Sometimes my mind takes me down a dark rabbit hole. This morning, I woke up sort of discouraged. Since our ministry is predominately online and Facebook has been my platform for years, Satan wanted to remind me of the things Facebook has stripped from me. They have taken away ALL my advertising privileges and now it seems they have taken away my ability to notify everyone when a new post goes up in our Facebook group. And then I thought about how I often feel alone in this work, except for a few faithful partners. How thankful I am for them.
As I read this verse, the Lord quietly said to me, “Sheryl, your purpose is to glorify Me.” That hit me. Paul knew this… that’s why he could say, “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). When we seek to glorify God, we can overcome the difficulties, the confusion, the pain. In fact, when we seek to glorify God in everything, we can emerge from the fire not even smelling like smoke.
Our purpose is to glorify God. So, what does that mean? It means that we always show God’s worth, His sovereignty, His character, His power. Hence, we show the bigness of our God. We always tell people about Jesus. And we keep going. Last night in connect group, we heard a story of a man who is going blind. He has a little sight left, but he will eventually be 100% blind. But we heard about his amazing faith. He uses every opportunity to share with people about his God. He knows his purpose is to glorify God and he’s doing it very well even in his confusion.
Our purpose is not to get involved in Christian ministry. Our purpose is not to go to church. Our purpose is not to do more for Christ. Now, don’t get me wrong… those things we should do. But that’s not our purpose. Our purpose is to glorify God. And let me say this… it’s easy to glorify God in the good times, but not so easy in the bad times. Paul shows us, though, that letting the glory of God rise out of our valleys brings great reward and praise from heaven. I will not focus today on what I don’t understand. I will seek to bring glory to my God in EVERY situation. Will you join me?