I know you are shocked. Nothing surprises you more than that I am going to talk about Romans. I am not entirely sure what I am going to say yet. I only know the title of this article, but I do know it is going to be something about God’s glory.
I really, really like the pastors who are in my life right now. Recently I was listening to a message by one of them. As he was explaining some random verse in Scripture, which I don’t remember, he mentioned in passing that the glory of God was simply His goodness. That caught my attention.
See, I had started to pray for God to show me His glory as I studied the book of Romans. Every time before I dug in, I would try to remember to ask Him to show me more of His glory that day. I was learning a lot about the goodness of God. For perhaps the first time in my life, I was beginning to truly believe He was good. It was perfect timing for the pastor’s explanation.
I love how Romans says Abraham “discovered” that righteousness comes by faith. I wonder if that is going to be something I discover in my life too. I suppose I could be told it or taught it. Maybe I could believe what I was taught intellectually, but I am wondering if it is something that actually must be discovered. My intellect doesn’t seem to integrate with the rest of me very quickly.
The story of my life could be told from one angel to another angel something like this:
“They tried to tell her. They really did. Did you hear them? I think she has either read that God is good or been told that God is good at least 10,000 times. Have you been counting? Me neither. I am not God. I gave up trying to keep track. Do you notice how she still doesn’t believe it? Every time she feels shame, she runs from God. She keeps forgetting He is good. She acts that way with His people too. You suppose it will finally sink in someday? Yeah, probably not till she joins us up here, huh? Hopefully before then. She does come to God a little faster than she used to with her mistakes. Kind of painful to watch her learn though. God really is so good as He shows her His goodness, isn’t He? It really is really amazing to watch the goodness of God in people’s lives, isn’t it? Do you think I use the word “really” too much? Really, you think so? huh.”
Yeah, that is probably what someone who could see my whole life from a divine perspective would say. I wonder how much better my life is going to become as I continue to discover that righteousness is based on faith. Not on works because if it were, grace would not be grace.
Isn’t God good? I get to spend my whole life discovering that my actions have nothing to do with whether I am good or not. I keep thinking they do. I keep covering myself to protect my pain from the eyes of others. I think my covering looks different from time to time. Sometimes I try to hide from shame with fear. Other times with bitterness and anger. I cast blame. I make up lies. Then I feel more shame.
I get to spend my whole life learning that none of that has anything to do with whether I am righteous. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
God is going to keep showing me His glory. His divine goodness. His goodness which is so good and powerful and holy that it can make something like me just as good as it.
I can’t believe I just said that because I don’t actually believe it yet. My old nature is pretty screwed up. Really screwed up. I know some people think you should love your body and all; but today as I went over Romans, I just looked down and said something like, “I know I am supposed love and respect you and all whatnot according to the world. I know you’re the temple of God. I am really glad you are the temple of God, but you house my flesh too. Someday I am going to be so relieved to leave you behind. I will be glad to see you go.”
It will be nice to have a new body that just houses the Spirit of God and not a sinful nature.
Someday I will see His glory perfectly. If I did that now, it would kill my body and flesh, then I could be in heaven with Him. I guess I couldn’t really complain about that outcome, could I?
I wonder how amazing my life on earth will be if I live every day of the rest of my life with one request, “Lord, will You please show me more of Your glory today?”
Where do you see God’s glory (goodness) in your life? Have you discovered righteousness comes by faith or do you still try to live by the law? What if you asked God to show you His glory?
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