God’s Will and My Will: for the praise of His glory

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Ephesians 1:4-6 
 

Ladies, I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to leave yesterday yet. I sure wish to meditate more on Jesus’ words about glory: “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me” (John 17:22-23). Jesus endowed us with the glory the Father gave Him while here, that we may be one with the Father as Jesus is. Let this sink in: Jesus is in us; the Father is in Jesus, in us.

Paul, too, had much more to say about us and glory and God’s will in Ephesians 1. Think how loaded with glory the above scripture is. It was God’s will, from before the creation of the world, that His sons be holy and blameless before Him. Glory to God for wishing to adopt us, and making it possible to be holy and blameless, through Jesus.

Add to that this thought: that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:12). You come up with the end result of the will of God—that we, you and I, realize God’s glory in our lives, and live every minute as praise to God’s glory.

June 15, 2012, Nik Wallenda successfully crossed Niagara Falls on a two-inch tightrope wire. While some call him crazy, Nik had a dream. If you saw his walk, you had to be impressed by the feat over the explosive, cascading, turquoise foam; impressed by the soaking mist; impressed by the precision of one foot after the other. And you heard the interplay of conversation between Nik and his dad, interspersed with fervent praise to God.

At the end of the walk, one of the TV commentators questioned Nik’s daring to ask God to bless his perhaps foolhardy stunt. Nik simply said he believed God gave everyone certain talents to be used to the praise of His glory.

It is certain that I will never walk a tightrope anywhere, nor have I ever wished to, but Nik proves the point that it is God’s will that whatever I do, it must be for the praise of His glory.            

Nancy P