah 25:6-9 (click here)
It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:9)

Reflection
So much of life seems to be spent waiting.

As a kid, you’re constantly waiting to be a certain age to be able to participate in certain things. You wait in lines, you wait on people, you wait for a special day to arrive. You wait and wait and wait and wait and wait…

Will the waiting ever end? And more importantly…will it have been worth it?

Much of relationship with the Lord is described as a call to wait. We are to wait for the Lord, which is another way of saying we trust him. Waiting does not mean we are idle in our relationship with God, but that we are actively trusting him.

The need to wait on the Lord arises from the fact that our experience does not currently align with his promises. We are a redeemed people waiting for the completion of redemption. This has been promised to us, and God will bring it about…but right now we wait…we trust…we hope.

That day will come…the day when we no longer have to talk about waiting, but will be able to speak in past tense and declare that we have waited. The day of final salvation will come when all our waiting will seem like it has been no more than a few moments.

Salvation will be complete and all the waiting will be over.

Yet, until then…we wait. Not idly, but expectantly. We wait in such a way that declares to the world our great confidence and trust in the Lord who is not idle, but actively working towards the day for which we are waiting.

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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March 8, 2015

Lent Devotional: Jonah 3:1-4

Jonah 3:1-4
Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

Reflection
A second chance…

Jonah gets a second chance, but only because God is sovereign! If God was not sovereignly in control, then he could not guarantee such a second chance for Jonah… nor could he guarantee a second chance for any of us.

The sovereignty of God is always good news…even when it hurts our head.

Because God is sovereign, we can rest in the fact that he can even use our sins, our mistakes, and our failures for our ultimate good and his ultimate glory. Such was the case with Jonah. Even as Jonah ran from God, the Lord used that running to bring pagan sailors to know him, and to reveal to Jonah the brokenness of his own heart.

Sin never wins! God always wins! He sovereign, even over sin and will use it for his ultimate purposes!

Yet, this doesn’t give us an excuse to sin. It didn’t give Jonah an excuse for his sinful actions. No. Jonah was still held responsible for what he did, and so are we. God’s sovereignty and our responsibility are not a contradiction, but a necessary combination taught all throughout the pages of Scripture.

His sovereignty stirs up faith in us that he will accomplish all he intends to through us (and even in spite of us). Yet, the fact of our responsibility stirs up faithfulness, that we are to be faithful to his call!

Sovereignty doesn’t make us fatalists and responsibility doesn’t cause us to live in fear. No. Sovereignty makes us a people of faith and responsibility causes us to live in faithfulness.

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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