The Reason To Live For God's Glory...Love...
It’s only been two weeks since I last blogged yet it feels like its been eternity…and I mean with the last comment that my blog’s a blessing to others I can’t help but feel that I desperately need to blog again so that I can continue to try and glorify the Lord with my blog posts.
Well, been having prelims so haven’t had the time to and to be honest, it’s been a struggle this prelims coz I’ve been unwell and I’ve done quite badly. And, I’ve been so heavily involved in studying that I actually in a way neglected what is most important and that is my relationship with God…(sorry, Lord)…through all my struggles this exams, I kept telling myself to trust in the Lord, yet I didn’t do enough to show that, coz instead of worshipping God, reading His word and praying a lot, I spent the vast majority of my time studying, I almost seem to forget how to really live life and I didn’t take a break or play abit and I sort of lost myself, I became something so not me.
But, the other day as I listened again to some touching worship songs and sang along, I think I’ve started to find myself again. And, I made a huge mistake this past week that really affected my relationship with God, and (Lord forgive me and help me be a better person), I don’t know what to say I mean, at this time I’ve never been this close to God before yet I took one big step forward and two steps back and went back to my old mistakes…but I guess, though “a thousand times I’ve failed, Your(GOD’S) mercy remains”. Just feel bad that, I’ve repeatedly made mistakes and I mean as a Christian how can I still make these mistakes? ...I mean, I believe in God really and I don’t wanna make these mistakes yet each time I seem stumble again, so it seems as if my heart is still not right, I mean If could be tempted into making mistakes than how can I say that I desire to do the right thing enough.
But, really all I want to do is to always do what is right in the eyes of the Lord and to desire to glorify Him in all that I do. So, I’m just praying that the Lord will change me and truly let me desire what God desires and nothing else. Now, I sorta finished my prelims and halfway thru prelims I thought I couldn’t make it and go on but God gave me the strength and I’ve finally completed my prelims only got chem mcq paper left on Tuesday. Right now it feels really great to be towards the end of prelims, yes, stop reminding me that my prelims aren’t technically over coz I still chem. mcq paper…
Anyway, in the past two weeks, well sometime at National Day or something, I found a really amazing message that spoke to me and was directly relevant to my life at the moment, in my living life to the fullest and for God’s glory stuff, previously, I was confused as to what that really means and how to do that, and where certain things in life fit into God’s purpose for our lives in living for his glory. But, this time, it gave me great insight into the motivation for what we do and why we live for God’s glory…which is the reason for this post. I mean there really isn’t anything more important than knowing the true reason and motivation behind all that we do. And, it made me truly check myself to see whether truly I am living life to the fullest for God’s glory or for my own personal satisfaction. In trying to figure out about living life for God’s glory, it really came to my notice, and I began to wonder hey yea, I’ve been so caught up in trying to live my life to the fullest that it slipped my mind that, it really was more about why we do what we do for God’s glory and doing everything for God’s glory regardless of what.
Well, been having prelims so haven’t had the time to and to be honest, it’s been a struggle this prelims coz I’ve been unwell and I’ve done quite badly. And, I’ve been so heavily involved in studying that I actually in a way neglected what is most important and that is my relationship with God…(sorry, Lord)…through all my struggles this exams, I kept telling myself to trust in the Lord, yet I didn’t do enough to show that, coz instead of worshipping God, reading His word and praying a lot, I spent the vast majority of my time studying, I almost seem to forget how to really live life and I didn’t take a break or play abit and I sort of lost myself, I became something so not me.
But, the other day as I listened again to some touching worship songs and sang along, I think I’ve started to find myself again. And, I made a huge mistake this past week that really affected my relationship with God, and (Lord forgive me and help me be a better person), I don’t know what to say I mean, at this time I’ve never been this close to God before yet I took one big step forward and two steps back and went back to my old mistakes…but I guess, though “a thousand times I’ve failed, Your(GOD’S) mercy remains”. Just feel bad that, I’ve repeatedly made mistakes and I mean as a Christian how can I still make these mistakes? ...I mean, I believe in God really and I don’t wanna make these mistakes yet each time I seem stumble again, so it seems as if my heart is still not right, I mean If could be tempted into making mistakes than how can I say that I desire to do the right thing enough.
But, really all I want to do is to always do what is right in the eyes of the Lord and to desire to glorify Him in all that I do. So, I’m just praying that the Lord will change me and truly let me desire what God desires and nothing else. Now, I sorta finished my prelims and halfway thru prelims I thought I couldn’t make it and go on but God gave me the strength and I’ve finally completed my prelims only got chem mcq paper left on Tuesday. Right now it feels really great to be towards the end of prelims, yes, stop reminding me that my prelims aren’t technically over coz I still chem. mcq paper…
Anyway, in the past two weeks, well sometime at National Day or something, I found a really amazing message that spoke to me and was directly relevant to my life at the moment, in my living life to the fullest and for God’s glory stuff, previously, I was confused as to what that really means and how to do that, and where certain things in life fit into God’s purpose for our lives in living for his glory. But, this time, it gave me great insight into the motivation for what we do and why we live for God’s glory…which is the reason for this post. I mean there really isn’t anything more important than knowing the true reason and motivation behind all that we do. And, it made me truly check myself to see whether truly I am living life to the fullest for God’s glory or for my own personal satisfaction. In trying to figure out about living life for God’s glory, it really came to my notice, and I began to wonder hey yea, I’ve been so caught up in trying to live my life to the fullest that it slipped my mind that, it really was more about why we do what we do for God’s glory and doing everything for God’s glory regardless of what.
But, truly, it wasn’t just the website that God led me to that was so amazing, it was like God plan a series of things to point me towards Him and knowing something so important. Over the time gone by from the start of prelims at National Day all the way to today, which is the 22nd of August things happened…Well, after seeing the website that taught me about the reason we live for God, the two messages at church on the past two Sundays also gave me even more insight into living life for God. And, now as I listen and sing more worship songs as I type this. Everything just leads me to only conclude one thing; that God is truly the only way we could live.
The passage below has excerpts from:
The passage below has excerpts from:
Right now, here is a summary first of the website which I found which had an article entitled, “SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR”, referring to God’s glory. The writer begins by saying that Life as it really is isn’t easy, well its really hard. Life is hard. It is full of work, boredom, difficulty, pain, and stress, with death at the end. In the face of this grim picture, people need, consciously or unconsciously, to find meaning or purpose in life, to give them a reason to endure through the problems of living. They need something to live for. Next, the author listed some of the things that people live for. They are pleasure, the pride of owning things, to build something that will outlast themselves, for power or even for nothing at all. None of these reasons give our lives any real meaning, nor can we find real fulfillment or satisfaction within them. Never the less, there is one place (and only one) where you can find real meaning and purpose in life. You can find them in a close, personal relationship with the living God. God is the only source of real meaning and joy, and He has created us to find these only through a relationship with Himself. As we seek to place Him at the center of our lives, as we seek to live for His glory, our lives take on real meaning, and we experience real joy.
However, there is a better reason to glorify God with our lives than just our own personal gain. We should live to glorify Him because He is utterly worthy to receive glory.
God is worthy to receive glory because of His perfect holiness and righteousness. "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou alone art holy; For all the nations will come and worship before Thee, For Thy righteous acts have been revealed" (Revelation 15:4). God is totally good, totally pure, completely unstained by sin, utterly holy, and perfectly righteous. When you see the moral purity and beauty of God's nature, should you not glorify Him, simply for who He is?
God is worthy to receive glory because of His perfect holiness and righteousness. "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou alone art holy; For all the nations will come and worship before Thee, For Thy righteous acts have been revealed" (Revelation 15:4). God is totally good, totally pure, completely unstained by sin, utterly holy, and perfectly righteous. When you see the moral purity and beauty of God's nature, should you not glorify Him, simply for who He is?
In addition, God is worthy to receive glory because He is the Creator of everything else. "Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created" (Revelation 4:11). All the glory for everything in creation belongs to God, since He made it all. When you see the incredible beauty of creation and the unbelievable intricateness, detail, and interconnectedness of it, should you not glorify the Creator of it?
God the Son is also worthy to receive glory because of His death for us. "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing" (Revelation 5:12, see also Revelation 5:9). When you see the horrible agony of His death, understand the tremendous depth of love for you that motivated His sacrifice of Himself, and experience the freedom and joy of the new life His death bought for us, should not the response of your heart be to give Him glory?
Glory is used for God's physical radiance, "glory" is used for God's character, His moral purity and perfection, "glory" is used for God's standing or value in people's eyes. We glorify God when we say, by our words and actions, that He is more important than we are, and that what He wants is more important than what we want. In the arena of moral choices, it means choosing God's way rather than our way, obeying Him rather than sinning.
Also, glorifying God means laying aside what we want to do - or feel that we need to do - in order to do what He wants us to do. This means more than just giving up control of our "to do" list. It also at times may mean stopping "doing" entirely, stepping away from all the hustle and busyness and time pressure to just spend some time with God, worshipping and praising Him and walking with Him. (God Himself is more important than anything we could do for Him. Sometimes we show His importance by what we do for Him, but always we should show it by choosing to walk in fellowship with Him.) Glorifying God means having faith in Him - not just believing that He will save and forgive us (Acts 16:31, I John 1:9), but also believing that He can satisfy our needs and desires better than we can (and, in fact, that He Himself is ultimately the satisfaction of our needs and desires).
This means walking with God in each moment, enjoying His presence in our hearts and in our lives, experiencing His deep and undying love for us, and surrendering ourselves to His presence and power, for Him to live out His life in us and through us. By our own effort, we are unable to truly glorify God, due to our human weakness and sinfulness. But God can and will produce in us that which glorifies Himself, if we surrender ourselves to His control. Let us, then, in each moment allow Him control of our lives, so that in each moment our lives may glorify Him! What can we do if we don't feel the desire to live our lives to glorify God? We can often change our feelings by dwelling on God's nature, by filling our minds with the beauty of who He is. This continually reminds us of how worthy He is of all of our lives, and often creates in us the desire to live for His glory.
We can ask God to create this desire in our hearts. Romans 13:14 says, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts." Christ lives in our hearts. Rather than trying to live life in my own power, I should choose to put Him on, to let Him live through me. When I do so, my life reflects God's glory to those around me. I also glorify Him directly by choosing to place His will for (and His control of) my life at this moment ahead of my own will and control.
But, more important than the message, is what I gained from it. Well, I guess, initially when I was figuring out all of what it means to live life to the fullest and all that, I was thinking more about how I could have meaning and joy in life but now, I learned that it needed to be more than that, it needed to be because I love God and that He should receive all glory.
The next thing was that I was truly feeling that everything happening in my life was God really answering my prayers and making me grow through all the events and things that happen in my life. Suddenly, my heart was just so overwhelmed by God and truly the songs about living for God and surrendering to Him, One Way, With All I Am, I Give You My Heart, You’re All I Want and Eagles Wings, came to me as I began to worship the Lord.
Then, the 10th of August Sunday church service was next, and the sermon was about the superiority of love:
Then, the 10th of August Sunday church service was next, and the sermon was about the superiority of love:
1 Corinthians 13:4
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
But have not love,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
And if I have a faith that can move mountains,
But have not love,
I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames.
But have not love,
I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast,
It is not proud,
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking.
It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails,
…
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But, the greatest of these is love.
But have not love,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
And if I have a faith that can move mountains,
But have not love,
I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames.
But have not love,
I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast,
It is not proud,
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking.
It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails,
…
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But, the greatest of these is love.
The message spoke to me in that it taught me that loving God and living for Him means that we need to have God-centeredness, after all, God is love. Love is the most important thing and without it we are nothing, even if I were to do all I wanted to do in life but did nothing out of my love of God it all would not have mattered one single bit. And, love is a gift from God and should be the motivation for all that we do. With love for God, all the rests seems to fall into place like faith and hope and we would do everything for God’s glory. It is not what we do that matters but to love God in all that we do and to trust God’s plan for our lives and that He will give us strength thru all our struggles. To love God is to really desire what God desires not what we want, it is to have a passion for living for God’s glory which was what all the things I read were pointing me towards, that is having a passion for God’s glory for as I had prayed and hoped for. And, I realized that in my search for the answer to really living my life, all my envy of other peoples’ lives and discontentment was due to a lack of LOVE. God sent His son to die for us to show true love, now I realized that I needed to truly love God more.
And, finally, the sermon on the 17th of August, about true worship, so relevant again to how we should live. Again, it made me realize that its not what we do with our lives but doing wat we do for God’s glory that is of significance, it is not concerned with anything around us, the outwardly things. True worship means focusing on God and experiencing God. It must be according to God’s word and done with sincerity and with our hearts. Some of what worship in spirit and in truth are, reading God’s word, confession, awe, stillness, offering and celebration.
So yea, this what all of it…God really showed me the past week truly the reason to really live for God’s glory and truly all I want to do now is to glorify God…
So yea, this what all of it…God really showed me the past week truly the reason to really live for God’s glory and truly all I want to do now is to glorify God…
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